Afghans Do Not Care About 9/11

JUGI BRIDGE
U.S. Air Force Capt. Jon Polston and Air Force 1st Lt. Scott Adamson inspect the underside of the Jugi bridge as traffic squeezes through the narrow roadway in Mehtar Lam in Laghman province, Afghanistan, Sept. 7, 2011. Polston and Adamson are engineers assigned to the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Crane

Many Afghans Shrug At 'This Event Foreigners Call 9/11' -- Wall Street Journal

KABUL—The Sept. 11 attacks that triggered the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan also uprooted 16-year-old Abdul Ghattar from his village in war-torn Helmand province, bringing him to a desolate refugee camp on the edge of Kabul.

Yet Mr. Ghattar stared blankly when asked whether he knew about al Qaeda's strike on the U.S., launched a decade ago from Afghan soil.

"Never heard of it," he shrugged as he lined up for water at the camp's well, which serves thousands of fellow refugees. "I have no idea why the Americans are in my country."

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My Comment: I learned from my Canadian colleagues that some Canadian soldiers had videos of the twin towers collapsing on their computers, and were always showing them to Afghans who were questioning them on why they were present in their country. The reaction from the Afghans after being shown these videos was almost all the time universal .... they immediately understood (for the first time) why foreigners were in their country.

Have we miss (and lost) the propaganda war in Afghanistan .... probably yes. The Taliban have clearly exploited the message of this conflict, and with their cultural and religious advantages are now working hard to insure that they win this information war.