The ongoing war in Afghanistan has been picked the top Canadian news story for 2006 by the country's newspaper editors and broadcasters. However, I have a small bone to pick with the CP story.
Here's the section, taken from the CP story on CTV.ca:
An overwhelming majority of Afghans supported the Canadian presence in Afghanistan and opposed Taliban resistance in a poll conducted in the fall for ABC News by Charney Research.
A resounding 71 per cent of 1,036 Afghans interviewed in October -- near the end of the heaviest fighting -- said they were grateful to have Canadian soldiers on Afghan soil. Only 11 per cent thought the 2001 removal of the Taliban was a bad thing.
"One important message for Canadians is that Canadian troops are very much wanted in Afghanistan and Afghans are grateful for their presence," said pollster Craig Charney.
"It's a proportion you rarely see in opinion polls. We also see 95 per cent of Afghans are appalled at the killings of civilians and teachers and the burnings of schools."
That 71 per cent number is true but possibly misleading. I would like to have seen a break-out for Helmand and Kandahar provinces (Canada operates in Kandahar, the British in Helmand).
The poll, which I blogged about, also found that one in six respondents in the poll knew someone who had provided money or food to the Taliban. That jumped to two in three in Helmand and Kandahar provinces -- a four-fold increase. Some other factoids:
- Security perceptions were markedly worse in Kandahar/Helmand than the rest of Afghanistan. Only 18 per cent of respondents in those two southern provinces rated security as good; 75 per cent of people in the rest of the country said it was good.
- Only 43 per cent of those in K/H say the country is headed in the right direction -- a drop of 35 percentage points over 2005.
- In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban presence is way higher than the rest of the country, as is support for the Taliban.
- Forty-six per cent of those in K/H who say they support the Taliban do so because they believe the Taliban can improve security.
- International forces are said to have a strong presence by 29 per cent of respondents in the south (22 per cent say the Taliban have a strong presence).
Canadian forces, for better or worse, find themselves in a province where support for the Taliban is higher than in the rest of Afghanistan (same with the British in Helmand). The story doesn't reflect that fact.
I wish I knew the significance of the Taliban material support question. Do those locals in K/H who support the Taliban do so out of practical necessity or because they are against foreign troops? The poll didn't ask, so we don't really know.
But it could be a key one for Canadian troops.