Confidence in War on Terror Is Still Shaky

Voters still show little confidence in how America is fighting the War on Terror. 

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that just 38% of Likely U.S. Voters say the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror, while 30% feel the terrorists are winning that war.  Another 25% say neither side is winning.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last month, the number of voters who believed the terrorists were winning the War on Terror hit 32%, the highest level in over three years, while confidence in the United States and its allies stood at 37%.  Confidence that America was winning fell below 50% on a regular basis in the spring of 2009 and has fallen below 40% several times since last October.

By contrast, only 17% of voters believed the terrorists were winning in January 2009.

Voters remain narrowly divided on the safety of the country.  Forty-one percent (41%) believe the United States is safer today than it was before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, up three points from a month ago which marked the lowest finding since July.  Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the country is not safer since 9/11. Twenty-two percent (22%) are undecided.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on January 3-4, 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.