Afghans are more pessimistic about the direction of their country, less confident in the ability of the United States and its allies to provide security and more willing to negotiate with the Taliban than they were a year ago, according to a new poll conducted in all of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
That's the first paragraph, reflecting the headline.
But look deeper in the article--the next paragraph, in fact:
But residents of two key southern provinces that have been the focus of U.S. military operations over the past year say aspects of their security and living conditions have improved significantly since last December.
So in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where we focus most of our kinetics, the people see progress? Given all the troops we have out there fighting in the heart of the Taliban insurgency, this improvement in attitudes isn't the lead?
And what of the problems in attitudes in the rest of the country?
Nationwide, more than half of Afghans interviewed said U.S. and NATO forces should begin to leave the country in mid-2011 or earlier. More Afghans than a year ago see the United States as playing a negative role in Afghanistan, and support for President Obama's troop surge has faded. A year ago, 61 percent of Afghans supported the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops. In the new poll, 49 percent support the move, with 49 percent opposed.
Think of our country. When the economy is good, crime tops the list of concerns. When unemployment goes up, jobs replaces crime as the top concern and it has nothing to do with whether crime is down or not--and does not reflect how well the police are doing. Indeed, the article itself reports:
For many Afghans, security concerns are rivaled by growing economic worries. Two-thirds view the availability of jobs as a problem, and nearly twice as many see things deteriorating as opposed to getting better.
The areas of Afghanistan outside of Kandahar and Helmand are relatively peaceful by Afghan standards. They can afford to be disturbed about news of violence in the south and wish for us to leave as soon as possible. Indeed, it is natural that those outside of the conflict zone would resent foreigners doing what they think they should do for themselves.
Do the reporters and headline writers even read their own articles after they write them? Sheesh. Given how poll-driven our media is, you'd think they'd have a better grasp on understanding them.
We're doing fine in Afghanistan. My worries are our supply lines and the lack of support in Pakistan.
UPDATE: The Marine major general in charge of the Regional Command Southwest describes metrics of our succes in his Helmand region:
We've seen steady and unwavering progress in improving the security situation within the area. We've seen a steady withdrawal of the insurgents from key locations within the province. And although the levels of violence remain too high, we have seen a shift in the enemy tactics. Today they fight with nearly a total reliance on implanting IEDs and simple shoot-and-scoot direct-fire incidents. We see this vice his prior tactic of facing us in unit-size engagements.
We have seen a steady increase in the capacity, the capability and the confidence of the Afghan security forces, both the army and the police. Both of these units have increased in strength, but more importantly, they've increased in ability. We now see limited Afghan-led operations against the enemy by the army and independent operations by the police against insurgents and criminal networks.
Because of that, we have witnessed a steady decline in the capability of the insurgency to affect the daily life of the Afghan people here in the province.
Freedom of movement has improved, bazaars are booming, schools are open, many important road projects are under way. I can tell you that the elections were conducted with very little interference. Even such things as the gathering of religious scholars and a concert by a nationally known Afghan music star that took place in a stadium once used by the Taliban to offer public punishment all came off without a hitch.
The operations continue, with special forces going after the enemy and regular units working on the traditional COIN operations; and the operations will continue through the winter to keep the enemy off balance.
We have a lot to do yet. And we have to make sure our objective isn't to create a 21st century central government in Kabul. But if we seek to support decentralized authority across Afghanistan with a weak central government that reigns over but does not rule the provinces, we can grind down and defeat the Afghan Taliban.
Then we have to keep the Pakistan Taliban from reversing what we can gain inside Afghanistan.
