Interview With "Radio Free Afghanistan" Broadcaster

From straightgoods.ca, a very interesting interview.

The long and the short of it is that according to Jan Alekozai, the people who he's spoken to are quite upset with the warlords' US-backed power in the new Afghanistan. They are corrupt, incompetent, and (with their private militias) ruthless and dangerous. Karzai and his security forces are not trusted. Western aid is misappropriated. Alekozai says that no Afghans that he's spoken with hate the Western forces because they're "foreigners occupying their country." Apparently they accept that they're there for protection. Afghans also welcome the development efforts of the West. (The projects they see completed, as opposed to the money skimmed off by the warlords.)

Personally, I'd hazard a guess that in those areas of the country where NATO bombs have devastated entire villages and ISAF and US forces have shot at farmers resisting the Karzai government, the acceptance of foreign troops is markedly less. Still, it's important to remain sensitive to the realities of local conditions everywhere.