BY ALIYAH SHAHID
The longer it goes on, the less popular it gets.
Nearly six in 10 Americans are against the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan, according to a new poll.
The Associated Press-GfK poll finds that only 38% of respondents support President Obama's decision to expand the war effort, lower than the 46% who said they did in March.
Mike Prysner, war veteran: "We are told we are fighting terrorists; the real terrorist was me and the real terrorism is this occupation...."
Only 19% believe the situation will improve in Afghanistan over the next year, while 29% think it will get worse. And 49% believe the conditions will remain the same.
The results come about 10 weeks before November's midterm elections - which could define the rest of the President’s first term in office.
The good news for Obama is that the majority of Americans – 68% – approve of the President's decision to end combat operations in Iraq. That percentage remains unchanged from earlier this year.
The last American brigade left Iraq Thursday, 12 days before the deadline for ending the U.S. combat role in the country. Some 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in the country until the end of 2011 to advise and train Iraqi forces and protect U.S. interests.
In Afghanistan, more than 1,100 U.S. troops have died since the war began in October 2001. Last month was the bloodiest on record with 66 troops dead. Last fall, Obama increased the number of troops in the country by 30,000 to 100,000 troops.
The poll was conducted from Aug. 11-16 with 1,007 adults being interviewed. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.