More say U.S. Focus Should be Home

Americans, anxious about the costs of the Iraq war and the impact of a global economy, are increasingly wary of engagement in the world.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, nearly half of those surveyed said the United States "should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along as best they can on their own." Three years ago, just one-third felt that way.

"There seems to be a turning inward across the American spectrum," says Charles Kupchan, a former State Department and National Security Council aide who now teaches at Georgetown University. He calls it "an inevitable consequence of Iraq."

The leave-us-alone mood is apparent not only in the proportion of Americans, 64%, who want all or some of the U.S. troops in Iraq to come home now.

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