Half of Americans say Afghanistan war was mistake a year after withdrawal: Poll

Washington [US], August 31 (ANI): A year after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, American society remains sharply divided over whether sending troops there in 2001 was the right decision, according to a Gallup poll out this week.
“One year after the chaotic withdrawal of United States. troops from Afghanistan, 50 per cent of Americans say the U.S. made a mistake in sending troops to the country, while 46 per cent say it did not,” the poll said.
It said the close disparity in views is similar to two other polls conducted last year just before and after the withdrawal.
As many as 58 per cent of Democrats and 53 per cent of independent voters think that the war in Afghanistan was a mistake, while only 37 per cent of Republicans share such an opinion.
The results are quite close to poll readings over the past 20 years. However, in 2021 only every fourth Republican said that sending troops to Afghanistan was a mistake.
The poll was conducted from August 1-23, 2022 among 1,006 adults in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia. The margin of sampling error is +-4 percentage points at the 95 per cent confidence level.
The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August of 2021, triggering the collapse of the US-backed government and accelerating American troop pullout. On August 31, 2021, US forces completed their withdrawal from the country, ending the 20-year-long military presence.
Last month, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released a report outlining the human rights situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.
The report summarises UNAMA’s findings with regards to the protection of civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, fundamental freedoms and the situation in places of detention. The report also contains recommendations to both the de facto authorities and the international community.
Despite an overall, significant reduction in armed violence, between mid-August 2021 and mid-June 2022, UNAMA recorded 2106 civilian casualties.
The majority of civilian casualties were attributed to targeted attacks by the armed group self-identified “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province” against ethnic and religious minority communities in places where they go to school, worship and go about their daily lives.
“It is beyond time for all Afghans to be able to live in peace and rebuild their lives after 20 years of armed conflict. Our monitoring reveals that despite the improved security situation since 15 August, the people of Afghanistan, in particular women and girls, are deprived of the full enjoyment of their human rights,” said Markus Potzel, Acting Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.
While the de facto authorities have taken some steps seemingly aimed at the protection and promotion of human rights, such as the amnesty for former government officials and security force members, the 3 December decree on women’s rights and a code of conduct relating to prisoners, they also bear responsibility for a broad range of human rights violations.
The erosion of women’s rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date. Since 15 August, women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away. (ANI)