Most Americans support withdrawal from Afghanistan, criticize Biden for his handling

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Evacuees line up to board a C-17 aircraft in support of the evacuation from Afghanistan at Hamid Karzai International Airport August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Taylor Crul/US Air Force via Getty Images)

With the US military evacuation from Afghanistan complete, ending America’s longest war, 54% of American adults say the decision to pull troops out of the country was the right one, while 42% say it was a mistake, according to a Pew Research Center survey. August 23-29.

The survey, conducted before the end of the US military withdrawal, also finds that 69% of the public say the US has mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan.

The public is also widely critical of the Biden administrations’ handling of the situation in Afghanistan: only about a quarter (26%) say the administration has done an excellent or good job; 29% say the administration has done a fair job and 42% say it has done a mediocre job.

Only 7% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents positively rate the administration’s performance in Afghanistan, and less than half of Democrats and Democratic leanings (43%) say it has done an excellent or good job.

To assess how Americans view recent events in Afghanistan and the Biden administrations’ handling of those events, the Pew Research Center interviewed 10,348 American adults between August 23 and August 29, 2021. Most interviews were conducted before the August 26 suicide bombing at Kabul airport. , and all of this was done before the evacuation was complete. All participants are members of the Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited by random national sampling of residential addresses. In this way, almost all American adults have a chance of being selected. The survey is weighted to be representative of the US adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, party affiliation, education and other categories. Learn more about the ATP methodology.

Here are the questions used for the report, along with the answers, and its methodology.

The survey came as the United States was engaged in a massive evacuation effort to get Americans and Afghan US allies out of Afghanistan. Most of the investigation was conducted before the August 26 suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport that killed up to 169 Afghans and 13 US service members. (The survey reveals little overall change in attitudes before and after the suicide bombing.)

With the Taliban now in control of Afghanistan, most Americans believe the situation there poses a threat to U.S. security, with 46% saying Taliban control poses a major threat and 44% saying it is a major threat. This is a minor threat. Republicans (61%) are much more likely than Democrats (33%) to view a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as a major security threat.

Partisanship is evident in most, but not all, attitudes to the emerging situation in Afghanistan. Opinions are most polarized when it comes to the decision to withdraw: a significant majority of Democrats (70%) support the decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, while most Republicans (64%) say it was the wrong decision.

Republicans and Democrats also differ (albeit to a lesser extent) on the original decision to take military action in Afghanistan two decades ago. About two-thirds of Republicans (69%) say the initial decision to use US military force in Afghanistan was right, compared to 44% of Democrats. Republicans have long been more likely than Democrats to view the initial decision as the correct one.

Yet there is notable agreement among members of both sides that the United States has mostly failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan. Nearly identical majorities of Republicans (70%) and Democrats (69%) say the United States has fallen short of its goals there.

A large majority (71%) of Americans say the Biden administration has done a poor (42%) or only fair (29%) job of handling the situation in Afghanistan. Only 26% say the Biden administration has done an excellent (6%) or good job (21%) in handling the situation in Afghanistan.

Republicans overwhelmingly rate the administrations handling the situation in Afghanistan as poor (77%), with only 7% rating it as excellent or good. Democratic opinion is more divided: About four in ten (43%) rate the work done by the Biden administration as excellent or good, while a slim majority of Democrats (55%) say the administration has done nothing. than fair (40%). %) or bad (15%) job.

Conservative Republicans are more likely than moderate or liberal Republicans (86% vs. 61%) to rate the job done by the Biden administration as mediocre.

Among Democrats, there are no ideological differences in assessments of the Biden administrations’ handling of the situation in Afghanistan.

Note: Here are the questions used for the report, along with the answers and its methodology.

Ted Van Green is a research analyst specializing in American politics and politics at the Pew Research Center. Carroll Doherty is director of policy research at the Pew Research Center.

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