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Voters Remain Pessimistic About Afghanistan

With a majority of voters, for the first time, supporting a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan within a year, it's perhaps not surprising that very few believe the situation in that country will improve in the next six months. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 18% of Likely Voters say the situation in Afghanistan will get better in the next six months.  Aside from a spike in optimism in early December 2009 and late February of last year, the number of voters who believe the situation in the war there will improve has remained in the narrow range of 18% to 23% since early June 2009.

Thirty-six percent (36%) now say the situation in Afghanistan will get worse in six months. Nearly as many (35%) say it will remain about the same, the highest level of voters ever who anticipate no change in the status quo. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

When it comes to Iraq, optimism is higher:  31% of voters say the situation there will be better in the next six months, while 27% say it will grow worse.  Thirty-two percent (32%) believe it will be about the same.  Except for a slight uptick in enthusiasm in late February 2010, these findings have remained fairly consistent since May 2009.

A plurality of voters, however, fears that the growing unrest in the Arab world will have a negative impact on the fragile political situation in Iraq, and most think it is unlikely that all U.S. troops will be out of that country by the end of the year as planned. Fifty-one percent (51%) now believe the United States should never have gotten involved in Iraq in the first place. 

Democrats are more optimistic about the situations in both Afghanistan and Iraq than are Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party.

 (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on March 6-7, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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