More people think America is losing the fight against terrorism now than at any time in the 14 years since 9/11, according to a new poll.
When asked who they think is winning, 40 percent said it’s the terrorists, according to the results of a new CNN/ORC poll released Monday. Another 40 percent said neither side is winning, while just 18 percent said the U.S. and its allies are.
Before the new poll came out, the previous highest mark of those who feel that terrorists are winning was 23 percent, in 2005.
The poll was conducted just weeks after the San Bernardino, Calif., terror attack, a sign that event resonated with people and made them less optimistic about the course of the U.S. “war on terror.”
One part of the survey found that nearly three in four (74 percent) of the 506 adults asked are “not too satisfied” or “not at all satisfied” when it came to the way things were going in the war against terrorism. The previous high was 61 percent, in August 2007.
Even Democrats are dissatisfied with how President Obama is leading the country’s fight against terrorism, as 59 percent say that they were either “not too satisfied” or “not at all satisfied.” Among Republicans, that share is noticeably higher, at 86 percent.
The poll of roughly 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted Dec. 17-21 with an overall margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. Individual questions in the survey included split sample sizes of 512 interviews with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points and another of 506 interviews with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
