Even as a growing number of Americans appear to believe the United States is finally winning the war on terror, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that nearly half (48%) agree with Barack Obama that Iraq is not the central front in that war.

Obama in a speech Tuesday declared: “As should have been apparent to President Bush and [Republican presidential candidate John] McCain, the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was.” If elected, the Democratic candidate said he plans to fight the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The survey taken Tuesday night finds 43% agree with Obama that Afghanistan is the central front in the war on terror. One-third of voters (33%) disagree. Again, nearly half (48%) believe that Afghanistan is a greater threat to the security of the United States than Iraq, while 28% rate Iraq as the bigger concern.

McCain, who was highly critical of Obama’s speech, announced yesterday (Wednesday) that he supported sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan to deal with growing instability there, something the Democrat has called for for months.

But in a separate Rasmussen Reports survey tracking 10 key electoral issues, national security was one of the only issues on which voters expressed more trust of Republicans than Democrats. In another survey released this week 44% of voters say that they trust Obama more when it comes to Iraq, while 43% trust McCain more. The GOP hopeful has an advantage on the broader topic of national security issues.

Half (51%) of all likely voters agree with Obama that “the war in Iraq diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military and our economy,” but three out of five (61%) believe the next president will be able to resolve the situation there in a way that is good for America.

Republicans are almost perfectly divided on which country should be regarded as the central front in the war on terror, with 45% saying it is Afghanistan and 46% choosing Iraq. Among Democrats, only 24% believe Iraq to be the central front, while twice as many (48%) choose Afghanistan.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters who say they are likely to vote for Obama agree with their candidate about the centrality of Afghanistan, while 31% disagree. For McCain voters, 45% give the nod to Iraq and 40% to Afghanistan.

Similarly, among potential McCain voters, 40% think Iraq is the greater threat to U.S. national security, and 39% say Afghanistan. For likely Obama voters, 58% see Afghanistan as the bigger threat, and only 17% view Iraq that way

Women are slightly more pessimistic than men about the impact of the war in Iraq and its eventual outcome. Fifty-four percent (54%) of women say the war has hurt the image and well-being of the United States, but only 48% of men agree. While 67% of men think the next president will wrap up the war in a fashion that is beneficial to America, just 57% of women agree.

Not surprisingly, the partisan divide is far starker: 70% of Democrats saying the war in Iraq has been bad for the United States economically, militarily and in other ways but only 23% of Republicans are in agreement. Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans say the new occupant of the White House will bring the war to a close in a way that is good for the country, while only 55% of Democrats agree.

Unaffiliated voters fall roughly midway between the Republicans and the Democrats on both questions.

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