Afghanistan: Support for Taliban Hits 25%

Public support for the Taliban hit an “all time high” in Kandahar province last spring.

Polling data compiled by the Canadian Military shows 25 per cent of respondents said they had a favourable view of the Taliban, including six per cent with a “very favourable” opinion.

The Canadian Press reports the data says “International economic assistance is heavily preferred over military assistance.”

The survey was part of the 2009 military spring campaign assessment.

The survey also finds one-third of respondents said they had an unfavourable impression of foreign soldiers.

via 580 CFRA News Talk Radio.

Can this be the reason why recently Karzai threatened to join the Taliban? Or was that reaction caused by another causes?

25% of support means than one out of four have a favourable view of the Taliban while one out of three have the opposite opinion of foreign troops, that is NATO. It's an important part of the population, specially because there is a growing trend of support for the Taliban:

"The Taliban (is) not winning public consent," said the study. "Afghans still strongly prefer the (government of Afghanistan), but confidence is waning due to lack of security, justice, basic services."

The report's analysis focused on the tide of rising violence that followed the spectacular attack on Sarpoza prison in June 2008, a seminal event that ground commanders hoped would only dent public confidence.

As it turned out, the perception of insecurity it created was long-standing and the numbers did not "bounce back" as expected, the survey noted.

"Fewer Kandaharis report feeling safe than in previous polls; more believe that security is worsening than improving," said the study, carried out in February 2009.

So, this means that actually the Taliban are not winning the people's favour, but rather that the foreign troops are losing it.

Ajmal Samadi, director of the Human Rights group Afghanistan Rights Monitor, defends that foreigners have not understood Afghan politics and that there are people in the country who considered that, even if they were harsh, they made them feel strong and protected.

Meanwhile Kandahar's governor considers that people in villages are "hostages" of the Taliban and that they can't do anything but supporting them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Martin: Harper joins chorus condemning Afghan leader's defection threat (calgaryherald.com)
• Karzai's threat to join Taliban misunderstood: envoy (ctv.ca)
• Karzai seeks tribal support for military operation (cnn.com)

Cross-posted from T&P.