Middle East & North Africa

The contrast between attitudes toward military involvement in Afghanistan and Iran fits into a temporal pattern. Americans generally like their wars to be successful or short -- and ideally both.

Europeans and Americans share concerns about Iran’s emergent nuclear capabilities, though Russians are less worried.

Americans and Western Europeans agree on the extremist threat from Afghanistan and Pakistan, but divisions remain over the Afghan war

While Americans across the country honor the nation’s veterans today, most do not think the government gives enough support to soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Only a quarter of the public can correctly estimate the number of U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan.

As Obama weighs difficult choices in Afghanistan, the public also appears to be finding it difficult to judge the merits of different options for expanding, maintaining or contracting the U.S. effort on that front.

Coverage of health care was up last week, the economy was down and the war in Afghanistan remained about the same. But together, this trio continued their run atop the news agenda, a pattern we began to see settle in earlier this fall.

Afghanistan President Harmid Karzai has been much in the news lately, but he still trails far behind the top newsmaker among overseas leaders this year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The economic crisis topped the news agenda last week as Wall Street pay packages triggered anger and action in Washington. Agreement on a runoff election also generated a spike in Afghanistan coverage, and hostilities between the White House and Fox News made the roster of top stories.

More than six-in-ten Americans approve of the U.S. negotiating directly with Iran over the issue of its nuclear program.