Afghanistan veterans more likely than average voter to support Afghanistan withdrawal, poll finds

With President Biden's much-criticized Afghanistan withdrawal largely in the rearview, a new poll from Morning Consult found that veterans of America's longest war were more likely than the average voter to say they were in support of Biden's departure decision.

Nearly 3 in 5 — 58 percent — of Afghanistan veterans backed the decision, including 42 percent who did so strongly. On the other hand, 52 percent of all voters expressed a degree of support for the withdrawal, while just 27 percent of that group did so strongly, per Morning Consult.

Afghanistan veterans were also far more likely than the rest of voters to see the 20-year war as a success — 48 percent of veterans said they believed such, while just 27 percent of all voters agreed.

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Notably, former President Donald Trump received the highest marks when veterans were asked which wartime leader handled foreign policy in Afghanistan the best: Trump, Biden, former President Barack Obama, or former President George W. Bush.

63 percent backed Trump's Afghanistan dealings — which, of course, "set the stage for this year's withdrawal," wrote Morning Consult — and 54 percent said the same of Bush and Obama. But just 49 percent saw Biden's Afghanistan foreign policy with some degree of approval.

Morning Consult surveyed 243 Afghanistan veterans and 7,988 registered voters across multiple polls between Aug. 17 and Sept. 2, 2021. Results per polling group have a margin of error of 6 percentage points and one percentage point, respectively. See more results at Morning Consult.