Over half of Americans back Obama’s apology to Afghans

DAILY TIMES

More than half of Americans support US President Barack Obama’s apology for NATO troops burning copies of the holy Quran, an incident that triggered a spate of bloody protests and attacks on US soldiers in Afghanistan. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, 56 percent of those surveyed backed Obama, who has been criticised by US Republican presidential candidates for apologising to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while 23 percent disagreed. While the spasm of violence that erupted following the incident on a NATO base in Afghanistan does not appear to have significantly altered Americans’ perspective on the war, 66 percent of those polled also said Washington should bring its troops home immediately. The poll, conducted from March 2 to March 5, showed that far more Democrats supported Obama’s apology, with 76 percent of them saying he made the right decision. Only 37 percent of Republicans backed the apology, and almost half said Obama was not right to do so. Some 53 percent of independents supported the apology. The poll included 1,143 Americans interviewed online. The poll had a credibility interval of 3.4 percentage points. reuters