A poll taken before the Kabul hotel attack Monday showed overwhelming majority of Americans support President Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
In the Gallup survey, 72 percent of Americans say they back Obama’s overall plan to withdraw 33,000 troops in the next year or so and then to hand over control of Afghanistan to the Afghan people by the end of 2014. Twenty-three percent oppose it.
UPDATE -- CNBC reports 18 were killed . But with 10 innocent victims killed by a Taliban-related terrorist group and NATO troops called upon to end the hotel siege, perhaps Gallup should authorize another poll? AP writes:
KABUL, Afghanistan — Nine suicide bombers managed to elude several rings of security and reach one of the capital’s premier hotels, which was busy with guests, many of whom had come from the provinces to the city for a conference on the transition of security responsibility to Afghan control.
The bombers, according to eyewitness reports, entered the hotel, apparently with the intention of searching out foreign and Afghan guests. However, once inside at least one bomber hesitated and others used different floors of the hotel as positions for shooting guests who were in the garden getting a breath of fresh air in the warm June night.
