Trends in Afghanistan
Two polls from Afghanistan were also released recently that have an optimistic slant. The Asia Foundation says that the number of Afghans who believe the country is going in the right direction has increased and that good security is surprisingly cited as the “most important reason for [this] optimism”. This poll seems to fly in the face of most of the data, which suggest a steady erosion of security. Regional variation may explain much of the discrepancy. Indeed, a similar poll conducted by the ICOS show significant differences between respondents in the Pashtun belt region and the Tajik dominated north.
