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Among Democrats, support dropped from 30 percent last year to 19 percent now. About a quarter, 27 percent, of independents favor the effort, similar to the level last year. The war, which will be in its 12th year on Election Day in November, has an inconclusive balance sheet at best. It has brought greater security to many parts of the impoverished country strategically situated between Iran and Pakistan, and largely flushed the al-Qaida terror network from its former training ground. But the war has failed to break the Taliban-led insurgency or pressure the insurgents to begin serious peace negotiations with the U.S.-backed Afghan government. The civilian government has not capitalized on the elbow room that more than 100,000 foreign fighting forces provided to build up its own ability to govern the entire country and push the Taliban to the political fringe. Obama was hosting NATO's top officer at the White House on Wednesday to finalize the agenda for NATO leaders. They are trying to show that NATO nations are committed to keep fighting now but will stick to the plan agreed at the last leaders' summit in 2010 to end the war by 2015. But the summit will be a national security debut for France's new Socialist leader, Francois Hollande, who has vowed to pull French troops out by the end of this year. That's two years earlier than the rest of the alliance has pledged. Slightly more than half of Americans, 53 percent, said they approve of Obama's handling of the war, while 42 percent disapprove. Obama hit a high mark in AP-GfK polling on that question a year ago, just after the killing of bin Laden. Then, 65 percent said they approved of his handling of the situation in Afghanistan. The poll showed 64 percent approve of Obama's handling of terrorism issues, and 31 percent disapprove. Elizabeth Kabalka of Chattanooga, Tenn., said she somewhat approves of the war and is generally pleased by Obama's handling of it. An independent voter, she said Obama is doing about as well managing the war as anyone could. "He's got a really crappy job," she said. "I've been pleased with him. He's really tried to stick to a position." The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted May 3-7 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,004 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. ___ Online: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com/
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