Description
During the Afghanistan War, it became commonplace for scholars and commentators to refer to the conflict as being ‘forgotten’ in the United States. As Susan Carruthers (2011, 251) summarised with regards to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ‘not paying them much attention have been common responses among American civilians’. This ambivalence could also be seen in the sparsity of opinion polls in the US concerning the Afghanistan War for much of the conflict. However, in the build-up and execution of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the issue of public opinion began to reappear, with numerous polls on Americans’ views of the issue being widely reported. Furthermore, with both presidential candidates in 2020 campaigning against ‘forever wars’, a consensus has emerged around the influence of a war-weary American public in determining (a potentially hasty) withdrawal from Afghanistan. Studying congressional discourse, media coverage, and opinion polls, this paper explores the puzzle of a supposed switch in public opinion from apathy to driving a withdrawal from America’s longest war. In doing so, the paper provides a first take in exploring the influence of US public opinion on the issue of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Especially given the revelations of the Afghanistan Papers, this is an important case study for thinking about the relationship between war policies and democratic accountability in the twenty-first century.
