Have Afghans had enough of us?

Two local journalists and an Afghan parliamentarian have now told me that they think most Afghans are fed up with the Coalition troops. They said it's difficult to explain to villagers that NATO is here to help them after they have just bombed their houses - which I suppose makes a certain sense. Karokhel Danish, Editor of Pajhwok Afghan News Service and Rosanah Wardak, MP for Wardak province, said they thought the foreign troops should just focus on securing the border with Pakistan to cut the enemy's supply routes - Pakistan's tribal areas are the Taleban's hinterland - and that the interior of the country should be secured by Afghan forces. But it isn't clear whether the corrupt and weak Afghan forces are up to the job. Still, it does look like that there is more and more antipathy towards NATO's presence here, what with the mounting civilian casulties, the cultural insensitivities - Western forces kicking down doors and all that - plus the conspiracy theories about how the West is here to occupy Afghanistan and to steal its natural resources. What to do? This is, after all, an Afghan problem in the end. And we can't be here forever.

Update: Here is a story in the New York Times about the lack of Afghan forces in Helmand to support the US Marines who have just gone in to clear out the Taleban.