Afghan Poll: We don’t Like Taliban but will Gladly Talk with Them

A summer, 2010, poll done in Afghanistan by the San Francisco-based Asian Foundation, the results of which have just been released, shows:

More and more Afghans, now the vast majority, say they have no sympathy with the insurgent groups fighting NATO and the Karzai government;

Most people support programs to lure Taliban and other fighters away from their role as guerrillas by offering them other economic opportunities in life;

Most Afghans support negotiations with the militants.

So the Afghan public doesn’t like them, wants to pull the plug on them, but is still willing to find a resolution through dialogue and compromise.

It is a pretty mature set of attitudes for a country that has been through decades of hell.

Unfortunately, it is guns, drugs, organization and C4 explosives that will be decisive, not opinion polls.

The CBC has more analysis.