Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Hearts and minds in Afghanistan

The latest ABC NEWS/BBC/ARD poll from December 2009, Afghanistan--–where things stand, naturally concentrates on the increasing confidence (since last year) that Afghans have in U.S. and ISAF forces and in the Afghan National Army.

But buried within the report is a question whose answer has been almost unchanged since last year:
Overall, please say if you think each of these countries
is playing a positive, neutral, or negative role
in Afghanistan now?

12/23/09 – Summary table

Positive Neutral Negative No opinion
a. Russia 22 38 31 9
b. Iran 27 29 39 5
c. Pakistan 9 13 73 5
d. India 36 44 13 6
e. U.S. 45 18 31 6
f. U.K. 28 31 31 10
g. Germany 32 39 19 9
There is also an "overall impression" question, whose results are similar:
Now I’m going to ask what you think about some people and groups.
Is your opinion of [INSERT] very favorable, somewhat favorable,
somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable?

12/23/09 – Summary table

----- Favorable ----- ---- Unfavorable ---- No
NET Very Somewhat NET Somewhat Very opinion
a. The Taliban 10 3 7 89 13 75 1
b. Osama Bin Laden 6 2 4 91 13 77 3
c. The U.S. 51 8 43 46 21 25 3
d. Pakistan 16 2 13 81 32 49 3
e. Great Britain 39 7 32 53 28 24 9
f. Iran 50 18 32 45 25 20 6
g. Germany 58 17 42 34 21 14 8
h. India 71 29 42 22 14 7 7
i. Hamid Karzai 82 55 28 13 8 5 5
j. Al Qaeda and other
foreign jihadis 8 3 5 86 19 67 6

The most popular entity here, after Hamid Karzai's 82 percent favorable rating, is India. And the most disliked, after the Taliban and Al Qaeda, is Pakistan.