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- We asked Americans what they think about the schedule of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
- 48% of Americans support the withdrawal by September, while 26% say they oppose it.
- Another 26% of Americans say they "neither support nor oppose" Biden's decision.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A strong plurality of Americans – 48% – support President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan by September amid disturbing scenes as people try to flee the unexpectedly fast Taliban takeover.
That's according to a new Insider poll conducted in conjunction with SurveyMonkey Audience, which reached 1,105 respondents on August 16-17.
Insider asked respondents to choose between five different options on the question. Most shied away from saying they strongly support the decision one way or another; the plurality were indifferent about the conclusion of the war, with 26% of respondents said they "neither support nor oppose the decision," while 23% said they somewhat support it and roughly 14% said they somewhat oppose it.
But support for the move ultimately outweighed opposition by a nearly 2 to 1 margin; just 26% said they either "strongly" or "somewhat" opposed the withdrawal.
Biden defended his decision to withdraw US forces from the country on Monday, even as scenes of chaos continue to surface from the country.
Here is a summary of responses to the Insider poll:
Do you support or oppose the decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan by September 2021?
- Strongly support: 25%
- Somewhat support: 23%
- Neither support nor oppose: 26%
- Somewhat oppose: 14%
- Strongly oppose: 12%
The results of the poll are consistent with a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released Monday, which showed 49% of Americans backed the withdrawal; that's down 20% since April, when the same poll found that 69% supported the withdrawal.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Polling data collected 1,105 respondents August 16-17, 2021 with a 3 percentage point margin of error.