March 15, 2012 12:01PM # Americans Favor Accelerated Withdrawal from Afghanistan By [Malou Innocent](https://www.cato.org/people/malou-innocent) --- SHARE In case you haven’t heard, the war in Afghanistan is in a tailspin. Following the [turbulent events](../how-to-burn-a-quran/) of the past two weeks—including yesterday’s incident on a Helmand runway and the disarming of U.S. Marines before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta—Afghan president Hamid Karzai has [demanded](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/afghan-who-crashed-truck-near-panetta-plane-dies-from-burns/2012/03/15/gIQAL9LVDS_story.html?wpisrc=al_national) U.S. troops withdraw from villages and operate only from large NATO bases. Furthermore, the Taliban announced that it is breaking off peace talks with the United States. These new developments [further call into question](../the-massacre-in-panjwai/) the Obama administration’s ability to implement its strategy of a gradual transition of responsibilities to the Afghan national security forces by 2014. And the American people recognize this. A *[USA Today/​Gallup poll](http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-03-14/poll-afghanistan-pullout/53529896/1)* finds 50 percent of respondents support an accelerated troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, while an [*Washington Post*-ABC News-poll](http://www.washingtonpost.com/amid-anger-over-afghan-killings-us-faces-growing-public-weariness-about-war/2012/03/11/gIQAtDQ25R_story.html) shows 54 percent favor a U.S. military withdrawal even if it means the Afghan security forces are not “self-sufficient.” That same poll finds 60 percent believe the war is “not worth fighting.” A majority of Americans rightly understand [the futility of staying the course](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/stop-treading-water-afghanistan). Leaders in Washington should, too. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Center for Representative Government](https://www.cato.org/center-representative-government), [Public Opinion](https://www.cato.org/public-opinion), [Afghanistan](https://www.cato.org/afghanistan) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).