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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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Afghans Cool to US Troop Increase

Doubting Taliban can be defeated, they want foreigners out

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(Newser) – Even as the Obama adminstration agonizes over deploying more troops to Afghanistan, the Afghan public is growing increasingly negative about the US presence in their country. Doubting that the Taliban can be defeated, most agree that the government should negotiate with insurgents, the New York Times reports, and they see Americans as occupiers who have accomplished little.

“What have the Americans done in eight years?” a pharmacists asks the Times. “Americans are saying that with their planes they can see an egg 18 kilometers away, so why can’t they see the Taliban?” The lack of US success against insurgents has bred rampant conspiracy theories about US wanting to prolong the fight. “In the first days of the war, the Americans defeated the Taliban in just a few days,” says a student. “Now they have more than 60,000 forces and they cannot defeat them.”

US soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division patrol through a village in the Pech Valley, Afghanistan, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009.
US soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division patrol through a village in the Pech Valley, Afghanistan, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Afghan riot policeman places a tear gas bullet in his rifle during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. Students protested the alleged desecration of the Quran by US troops.
Afghan riot policeman places a tear gas bullet in his rifle during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. Students protested the alleged desecration of the Quran by US troops.   (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghan police arrest protesters during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 26, 2009. Hundreds of university students were angered over the alleged desecration of the Quran by US troops.
Afghan police arrest protesters during a demonstration in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 26, 2009. Hundreds of university students were angered over the alleged desecration of the Quran by US troops.   (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
International Security Assistance Force soldiers near the body of an ISAF soldier after a suicide car bomb attack on an Italian military convoy, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009.
International Security Assistance Force soldiers near the body of an ISAF soldier after a suicide car bomb attack on an Italian military convoy, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009.   (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
An Afghan police officer frisks a passenger of a car at a roadside checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009.
An Afghan police officer frisks a passenger of a car at a roadside checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009.   (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
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3 comments
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Thinker
Nov 7, 09 8:35 AM CST
No one, including Obama, knows how to leave the mess we created in Afghanistan. Perhaps the American government should pay the Afghan people and the Afghan government to demand we leave, and make it look like we have no choice but to withdraw. That way, politicians on both sides can save face (politically). Reply
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dax
Nov 7, 09 11:24 AM CST
Perhaps negotiating with the Taliban, and perhaps arranging for their own small, isolate niche, would be in order, in return for and end to violence and the handing over of OBL. Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
DarkFrancis
Nov 7, 09 3:04 PM CST
I'm pretty sure OBL is dead.
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