Obama’s ratings decline with 43 percent Americans opposing Afghan war

WASHINGTON - Forty-three percent of Americans now believe that it was a mistake to have launched the war in Afghanistan, which shows that the handling of the conflict by President Barack Obama has hit an all-time low

The number is a 5 percentage-point jump from only weeks ago, before the website WikiLeaks released more than 90,000 classified military documents.

Fifty-two percent of Americans still think it was not a mistake to send the military into Afghanistan, which has become the longest-running American war. Shortly after Obama took office, 66 percent believed the war was not a mistake compared with 30 percent who thought it was, Politico reports.

Obama’s overall ratings also declined to a new low, with only 41 percent of Americans saying they approved of his performance, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll, his worst showing since taking office in January 2009.

The percentage of Americans who say the US made a mistake in sending troops to Afghanistan rose to 43 percent, compared to 38 percent before the release of tens of thousands of classified documents on the war.

Public confidence in Obama’s war policy has also plunged to 36 percent, down from 48 percent in February survey, the poll said.

Even though he has failed to make a sizeable dent in high US unemployment, Obama received a better rating for his management of the economy than for the war, with 39 percent supporting his handling of the economy, it said. (ANI)