Opinion: Afghanistan a battle for public opinion

Kabul University students shout anti-U.S. slogans during a protest in Kabul May 10, 2009. Hundreds of students rallied, angry over the high civilian casualties during U.S. air strikes in Farah Province. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

LONDON, England — It is becoming clear that the decisive battle in the war in Afghanistan is the battle for public opinion, and as military casualties from the summer campaign mount, there are increasing signs that the battle is being lost on the home front.

Here in Britain, the public sees more coffins on their television than viewers do in America. Funerals of fallen soldiers have become a recurring feature on British news programs. Solemn crowds line the street as the cortege passes through their town. Veterans of earlier wars turn out to honor the dead of this war.

The British losses in Afghanistan have not been huge — fewer than in the brief 1982 Falklands War — but they hit home. Oppositions parties berate the government for failing to provide better equipment for the troops. The generals would like more boots on the ground. But opinion polls show that half of the British want their government to bring all the troops home.

British participation in the war is critical to the American campaign in Afghanistan. Britain has deployed more than 8,000 troops who provide significant firepower, mainly in Helmand Province where the Taliban are putting up the stiffest opposition. If America's key ally begins looking for a way to pull out, that would shake American public support for the war. So far, the British government is standing firm. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to provide a modest increase in troop strength in response to President Barack Obama's plea for more help. But most of America's allies are reluctant to do more.

And so, increasingly, are Americans. A recent Washington Post poll showed only 24 percent support putting more troops in Afghanistan, while 45 percent want to start bringing the troops home. A sharp public debate has begun in the U.S. about how to respond to an expected call for more soldiers from U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO and American troops in Afghanistan.

The conservative mullahs of America's airwaves will accuse President Barack Obama of defeatism, or worse, if he does not send more troops. But more troops will inevitably mean more American casualties, and that in turn will increase public uneasiness about this war that seems to have no clear strategy and no end.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/090907/afghanistan-battle-public-opinion