Afghans rejecting Canadian troops for Taliban, survey finds

[GAP]

Afghans rejecting Canadian troops for Taliban, survey finds
DOUG SAUNDERS  From Monday's Globe and Mail
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LONDON — Afghan civilians are increasingly turning against Canadian troops and their country's government and toward support of the Taliban, according to a large-scale survey conducted in southern Afghanistan this month.

In a survey to be released in London today by the Senlis Council think tank, Afghan men in the Canadian-controlled areas of Kandahar province and in the neighbouring British- and U.S.-controlled regions say they are being driven to support the Taliban because of disillusionment with the NATO military effort and poverty created by the continuing conflict.

A team of 50 researchers polled 17,000 Afghan men in randomly selected districts in the Kandahar, Helmand and Nangarhar provinces of southeastern Afghanistan between March 3 and March 12.

"Across the south, the majority of survey respondents both worry about being able to feed their families, and do not believe that the Afghan government and the international troops are helping them," the Senlis report concludes. "Afghanis in southern Afghanistan are increasingly prepared to admit their support for the Taliban, and the belief that the government and the international community will not be able to defeat the Taliban is widespread in the southern provinces."
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[midget-boyd91]

the majority of survey respondents both worry about being able to feed their families,

Afghans rejecting Canadian troops for Taliban food.

It's not that they want the Taliban to be back in control, they just have to be able to feed their families. Starving your children or being ab le to give them food is not going to be a terribly hard decision for a poor family to make.

 

[Juvat]

I may be out to lunch here, but do you think the answers would have changed if women were polled as well?  I believe that the ousting of the Taliban has improved the lot of women in that country.  Granted there is still a lot of work to be done on that front, but I can almost guarantee that should women had been polled that the answers might be slightly different. 

That's just my 2 cents.

Regards,

 

[Fishbone Jones]

The Senlis Council are nothing more than shit disturbing, left wing, talking heads. I put no credance in anything they have to say. They're on par, in my book anyway, with the Polaris Institute.

Any poll they would have conducted would have been taken, asked, fudged and massaged to get exactly the answer they want. There's no value in the result, or they're position.

 

[Quag]

The Senlis Council are nothing more than crap disturbing, left wing, talking heads. I put no credance in anything they have to say. They're on par, in my book anyway, with the Polaris Institute.

Any poll they would have conducted would have been taken, asked, fudged and massaged to get exactly the answer they want. There's no value in the result, or they're position.

To furthur this, just look at the geographical regions that they surveyed.  They stuck to the struggling regions, and not the other 29 provinces that are becoming increasingly more stable.

 

[Hawk]

Perhaps I can give you some insight from the other side of the fence. I used to work for a survey/polling company, and saw first hand how these surveys are written.

You're right, recceguy - polls are written so that the answers will be exactly the results they want. For example, the question about poverty could have been something like "Poverty has increased since the end of the Taliban regime-do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree". The stronly answers could be tossed out-this happens in some polls, or, to add the benefit of doubt, if people are afraid of going against the Taliban-they could answer agree out of fear.

I worked 2 years at this-on a call floor for 6 months, then as a supervisor for 18 months. I wouldn't TAKE a poll, let alone BELIEVE ANY POLL RESULTS. My advise is to just discount this as someone's axe to grind.

Just as an aside, to deal with these polling companies yourselves, telling tthem you work for an advertising company that doesn't allow you to do surveys works, or better still, "Please put me on your Do Not Call list".  They're required by law to do just that.


Hawk