Crowds line the streets to show their respects as the bodies of three soldiers killed by roadside bombs in Afghanistan were returned to the UK

Britain’s Daily Mail reports that a majority of voters – 69 per cent – now want Britain to pull out of Afghanistan. The poll also shows that if a General Election were held now, the Tories would win 36 per cent of the vote, Labour 24 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 17 per cent. Meanwhile the Telegraph reports that the British force in Helmand suffered one casualty for every Afghan vote cast in the area retaken from the Taliban during the bloody Panther’s Claw offensive.

Daily Mail Poll

According to the Mail:

More than two-thirds of Britons want Gordon Brown to bring our troops out of Afghanistan, an exclusive poll for The Mail on Sunday has found.

Humiliatingly, just 1.5 per cent think Mr Brown is handling the war ‘very well’, while 32 per cent think he is doing ‘very badly’.

The shock findings lay bare for the first time the extent to which the growing casualty rate is alienating public opinion and damaging Labour.

The BPIX poll finds that 69 per cent do not believe we should be fighting a war in Afghanistan. Only 31 per cent believe the mission is worthwhile.

Previous polls have shown opinion to be evenly split on the issue – suggesting the milestone of 200 British deaths, passed a week ago, has proved a tipping point. By last night, the toll had reached 206.

Only 26 per cent think Mr Brown is handling the war ‘fairly well’. Seventy-two per cent say he is handling it ‘fairly badly’ or ‘very badly’.

Also, a mere 1.6 per cent believe Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is dealing with the war ‘very well’. Thirty-eight per cent say he is doing ‘very badly’.

Mr Brown has repeatedly tried to justify the war by claiming that it is helping to protect the British people from terrorism – but the survey shows that three-quarters of voters do not believe him.

Downing Street advisers hoping that Mr Brown can swing public support back behind the war by making the strategic objectives clearer will not find solace in the poll – because 74 per cent say they understand the claimed objectives, implying that they do not think them worthwhile or achievable.

Asked what Mr Brown should do next, 49 per cent say there should be a fixed timetable of withdrawal for British troops, while 28 per cent think they should be brought home immediately. A mere 23 per cent think troops should stay until the war is won.

Also, 45 per cent say it is time to forge a diplomatic solution by negotiating with moderate elements in the Taliban.

Reports of lack of funding for troops and poor treatment of the wounded have hit public support.

Eighty-eight per cent do not think the Government has given the Forces the resources and support they need and 84 per cent do not think wounded soldiers are given sufficiently good treatment.

Forty per cent think David Cameron would handle the conflict well but his support is far from emphatic, indicating deep-seated reservations about the enterprise.

Thirty-five per cent say the Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg would handle the war well.

Eight-one per cent of women are against the deployment, compared with 57 per cent of men. The gender divide is of particular interest to party strategists because women are more likely to be floating voters.

Professor Paul Whiteley, of Essex University, said: ‘Most Britons want the troops pulled out immediately or in accordance with a fixed timetable. Britons tend to think that Gordon Brown and Bob Ainsworth have done badly in handling the war.

However, they are not convinced that David Cameron or Nick Clegg would do much better if either of them were Prime Minister. So the average Briton is disillusioned with the entire political class’s handling of the war.’

Comment by Jason Ditz

These findings are corroborated by Jason Ditz in a post on AntiWar.com (Mounting Casualties Leave British Questioning Afghan War):

The British military’s ongoing participation in the war in Afghanistan took another hit today when it was revealed that the Babaji area of Helmand Province, in which four British soldiers died just ahead of the election, saw only 150 votes cast out of tens of thousands of eligible voters.

It wasn’t lost on the British media, which noted that with 37 killed and 150 wounded since early July when the operation began, Britain suffered more than one casualty per vote. The news was hardly welcome as Prime Minister Gordon Brown continues to try, unsuccessfully, to sell the war to a war-weary public.

In fact a new poll by the Daily Mail showed that 69 percent of British voters now oppose the war, and only 1.5 percent think that Brown is handling the conflict “very well.” The poll shows a distinct contrast with the nation’s politicians, as the ruling Labor Party remains committed to the war and the opposition Conservative Party, widely expected to take power in the next vote, has promised to escalate it even more.

Britain’s incoming military chief even said he expected the war could last another 40 years, though he later insisted that he didn’t mean it would go on in its present form for that long. If the polling trend continues, it’s hard to imagine the British people standing for another 40 years of war in any form.

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August 26, 2009 — Troops off Afghan frontline within five years: UK envoy
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August 7, 2009 — Britain Looks at 40-Year Afghan War
August 3, 2009 — Tory Leader Would Appoint ‘Minister for Afghanistan’