Study: Few Afghans know about 9/11, reason for war

[Alpha Protocol]

We should really get the information out there. Sadly most Afghans can't read or write.

KABUL — Afghans in two crucial southern provinces are almost completely unaware of the September 11 attacks on the United States and don't know they precipitated the foreign intervention now in its 10th year, a new report showed on Friday.

...

The report by The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) policy think-tank showed 92 percent of 1,000 Afghan men surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar know nothing of the hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. targets in 2001.

...

"The lack of awareness of why we are there contributes to the high levels of negativity toward the NATO military operations and made the job of the Taliban easier," ICOS President Norine MacDonald told Reuters from Washington.

...

The report said 81 percent of those interviewed in the south thought al-Qaida would return to Afghanistan if the Taliban regained power, and that 72 percent thought al-Qaida would again use the country to launch attacks against the West.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40273302/

[SlowwHand]

So what would you suggest, really?

[Alpha Protocol]

So what would you suggest, really?

Setting up schools and educating them.
But as for the current adults, we have to show them videos and stuff of what happened and explain it in their native tongue.

[SlowwHand]

Take over their infrastructure, such that it is? Good luck with that one.

[germanos]

What would that bring? Do you think that if a stray bomb hits a village (or wedding party, as happens all too often) the people will say: "never mind, it's all justified because a decade ago some loons flew four planes into the American heart"?
The Afghan liberation is FUBAR, and any education on 9/11 is completely beside the point with regard to the current situation.

[germanos]

And the article doesn't make sense:

"The report by The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) policy think-tank showed 92 percent of 1,000 Afghan men surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar know nothing of the hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. targets in 2001."

doesn't compute with

"The report said 81 percent of those interviewed in the south thought al-Qaida would return to Afghanistan if the Taliban regained power, and that 72 percent thought al-Qaida would again use the country to launch attacks against the West."

[Egbert]

Setting up schools and educating them.
But as for the current adults, we have to show them videos and stuff of what happened and explain it in their native tongue.

If foreigners forces were in my country I would simply want them gone. Their mere presence in my country is the big deal. Videos wouldn't change my mind. Their explanations and reasons for being here would not change my mind.

[BeBMan]

nm

[Wezil]

It stopped being about 9/11 about 2 weeks after we occupied the place.

[C0ckney]

plus of course, in a very america centric way the author of the article seems to have ignored the fact that the country has been at war for 30+ years. what difference does it make to a some afghan farmer if the people fighting and killing are russians, americans or his own countrymen?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

It's a bit like the First World War.

"You're an Englishman killing Germans because a few years ago a Bosnian killed an Austrian and a Czech in Serbia. Any further questions?"

[Kidlicious]

I'm suspicious of the assumptions here. I think the enemy has an interest in people knowing what they did on 9-11. If no one else is spreading they word, they are.

[Wezil]

Your typical Afghan peasant doesn't give a **** Kid.

[Kidlicious]

And why should they? They've got it worse than us, so why would they be so concerned with our problems.

[Wezil]

A much better recruiting tool for the "bad guys" is the mere fact of our presence in their country.

They can literally point to that.