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39% Say U.S. Winning War on Terror

There's little change in the number of U.S. voters who think the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, but the number who feel the terrorists are winning has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of Likely Voters say the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror, consistent with findings over the past couple months. Yet only 19% say the terrorists are winning that war, down 11 points from early January and the lowest level measured since July 2009.  Thirty-two percent (32%) feel that neither side is winning, the highest that finding has been in several years of tracking. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

In December, the number of voters who believed the terrorists were winning the war on terror hit 32%, the highest level in over three years. Confidence that America and its allies are winning fell below 50% on a regular basis in the spring of 2009 and has fallen below 40% several times since last October. 

Nearly half (47%) of the Political Class believe the United States side is winning the war on terror, a view shared by just 36% of Mainstream voters.

Voters overall remain fairly divided on the safety of the country.  Although 43% say the United States is safer today than before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 35% disagree.  Twenty-two percent (22%) are not sure.  In early January 2010, confidence in the safety of our country dropped and remained low till early August.  Since then, confidence in the safety of the United States has risen slightly.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on January 31-February 1, 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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