Few Afghans Know Reason for War, NATO Troops

Most Afghans living in the provinces with the heaviest fighting have never heard of the September 11 attacks and have absolutely no idea why NATO forces are in their country, Reuters reports. A think tank polled residents of the southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces and found that 92% of the 1,000 men sampled didn't know about the al-Qaeda hijackings.

"The lack of awareness of why we are there contributes to the high levels of negativity toward the NATO military operations and made the job of the Taliban easier," said the president of the think tank, the International Council on Security and Development. "We need to explain to the Afghan people why we are here." (And, by the way, Americans aren't so hot on current events, either, even really obvious ones. See here.)