Poll: Obama's Afghanistan plan wins public support

WASHINGTON  President Obama's plan to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year and next wins broad approval from Americans who are increasingly ready for the nation's longest war to end, a Gallup Poll finds.

The survey, taken after the president's nationally televised address on Afghanistan last Wednesday, shows an overwhelming 72% favor his blueprint, including 50% of Republicans. Those who support it include a significant number who would like to see a faster withdrawal than he has proposed.

Twenty-three percent of those polled oppose the president's plan.

"After the elimination of (Osama) bin Laden and the steady drumbeat of bad news from Afghanistan, I think most people are ready to follow the president's lead on this — especially if his lead is to lead us out of there," says Richard Eichenberg, a political scientist at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Although Democrats favor Obama's plan by nearly 9-1, there are warning signs for the president in his own party, according to John Mueller of Ohio State University, who studies public opinion toward wars.

Among Democrats, 30% say Obama should withdraw more troops, and 40% say they should be pulled out sooner.

"It's not that people are going to vote for Republicans, but they might sit on their hands," Mueller says of anti-war Democrats. He likened the risk to the dissatisfaction among some labor leaders after President Clinton pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 over their objections — one factor that contributed to a GOP takeover of Congress in the 1994 elections.

Under Obama's plan, about 10,000 troops would be withdrawn by December, and the rest of the so-called surge troops, about 23,000, would be pulled out by next September. All U.S. forces would come home by 2014.

The poll, taken Saturday and Sunday of 1,034 adults, has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.

Among the findings:

•Support for continuing the war on its current course draws the support of about three in 10 Americans, most of whom oppose Obama's plan. Thirty-one percent oppose the idea of setting any timetable to withdraw U.S. troops, including 54% of Republicans. And 19% overall say Obama proposes to withdraw too many troops.

•About a third want a faster exit than the president proposes, though most of them also say they favor his plan. Thirty-three percent endorse a faster withdrawal; 29% say he should withdraw more troops.

The war in Afghanistan has become one of the few issues that divide the Republican presidential field.

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has called for significantly fewer troops on the ground, questioning U.S. strategic interests in continuing an anti-insurgency campaign. At the first major Republican debate two weeks ago, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said it was "time for us to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can, as soon as our generals think it's OK."

Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in New York Tuesday, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty pushed back. In a speech titled "No Retreat from Freedom's Rise," the presidential hopeful faulted Obama's response to the pro-democracy movement in the Arab world and embraced a muscular foreign policy.

"It is not wrong for Republicans to debate the timing of our military drawdown in Afghanistan," Pawlenty said. "What is wrong is for the Republican Party to shrink from the challenges of American leadership in the world.

War plan What is your view of President Obama's plan to withdraw 30,000 troops from Afghanistan over the next 15 months? Source: Gallup Poll By Julie Snider, USA TODAY

"History repeatedly warns us that in the long run, weakness in foreign policy costs us and our children much more than we'll save in a budget line item," he said. "America already has one political party devoted to decline, retrenchment and withdrawal. It does not need a second one."

On Capitol Hill, Lt. Gen. John Allen, nominated to lead U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Obama's withdrawal plan was "a bit more aggressive than we anticipated."

He said, however, that he supports the proposal. "It sends a message of urgency to the Afghans that they must begin to take ownership of their security themselves."