Canadians love their men and women in uniform but they’re not so keen on the mission in Afghanistan, pollster Ipsos-Reid finds in a survey it published today.

The pollsters says 86 per cent of those surveyed agreed with the statement that “our armed forces are doing a good job in Afghanistan.”

But the pollster also found that 49 per cent also agreed with the statement: “Canada should pull its military out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.”

And, so far as allegations of prisoner abuse by Canadian army personnel are concerned, Canadians, by and large, seem to think this is small potatoes:

• 73% agree that “whatever is reported back, it is probably an extremely isolated circumstance and not widespread among the Canadian forces”;
• 63% agree with the statement “I don’t believe that our Canadian troops are involved with torturing combatant prisoners”
• 39% say they “don’t have a problem with our Canadian troops roughing up or manhandling combatant and Taliban prisoners because it’s a war zone”.