Poll: 7 in 10 Afghans support US forces

KABUL -- Nearly seven in 10 Afghans support the presence of U.S. forces in their country, and 61 percent favor the military buildup of 37,000 U.S. and NATO reinforcements now deploying, according to a poll released Monday.

Support for U.S. and NATO forces, however, drops sharply in the south and east where the fighting is the most intense, the poll said.

Nationwide, 10 percent of Afghans support the Taliban, but the insurgents are backed by a higher percent of the population - 27 percent - in the country's southwest, the poll said.

The poll of a national random sample of 1,534 Afghan adults was conducted from Dec. 11 to Dec. 23 by ABC News, the BBC and ARD German TV, their fifth since 2005. The poll has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Field work was done by the Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research in Kabul, a subsidiary of D3 Systems Inc. in Vienna, Va.

After steep declines in recent years, nearly seven in 10 Afghans also think their nation is headed in the right direction. That's up 30 percent since January 2009. The number of Afghans who expect their lives will be better a year from now also has jumped 20 percentage points from a year ago - to a new high of 71 percent, the poll said.

Moreover, 61 percent of the Afghans surveyed said they expect the next generation will have a better life - up 14 percent in the past 12 months, according to the poll.

However, Afghans' views about the direction the nation is headed are gloomier in high-conflict areas, such as Helmand province in the south, the heart of the Afghan poppy trade and the Taliban-led insurgency, the poll said.

The survey also said that blame is easing on the U.S. and donor nations.

Overall, 42 percent of Afghans blame the Taliban for the violence - up 27 percent from a year ago. Seventeen percent blame the U.S. and NATO, or the Afghan government or Afghan security forces - down 36 percent from a year ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011100852.html

Why do so many persist in calling this an occupation when there seems to be support for the new government as opposed to the Taliban insurgency?

 

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I heard about this poll yesterday on NPR while driving to work. I was going to come home and dig it up, but you've done the work for me. Gracias.

~String

 

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It seems reasonable. The methodology is sound. I dug up some detail.

 

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Support for the Kabul government is not presented, in these reports.

Why does a poll like that mean this is not an occupation?

So what the poll is presented as supporting is a continuing US "presence" - an occupation, into the indefinite future. We've been fighting there nine years now, and seem to have gained the basic tolerance of the majority ethnic group and region. They don't want the Pashtun faction to win, they prefer US victory, and so we have taken a side in what seems to have become over the years a two-sided civil war. That is an improvement, we hope.

 

I wonder if the two previous posters will now -- finally -- be willing to back away from some of their claims about Afghanistan, and the support for America and the Taliban there.

 

Nonsense, the poll is an indicator, no more, no less. Arguably a local Afghan poll could indicate the exact opposite employing the very same "methodology".

In the meantime innocent Afghan civilians are still dying at the hands of the invaders. :m:

 

? None of my claims have been affected. Or are you talking about someone else?

 

Nope. Didn't think so. Never let reality get in the way of your illusions fellas.

 

No big surprise, there.

 

You completely given up posting on topic ?

Apparently you were referring to me, above. But your means lack efficiency and elegance. Rather than wait for me to somehow back away from your stupid misreadings ascribed to me, a complicated endeavor even if I were so motivated, why not just stupidly misread one of my posts here as a backing away from the earlier stupid misreadings, and crow about it?

Meanwhile: If it is so, as it appears in the poll, that the US has identified itself with one side of a civil war, how have our prospects of leaving the country changed? Actually leaving, that is, and not - as in Iraq - pulling some visible soldiers out while doubling down on the less visible mercenary forces.

It's nine years down the rabbit hole now, and no light yet.

Meanwhile, today's paper carries the typical, familiar, one more time around the coincidence wheel story that accompanies every CIA-heavy, counter-insurgency dirty, goal-confused, undeclared shadowboxed military "intervention" since Ike was Pres: heroin overdoses have increased locally, as unusually pure and cheap heroin from somewhere somehow floods into the US market.

 

Much of the Taliban are also foriegn invaders.

 

You will have to evidence your claim. :m:

 

Its those other three that we should find!

 

The same media companies have their names associated with D3 Systems polls in Iraq as well.

D3 systems is based about two miles from CIA headquarters.

 

Well the poll suggests that they are in support of the government that so many persist in calling a puppet government even though so many people risked their lives and limb to go out and vote. Karzai is corrupt but what is the alternative? The Taliban? Well the Taliban, if you trust the poll, have a declining support. The poll doesn't suggest continuing US presence (though they will probably receive US support) since Obama has already given them the deadline for troop withdrawal. Its Karzai who is bothered by the US deadline.

 

The fact remains that the majority of Afghan civilians as well as Pakistani die from suicide bombers and insurgents not NATO forces (yes this also includes drone attacks!). What the poll suggests is that the US are not seen as 'invaders' only the insurgents think of the US in such a way. Are you suggesting the West should pull out so the Taliban can return and further exploit the people of Afghanistan? Is that what you are hoping to see?

 

Jesus you are really behind on the news aren't you!

KABUL (Reuters) – More foreign fighters are joining the ranks of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan as militants increasingly cross the border from Pakistan to attack Afghan and Western troops, the Afghan Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Afghanistan has kept up a barrage of criticism against neighbor Pakistan in the last three months, accusing Pakistani agents of being behind a string of high-profile attacks and allowing militants sanctuary along the long and porous border.
“The presence of foreign fighters is increasing, and increasingly the operations of the terrorists are led by foreigners,” Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zaher Azimi told a news conference.

http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=2622

The foreign ministry official said the presence of foreign fighters was "not necessarily a totally bad sign". British troops killed hundreds of insurgents over the summer, so local people were less willing to fight and outsiders were replacing them, he said.
"Chechens get mentioned, among others," the official said.
He said Pakistan was doing a lot to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan but could do more.

http://www.newssafety.org/index.php...stan-uk-says&option=com_content&Itemid=100106

"May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistani authorities said fighters from Uzbekistan and Chechnya are among foreign forces helping the Taliban battle the army in the northwestern Swat Valley.

“There is no doubt that some Uzbeks, Chechens and people of other nationalities were found involved with their designs to create an insurgency in Swat,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told reporters yesterday in the capital, Islamabad, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_Dh7ZyHByps

Mercenaries join forces with Taliban

Cameron Stewart From: The Australian November 29, 2008 12:00AM

ISLAMIC extremists from Chechnya are taking part in attacks on Australian troops in Afghanistan, according to secret intelligence assessments.

The Chechen fighters, radicalised and battle-hardened by years of war in their homeland, are reported to be joining the Taliban in attacks on Australian patrols in Oruzgan province.

The same intelligence report claims Iran is supplying logistical support and tactical guidance to the Taliban in the region.

The information is contained in a confidential plan obtained by The Weekend Australian for a military-style US-funded operation to wipe out the opium fields near Tarin Kowt, where Australia's military contingent is based.

The report, written in October last year by officials of the US-government funded Poppy Elimination Program, says: "Recent intelligence indicates the Taliban and Chechens have been joining forces to carry out larger-scale attacks on coalition force patrols and bases (in Oruzgan).

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/chechens-target-aussies/story-e6frg6tx-1111118174527

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND PIT!!! You behave as if this is all for the benefit of the Afghans when its really just a bunch of jihadists hoping to gang together against the 'evil west' and its at the expense of the Afghan people themselves. What I would like to know is why you don't consider these mercenaries as 'invaders'?


I mean is that enough evidence for you?

 

The suicide bombings are a direct result of the invasion and the destabilization caused thereby. Evacuate foreign forces and the suicide attacks will cease.

The West should pull out and allow the Afghans to determine their own future.

 

Thanks. Now we have evidence of a Muslim Brotherhood opposing the Christian invaders.

 

Christian invaders? You are really deluded!

Also what exactly makes you believe that the suicide bombings would stop? Do you have some manifesto or something that proves this is their agenda? Hamas doesn't say it wants peace it says it wants to destroy the state of israel. Similarly violent jihadism is about spreading their sick faith by gaining ground they can plot their attacks on the west. If they believe these acts will make the rest of the world more likely to back away from the fight against terrorism and radical islam it won't, it will only create more of a necessity.