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Americans Aren't So Eager to Retreat from the Middle East
(The Hill) Dina Smeltz and John Cookson - According to a January 2020 poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a majority of Americans support maintaining (45%) or increasing (29%) the U.S. military presence in the Middle East; fewer than a quarter (24%) say reduce. Asked which region is most important to the security interests of the U.S., 61% of Americans name the Middle East, up from 50% in 2018. No other region comes close, including Europe (15%), Asia (12%), Latin America (7%), and Africa (1%). The percentage who say that Iran is the country that poses the greatest threat to the U.S. has increased from 10% to 34% since February 2019. The percentage of Americans who say that Iran's nuclear program is a critical threat to the U.S. has increased to 61% from 57% in 2019. At the same time, 2/3 of Americans say the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth the cost. Dina Smeltz is a senior fellow in public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where John Cookson is research content officer.