12 seconds ago 2009-12-04T14:05:02-08:00
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Most Americans oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama nears a decision on whether to ramp up US engagement in the eight-year war, a poll suggested on Wednesday.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey said 56 percent of respondents were against deploying more boots on the ground, while 42 percent support sending a larger US troop contingent.
Overall, 40 percent of those surveyed expressed support for the conflict, with 58 percent opposed.
The poll was released hours before Obama was meeting with his national security team and top military brass to sift through four strategic options on the future US approach in Afghanistan.
General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has requested 40,000 more US troops to root out Taliban insurgents and their Al-Qaeda allies from the war-torn country.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey was conducted by telephone October 30-November 1. Its sampling error was plus or minus three percentage points.
An earlier CNN survey conducted in mid-October showed 59 percent of respondents opposed a troop increase, while 39 percent were in favor.
The latest poll also indicated that Americans are split over whether Obama is taking too long to announce his decision, nearly three months after McChrystal said the US mission was headed for failure without more reinforcements.
Forty-nine percent of the 1,018 adult participants -- which included 952 registered voters -- said the president is taking too long, against 50 percent who said he was not.
"There is a gender gap on this question, with most men saying Obama is taking too long and most women willing to give him more time," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland noted.
"That's due in part to the partisan differences between men and women, but gender differences on the use of military force, and maybe even differences in how the genders make important decisions, can also be contributing to the split."
It also found substantial misgivings about the Kabul government, with 90 percent saying Afghanistan would not have a stable government within the next 12 months that could maintain order without assistance from US forces.
