By Nearly 3-To-1, Bloggers Criticize Obama’s Withdrawal Plan For Afghanistan

June 30, 2011

Bloggers, last week, responded strongly to President Obama's June 22 speech about the U.S. role in the Afghan war. Reaction to the announcement, which proposed to remove 10,000 troops this year and a total of 33,000 by next September, received 18% of the news links on blogs from June 20-24, making it the No.1 topic, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

And by a margin of almost 3-to-1, the reaction was negative. In a broader examination of more than 11,000 blog posts, utilizing computer technology from Crimson Hexagon, 36% of bloggers' assessments were negative compared with just 13% that were positive. About half (51%) of the conversation was neutral.

These responses were more critical than public sentiment overall. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and The Washington Post following the speech found that a plurality (44%) of Americans think Obama will remove troops from Afghanistan at about the right pace.

A number of bloggers, including liberals who tend to support the President, wanted Obama to withdraw all troops from the country and declare an end to what they see is an unwinnable war. The most common criticism was that we should instead pull fully out of the war, ending our presence there altogether.

"i disliked obama's speech tonight for the same reasons many people did -- i don't want the US staying in afghanistan, policing the world," wrote Karen Lindsey at Anything & Everything.*

A different cohort argued that Obama was not committed to doing what is best for American interests -- winning the war. Instead, they suggested Obama's plan to pull out troops goes against the wishes of top military commanders and puts at risk any progress that has been made.

A small minority of bloggers supported Obama's plan and suggested he had found a centrist strategy that would lead to the end of the war without having the country result in chaos.

(Note: the blog posts examined were from June 23-28, the six days following Obama's speech, and do not correspond completely with the typical Monday through Friday week of the NMI.)

The Rest of the Week on Blogs

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the top stories were a mix of domestic spending issues, global warming, and the release of a renowned artist from prison.

The second-largest story, with 18% of the links, was a study showing that California taxpayers had spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment since it was reinstated in 1978. The study, conducted by a judge and a law professor, concluded that since there have been 13 executions during that time, the cost works out to $308 million for each one.

For a state that is facing dramatic budget problems, bloggers agreed that this expense was untenable. "This budget item is sadly impressive," wrote inner monologue is on speaker. "Unsustainable. California spends more on incarceration than education."

An Associated Press story about Al Gore's criticism of President Obama for his lack of leadership on the issue of global warming was third, at 10%.