The Battle For The 'Hearts And Minds' Of Afghans Has Been Lost By The West

U.S. soldiers, including U.S. Army Lt. Col. Winston Brooks, second from left, and Jordanian forces walk through a village after a meeting with elders from the village near Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan's Parwan province, Jan, 7, 2014. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Nikayla Shodeen

West Loses Out In Battle For 'Hearts And Minds' -- Deutsche Welle

A new survey carried out in Afghanistan suggests NATO troops have a harder time winning over civilians than Taliban fighters. With withdrawal imminent, what lessons can the West learn from military intervention?

Better late than never, some might say. After 12 years of war - at the cost of over 3,400 soldiers' lives - a new survey carried out in 204 villages across five Afghanistan provinces appears to show that ordinary Afghans prefer the Taliban to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The survey, conducted by a team from Yale and Princeton universities and based on interviews with nearly 3,000 Afghan men, found that while harm caused to civilians by ISAF soldiers increased support for the Taliban, the opposite did not hold true: Taliban violence did not result in more support for NATO.

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My Comment: This question is now moot .... Western forces are now in the process of quickly withdrawing from the country .... with the result that this is now going to be a battle among the Afghans themselves.