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POLITICS

Just 22% Now Expect Situation In Afghanistan To Improve

Voter optimism about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan has slipped back to levels measured before the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that just 22% now believe the situation in Afghanistan will get better in the next six months. Thirty-five percent (35%) expect the situation to get worse, while 30% predict it will remain about the same.  Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The number of voters expecting the situation to improve hovered around 20% for months until May when it jumped to 27% following bin Laden’s death. Last month, 26% expected the situation to get better.

President Obama in June announced that the United States will withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this year and will bring another 23,000 home by the end of next summer. But most voters don't think the president has gone far enough: 51% want all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan within a year. 

Twenty-nine percent (29%) expect the situation in Iraq to get better in the next six months, while 24% think it will get worse.  Thirty-six percent (36%) believe things will stay about the same. These findings are little changed since the first of the year.

(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 national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 10-11, 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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