The poll, released exclusively to The Hill, show that fifty-two percent of respondents said they back the moves in Syria and Afghanistan. Only 48 percent said they oppose the troop withdrawals and reductions.
The poll came as a surprise to the president’s own national security advisers when it was announced last week.
Trump announced he would withdraw some 2 000 troops in Syria, while also slicing in half the roughly 14 000 US troops in Afghanistan. The US president seems prepared to keep his promise to withdraw from Syria, at least in the case of Manbij.
After US troops and their Kurdish proxy forces voluntarily retreated from the area, Manbij was threatened by the Turkish military and its Jihadist proxy forces. To prevent a Turkish attack, the local armed groups, who has previously collaborated with the US military, sought the protection of the Syrian army.
The shock announcements contributed to the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis and Brett McGurk, the US special envoy to the coalition aimed at unseating elected Syrian President Assad.
By withdrawing half of the US troops legally stationed in Afghanistan and all of those illegally occupying Syria, Trump is keeping at least one of his electoral promises, but he still has to withdraw the 7 000 troops who remain.
While a majority of respondents in the poll said they support the troop reduction in Syria and Afghanistan, an even larger majority — 69 percent — said that it was nevertheless important for the US to be stationed in the Middle East.
Twenty-three percent said it is “very important,” while 46 percent said that it is “somewhat important,” the poll found.
Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, said the poll showed that voters are willing to trust Trump’s military judgement.
“A majority supports the president’s decision to remove troops from Syria despite their general view they would keep troops there,” Penn said. “This suggests that they would have supported either decision but are going with the president on this one. Their reasoning goes like this: ‘if a president as pro military as Trump wants the troops out, maybe he is right.’”
