Think Progress

POLL: 59 Percent of Americans Think It’s Time To Leave Afghanistan

A week after a Navy SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden, a new poll finds that a majority of Americans believe it’s time to end the war with the country that once gave him safe haven. According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted over the weekend, 59 percent of Americans agree with the statement the U.S. “has accomplished its mission in Afghanistan and should bring its troops home.” Only a third of respondents thought the U.S. “should maintain its troops there.” The decade-long conflict in Afghanistan is America’s longest war to date:

“I kind of feel like Osama was a reason we had gone there in the first place,” says Liz Calhoun, 35, a stay-at-home mom from Lakeville, Minn., who was called in one of two USA TODAY polls on the subject during the past 10 days. “Now that he’s dead, it’s an end.”

As of February, at least 1,461 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began. The Obama administration had already planned to begin pulling out troops in July, but the al Qaeda leader’s death has fueled congressional calls for an accelerated timetable for withdrawal — from Republicans and Democrats alike. Some lawmakers are calling for a complete and immediate end to the war. Yesterday, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said it was “fundamentally unsustainable to continue spending $10 billion a month on a massive military operation with no end in sight.”