Report: Afghans still skeptical of new government
Anne FlahertyOnly a quarter of the key regions in Afghanistan support or even sympathize with the government in Kabul, with large swaths of the country still hesitant to swing behind the U.S.-backed authority, according to a Pentagon assessment released Wednesday.
This lingering skepticism toward Afghan's government dramatizes the challenges that lie ahead for the U.S., which is expected to have 98,000 troops there by August.
President Barack Obama's exit strategy depends heavily on propping up a strong central government in Afghanistan. But U.S. military and civilian officials say that won't be possible until the local population learns to trust the new authorities.
In a report to Congress, the Pentagon found that much of the country is either neutral to Afghan authorities or supportive of the Taliban insurgency. Only 29 of 121 districts in Afghanistan identified as "key terrain" support or sympathize with the Kabul government, the report concluded.
One reason for the distrust is likely that the country remains plagued by corruption.
"While Afghanistan has achieved some progress on anti-corruption, in particular with regard to legal and institutional reforms, real change remains elusive, and political will, in particular, remains doubtful," the report states.
The report is intended as a snapshot of the war taken from October 2009 through the end of March, just as Obama ordered the deployment of 30,000 more troops to try to blunt the momentum gained by the Taliban.
Defense officials say it is this influx in troops that contributed to a rise in violence, which soared by 87 percent in March compared with February 2009, according to the assessment.
But even with an uptick in violence and deep-seated mistrust of the government, the report found that more Afghans were feeling safe, with 84 percent saying security levels were "fair" or "good."
The report comes as NATO-led forces struggle to prop up a new local government in the farming hamlets of Marjah in southern Afghanistan. Officials say the Afghans have been slow to provide services and that villagers have not rallied in large numbers to the Kabul-based government.