Obama Approval Rating At Record Low Among Active Duty Military

President Obama’s approval rating has tanked, as it were, among active duty troops, according to a new survey.

Obama’s approval rating among the military cohort registers just 15 percent, down from 28 percent last year, a new poll by the Military Times indicates. The approval rating has continued on a downward spiral. For example, soldiers gave the president just a 35 percent approval rating in 2009, his first year in office. About 10,000 respondents completed the survey, which included approximately 2,300 who self-identified as active-duty troops.

Obama’s approval rating with the general public has consistently trended downward too, which partially explains why the Republicans took control of the U.S. Senate and increased their hold on the U.S. House in the November midterm elections.

Commenting on these findings, National Review Online noted that “Much of the opposition to Obama has come from military members who believe he has been an inconsistent and flawed leader in foreign policy — for example, his 2011 removal of all troops in Iraq helped lead to the rise of the Islamic State, which then required a new U.S. intervention in the region. But some of the resistance comes from those who see his moves to change the military’s culture as ‘heavy-handed social engineering that erode deep-seated traditions and potentially undermine good order and discipline.'”

Perhaps another reason is that the Obama administration continues to release enemy combatants from the Guantanamo Bay detention center, some percentage of whom will resume hostilities against the west.

The survey also suggested those serving in the military are disillusioned with both political parties. The data also revealed that the U.S. military is facing a significant morale problem. “Morale in the military is swiftly sinking, with the troops losing both their sense of mission and their faith that their superiors, political leaders — and the nation — still have their best interests at heart.”

The Military Times data suggested increased acceptance among the troops for policy changes such as gays in the military and women in combat roles, however.

In March, The Inquisitr reported that George W. Bush enjoys a much higher approval rating among Iraq and Afghanistan vets — regardless of their political affiliation — than Obama. The vets support of Bush, Democrat Obama’s GOP predecessor in the Oval Office, is even more striking in that only 44 percent of the vets in the survey felt that the war in Iraq was worth fighting (and just 53 percent for Afghanistan). Of those vets polled, 65 percent nonetheless indicated that Bush was a good commander-in-chief; only 42 percent gave Obama a thumbs up based on the Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation national poll.

The Military Times survey similarly found that only 30 percent of the respondents believe that the Iraq War was successful and nearly 3 out of 4 oppose deploying a large number of combat troops back to that country to fight ISIS. Only 26 percent favor a continued troop presence in Afghanistan beyond 2016, while just 23 percent (down from 76 percent in 207) expressed optimism that the U.S. mission has or can succeed in Afghanistan.

Are you surprised that President Obama’s approval rating among the military has, in the survey report’s language, crumbled?

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