Afghanistan, by the numbers

I'll leave the political analysis of this latest SES poll to Nik Nanos and all the others. I must say though, I'm disappointed on several fronts:

1. This almost guarantees that the "detainee" issue will continue to be a political football in Ottawa;
2. A coherent communication strategy for Afghanistan remains FUBAR'ed;
3. The "Canada should return to it's traditional peacekeeping role" crowd will have a field day with these numbers;
4. Attaran et al, will continue to fan the flames; and
5. "exit strategy" has replaced "doing the right thing" in the minds of many Canadians. That's sad.

New SES Research Poll - Canada's Mission in Afghanistan - Obstacle to Harper Majority

Although some may consider this a black and white issue, the reality from a public opinion viewpoint is that we are looking at shades of grey. Generally, Canadians are divided on the government’s handling of the mission (44% agree with how the mission is being handled, 48% disagree the rest were unsure). However, 55% of Canadians believe that Canada and NATO together have not deployed the resources necessary to succeed.

Sixty-seven percent of Canadians think our mission makes Canada more of a terrorist target and 55% of Canadians think that if the casualties continue Canada should pull out (39% of Canadians think that casualties are a necessary part of our mission).

Data Sheet

Cross-posted to BBS