Former President Donald Trump earns the highest marks for his handling of the Afghanistan war over all other presidents during the 20-year conflict.
A Morning Consult poll shows that 63 percent of veterans who served in Afghanistan backed Trump’s handling of Afghanistan while only 49 percent feel the same way about President Joe Biden’s decisions.
Fifty-four percent approved of how former Presidents Barack Obama and George Bush handled the war.
A majority of Afghanistan war veterans, 58 percent, agreed with the decision to withdraw from the country and end the war after 20 years.
In this photograph taken on August 28, 2017, a US Marine looks on as Afghan National Army soldiers raise the Afghan National flag on an armed vehicle during a training exercise to deal with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at the Shorab Military Camp in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)
The poll also noted mixed feelings among Afghanistan veterans about whether or not the war was worth it.
Forty-nine percent said the war with Afghanistan was “shameful,” 51 percent said it was “embarrassing,” and 61 percent said it was “wasteful.”
But others found the war worthwhile. Forty-eight described the effort in Afghanistan as “successful” and 67 percent found it “necessary.”
Then-President-elect Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump greet then-President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and then-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) as they arrived for Trump’s inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The poll conducted after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was taken August 17 to September 2 and included 243 Afghanistan war veterans with a six point polling margin of error.