Monday, February 3, 2014

US Public: Wars In Iraq and Afghanistan 'Failures'

New poll finds bleak outlooks, with Republican attitudes towards Iraq war significantly more grim

Sarah Lazarer Common Dreams January 31, 2014 What is wrong with these people? It was a failure only because it went bad for the USA. Both wars were wrong in the first place. Some commentators are talking about failure because the oil prices did not go well for the USA. And how many innocent people died?

Protest in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday March 21, 2009 for the International Day of Action on the 6th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq. (Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle)

The U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — two of the longest in U.S. history, waged simultaneously for nearly 9 years with the Afghanistan war now stretching into its 13th — are considered failures by a majority of the U.S. public.

This is according to a poll, released Thursday by Pew Research Center and USA Today, which finds that 52% say the U.S. ‘mostly failed’ to reach its goals in Iraq, with 37% saying ‘it has mostly succeeded.’ Respondents gave nearly identical answers when asked about the war in Afghanistan.

‘Especially looking at the escalating sectarianism and violence today that is directly the result of the U.S. wars and occupations, it is not surprising that an even a bigger majority recognizes that these wars are failures,’ said Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at Institute for Policy Studies, in an interview with Common Dreams.

The assessments reflected in the poll, which was conducted Jan. 15-19 with 1,504 adult respondents, are significantly more bleak than previous ones. In November 2011, 56% of respondents said the U.S. had achieved its goals in Iraq, and in June 2011, 58% predicted that the U.S. would achieve its goals in Afghanistan.

Regarding the Iraq war, the biggest shift came from Republicans whose outlooks have grown far more grim. In 2011, 65% of republican respondents said that war was a success — a number that has now dwindled to 38%.

Overall support for the invasion of Iraq has plummeted……..

Read more http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/01/31-5