At a time when Americans are deeply divided along party lines, a new poll shows considerable agreement on at least one issue: The United States’ two-decade-long war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting.

The poll from the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research comes two years after the US pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021 and the Taliban returned to power. The war was started to go after the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the Taliban who allowed them to use Afghan territory. It ended in frantic scenes of Afghans and Americans desperately trying to get on one of the last flights out of Kabul.

Polls suggest the withdrawal, seen by many as chaotic and ill-planned, may have been a turning point for President Joe Biden’s approval ratings, which started a downward slide around that time and have not recovered since.

According to this poll, 83 percent see Afghanistan either “as an enemy” or “unfriendly”.  

Two-thirds of Americans say the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting; 65% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans agree on that evaluation. Many have doubts about how successful the US was at accomplishing more specific goals such as eliminating the threat from extremists or improving opportunities for women.

“It was unwinnable from the beginning,” said Martin Stefen, a 78-year-old Republican who lives in Carson City, Nevada. He said the US should have paid closer attention to what happened to the Soviet Union, which waged a decade-long war in Afghanistan during the 1980s only to pull out in defeat in 1989. And, he said, the US should have had a more specific end goal for how it wanted the war in Afghanistan to go and a better understanding of the country’s tribal politics.

That thought was echoed by Justin Campbell, a 28-year-old Democrat from Brookhaven, Mississippi. He said it was clear after the US was entrenched in Afghanistan that it didn’t have very deep support. Campbell said he’s not pleased that the Islamic Emirate is back in control.

“But I don’t think it was worth us staying over there,” he said.

Maliha Chishti, a lecturer and research associate at the Pearson Institute, said she was struck by the fact that after 20 years of war, so many American and Afghan lives lost and billions spent, the vast majority said they felt Afghanistan was not friendly to the US or was an outright enemy. She said the responses demonstrate a frustration on the part of Americans and the need to ask questions about what went wrong with America’s attempts to intervene in Afghanistan.

“We invested all of this money to really build a state from scratch and when we left, that state completely collapsed,” she said.

Many Americans also say the United States was not successful with many of its key objectives in Afghanistan.

Eliminating the threat from Islamic extremists in Afghanistan during the war is still seen as an important goal by many across party lines: 46% of Democrats and 44% of Republicans called that highly important. But only about one-quarter in each group said this successfully happened during the war.

Slightly fewer than half — 46% — say the US and its allies were successful at the goal of apprehending or killing the individuals in Afghanistan who were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, compared with 25% who think the US was unsuccessful in achieving that goal.

Only about one in five Americans say the US successfully improved opportunities for women and girls in Afghanistan, with 43% saying such efforts were unsuccessful. But many said advancing the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan was important to them. About three quarters said that goal was extremely, very or somewhat important to them. Those figures are similar to the level of support for the goal of eliminating the threat of Islamic extremists sheltering in Afghanistan.

According to some military experts, the 20-year presence of America in the country was important in terms of training and practice, but they say that the 20-year mission of America and NATO made it clear that they did not come to Afghanistan to build a nation, but to implement their plans.

“Their aim was to implement their plans and put pressure on those countries in which they were in conflict with, every survey especially in the military sector is done before the action,” said Mohammad Zalmai Afghanyar, a military expert.

“The 20-year mission of America and NATO in Afghanistan which led to the death and injuries of the innocent people of Afghanistan is unjustifiable and they should be held accountable,” said Sadiq Shinwari, a military expert.

So far the Islamic Emirate has not commented on this.