http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/victoriaderbyshire/2009/07/from_the_home_of_a_serving_sol.html en-gb 30 Thu 17 Dec 2009 08:15:55 GMT+1 A feed of user comments from the page found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/victoriaderbyshire/2009/07/from_the_home_of_a_serving_sol.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/victoriaderbyshire/2009/07/from_the_home_of_a_serving_sol.html?page=10#comment1 Victoria,You have continually cited polls which claim that there are high levelsof support for the presence foreign armies within their country by theAfghan people themselves - but this is not accurate and represents adisservice to Radio 5 live listeners.A recent poll commissioned by the BBC, ABC News and ARD of Germanywith fieldwork carried out by the Afghan Centre for Socio-Economic andOpinion Research in Kabul found that:Afghans take an increasingly sceptical view about the presence andeffectiveness of foreign troops on their soil and the British rate less well than the Americans.Sixty-nine per cent of people still support the overthrow of theTaleban by foreign forces in 2001. But only 32% think US forces aredoing a good or excellent job now, compared with 68% in 2005.Forty-seven per cent have a favourable opinion of the United States as a whole down from 83% in 2005 and 65% in 2007. And only 38% have a favourable view of Britain a fall from 49% a year ago.So it would be more accurate to perhaps highlight the point thatsupport for UK and US troop presence in Afghanistan is not high andAfghani people's confidence in both the government, and the ability ofAmerican, British and other troops to bring about lasting change forthe better, are significantly diminished.It feels as if you are parroting a propaganda line that thegovernment might want Radio 5 listeners to here.More details can be found at the bbc website below.http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/02_february/09/afghanistan.shtml Tue 14 Jul 2009 09:58:48 GMT+1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/victoriaderbyshire/2009/07/from_the_home_of_a_serving_sol.html?page=0#comment0 As you know I am not in the armed forces but I hope this does not preclude me from commenting.As a neighbour of someone who lost her only son a few weeks ago, and a close friend of someone with a son doing a second tour, I have been able to hear from families suffering the pain of worry and loss first hand. All the old stuff comes out about doing the job because they believe in it, etc etc, from all these government worthies who have been in the job, oh, a month. They may have a view, mine is that the force in Afghanistan is woefully under-funded and under-provided with ALL necessary equipment, and that the exhaustion and atmosphere these often very young men are working under is a war crime by our own government on its own men.If any of you reading this saw any of Ross Kemp's reports on Sky from the Sangin area you can get a taste of how frightening and brutal and sudden all of these attacks on our soldiers can be.The Taliban will never be defeated. They have seen off countless attempts to rid the country of them and this is a lost cause and one we should be ashamed of being involved with. But at least, if Brown insists on doing it, he could at least give the guys the best and the most efficient equipment so it can be done properly. Another war to be ashamed of, I have walked on the marches and I still do not believe our country should have been sucked in to this conflict. Tue 14 Jul 2009 07:33:24 GMT+1