Skip to content

New Poll: 42% of Americans Don't Know We're Still at War in Afghanistan

New Poll: 42% of Americans Don't Know We're Still at War in Afghanistan
Published:

Rasmussen Reports released the results of a new survey Monday that found 42% of respondents either incorrectly said we are not still at war in Afghanistan or said they were not sure.

Overall, 58% of respondents said we are still at war in Afghanistan. However, 21% said they thought the Afghanistan war was not still going on, and an equal amount said they were not sure.

Breaking it down by party: 64% of Republicans, 52% of Democrats, and 58% of voters not affiliated with either party know we are still at war in Afghanistan.

Seventeen years later, the war gets no attention in the 24-hour news cycle, and is generally out of the nation's collective consciousness, so are these numbers really surprising?

Ensuring the American public remains informed is the job of the media, yet when the entire news cycle is devoted to three stories at most or 90 percent is about the president -- the media completely fails at its purpose. Everything else falls by the wayside and the people are left in ignorance.

Photo Credit: ChameleonsEye / shutterstock.com

Shawn M Griffiths

Election Reform Editor for IVN.us since 2012. Studied history and philosophy at University of North Texas. Covers political and election reform efforts nationwide with deep expertise on the reform movement. Based in San Diego, CA.

IVN is rated Center by AllSides and High Credibility by MBFC — follow our independent journalism in your feed.

Add IVN on Google

Contact IVN

Questions about this article or our coverage? Send us a message. A free IVN member account is required.

Message sent

Thanks, we’ll review it and get back to you if needed.

Message not sent

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again.

Sign in to send a message

Messages are tied to your IVN member account. Signing in is free and takes a few seconds.