Many Americans cautious in support for Afghan war

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Many Americans say they support the deepening U.S. commitment to the war in Afghanistan, as long as the focus is fighting terrorism, but they are wary of getting bogged down as in Iraq.

Citizens, both Republicans and Democrats, voiced broad approval in interviews on Monday for increasing U.S. troop numbers to fight al Qaeda.

But they had serious doubts about any open-ended commitment to bring wholesale change to Afghanistan.

"I feel like we got to do what we got to do (to fight al Qaeda) but I don't think we need to go over there and stay," said Jimmy Robinson a business owner in Jackson, Mississippi.

"I don't think this needs to be one of those deals like Iraq. We have for too long tried to help everybody," said Robinson, 75, a veteran of the Korean War.

President Barack Obama ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan in February and while his strategy won NATO backing this weekend, European allies stopped short of matching the U.S. commitment with any long-term troop deployments of their own.

Fifty-three percent of respondents in the United States approved of Obama's February decision to commit more troops against 38 percent who disapproved, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.

The campaign in Afghanistan started on a wave of popular approval because it was launched in response to the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.