If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

POLITICS

59% Want Troops Home from Afghanistan

Support for bringing home U.S. troops from Afghanistan is on the rise as few American voters think we have a clearly defined mission anymore in that troubled country.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% of Likely Voters nationwide want the troops to come home either immediately or within a year. Twenty-eight percent (28%) oppose any firm timetable and 13% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

At 59%, support for bring the troops home is up from 51% in June, 52% in March, 43% last September, and 39% in September 2009.

Notably, 43% of Republicans now support bringing the troops home within a year while just 42% oppose a firm timetable. As recently as June, most Republicans opposed any firm timetable.

Just 22% now believe the U.S. has a clearly defined mission in Afghanistan.

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 was conducted on August 9-10, 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.

Want to read more?

Become a Rasmussen Reader to read the article

Have an account?

Log In

Become a Reader

Subscribe

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.