Escalating Afghanistan war tests U.S., British voters

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Escalating Afghanistan war tests U.S., British voters

By Nick Carey and Luke Baker - Analysis

CLEVELAND, Ohio/AMESBURY (Reuters) - Public backing for the war in Afghanistan is fraying on both sides of the Atlantic as casualty counts rise and the conflict emerges from the bloody shadows of Iraq.

While public discontent is nowhere near the levels seen during the peak of the six-year-old war in Iraq, the increasing death toll in Afghanistan, and a sense that a resolution remains far off, are unsettling voters and there are signs this may grow into more widespread disaffection if no concrete progress is made.

"The Americans are there in force, but the other countries seem loathe to be there. It's just us and the Americans and I really don't think they can win really," said Keith Hicketts, a retired police officer from near the small market town of Amesbury on the edge of Salisbury Plain in England.

The sting of a global recession may make public support more fragile on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Why are we fighting a war halfway around the world when the real war is here in America? We should be fighting homelessness or joblessness, not some enemy in a foreign country," said Louis Hawkins, a pastor in Cleveland, a city in middle America.

Attention has increasingly focused on the rising casualty count in Afghanistan as President Barack Obama fulfills his pledge to take the war to the Taliban by boosting U.S. troop numbers to 68,000 by the end of the year, while winding down involvement in Iraq.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE56S2BT20090729