Washington: After Wikileaks released the
leaked classified documents on the Afghan war, 43 per cent of
Americans now feel that the US made a mistake by sending
troops to the war-torn country, according to a latest poll.
This is slightly up from just before the release of
the leaked documents last week, which was 38 percent, Gallup
said in its latest poll.
"While Americans are still more likely to support than
oppose the war, the percentage who say it was a mistake to get
involved is at a new high," Gallup said in a statement.
The publication of the documents on the website
WikiLeaks revealed the struggle the US military is facing in
Afghanistan trying to weaken terrorist elements in the region.
But the release of these documents alone does not seem
to have changed Americans' assessments of US progress in the
war, which were already pessimistic in a Gallup poll conducted
early last month.
"In fact, Americans' views of US progress have been
decidedly negative since late last summer," it said.
However, Americans generally agree the leaked
documents should not have been published on the Internet, with
66 percent saying it was wrong for the website WikiLeaks to
have done so; 25 percent believe the website was right.
"This general assessment holds among those paying high
as well as low levels of attention to the story," Gallup said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, August 03, 2010, 22:03