After Americans said they support sending more troops to Afghanistan two weeks ago, they now say they don't: new data from CNN/Opinion Research Group shows Americans oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan 56 percent to 42 percent.
If nothing else, it shows that U.S. opinions on the war in Afghanistan, and what its future should look like, are complex.
Two weeks ago, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Americans support sending more troops by a margin of 47-43. Americans most liked the idea of sending 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan--the lowest figure proposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal--supporting that by a margin of 55-36, while they opposed sending the 40,000 McChrystal proposed as his median figure. CNN didn't ask about different numbers of troops--it just asked whether people like the idea of "sending more."
CNN finds that people oppose the war in general, and by a pretty strong margin: 58-40.
CNN also tells us that Americans are split almost evenly on whether the president is taking too long to make his decision: 49 percent think he is, while 50 percent think he's not. But the same survey, which concluded Nov. 1, other results of which have already been released, shows that Americans don't approve of how he's handling the war 56-42. Those figures are worse for Obama than a recent AP/GfK poll, which showed Americans disapproving of how he's handled the war 48-42.