War in Afghanistan Polls Lower Than Any Other Major Issue

The War in Afghanistan has fallen off the American’s people’s radar.  It raises the question: was it ever on the people’s radar–that is after the hooooohaaahhh of ramped up, spoon fed nationalism faded to the recyclable detritus of our ill-appreciated commuter lives.

Yes.  From 2001 until 2007, one might do well to vaguely recall the war(s) on the news every night. Orange alerts, and a mild sense that we could muster a victory with bigger guns and an overwhelmingly large parade of humvees.

However in the years since, this is what we know: the United States has spend over $300 million during a nine year war with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan (and Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan).  Yet only 3% of Americans polled in the latest nationwide NYTimes/CBS poll even mentioned the War in Afghanistan.

Today’s Times piece on the recent polls on Afghanistan recalls that the War in Iraq, terrorism and national security were all trump cards in the run-up to the 2006 election.  Remember: the American people were frustrated with President Bush’s handling of the War and delivered Congress to the Democrats for the first time since 1994.  Now, a solid majority of Americans think that Obama needs to draw down the war there.  This turn away from national security is explained by the grim economic news pouring out from the market and the cabinet offices responsible for broadly managing the economy.

There are two related problems here with this news.  In the first instance, the war seems to be local affair down south, in South Carolina, Texas and so on.  So-called patriot country.  It also happens to be Republican country.  Support for the war remains sequestered within Republican voters who would not vote Democratic, come what may.  The GOP has no reason to plump against Obama’s handling of the war, given so much less that’s sliding south.  In a very important sense, therefore, this war is not an ‘American’ war.  Its a Republican war.  That might strike one as being a retrogressive move in America’s history of social justice.  (Either have American wars or no wars at all. This middle-ground is a difficult straddle and one that no American should be proud of.)

Furthermore, in a bald political turn, the party of the war-time Democratic president thinks this war is a diversion away from home-bound tasks.   Therefore, there are no political points to be gained in marketing this war to gain a broad American consensus–a move that in other election cycles has been a winning strategy.

Ironic, then.  In order to make the war an American enterprise , in order to align everyone’s interests with leaving Afghanistan with some measure of respect, a Nobel peace prize winning war time president has to scare the wits out of voters who now seem to think very little about a war that could end up triggering a nuclear conflagration.