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Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers
So you will carry through? Right?
You're not answering the question. Is popular opinion with winning this war or just give up?
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I'll repeat
The "popular opinion" at this point seems to be pretty much that - this war is one that the US started and the US wants to fight, and we are being unnecessarily dragged into it.
Minus BB, I can't really say what the PPP's policy will be on this, and they remain the only party that can actually take the public with them and make it "our war".
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That question is already answered. We continue the fight no matter what. Replace the "War on Terror" with the "War on Drugs" and we have taken our lumps with defeats galore on our list ... but we have not given up the fight.
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Sir,
"A war on drugs" has a moral high ground, fighting the "evil Taliban" has a moral high ground - for Pakistanis, who believe that this is all a "Western Scheme", fighting this war has no moral high ground, in fact by allying with you we are deemed to have sold ourselves out.
I myself am hoping that the support in the US and Canada does not die out - this is a war worth fighting, but there are many within the Pakistani military and populace who do not believe that you will last, and reports such as the following do not inspire confidence.
I think that a much larger military presence might allay those fears, as it is, I agree with S-2 that you are essentially "spinning your wheels".
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"Could the Europeans squeeze out a few more warm bodies and some more assets? The answer is 'yes', but not in huge numbers. And there the big obstacle is that in many countries: in Germany, in Italy, in the Netherlands, in Canada, there is a lot of domestic skepticism growing about the mission in Afghanistan. And I think governments are fearful of rocking the boat by saying not only are we going to continue this mission, but we are going to send more troops," said Kupchan.
Sean Kay, a NATO expert at Ohio Wesleyan University agrees that support for the war in Afghanistan is waning.
"Public opinion in both Canada and the Netherlands, and in fact throughout the NATO countries, has turned sour on the war in Afghanistan," he said. "Even in the United States, there was a poll out this summer that showed that 42 percent of the American public wanted to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. So public support for this engagement, especially the combat side of it, is dropping."
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Will any Pakistani government give up FATA? That is not a question for NATO to answer.
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Technically we never had control of the area, and no presence pre 911 - It will not be considered "giving up FATA" by a lot of people, but a restoration of their "autonomy". The immediate aftermath to such a move would justify the decision, as attacks cease - and it will be hailed by many as a "victory" from a "political solution" - and ignored will be the fact that the ideology we face only sees victory by spreading its hate everywhere.