92% of Afghan men unaware of 9/11 attack

[Temporary_User]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40273302/

1,000 men were surveyed. 920 out of 1,000 have no knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
I would assume 1,000 is a large enough survey to spread this statistic throughout the entire country. Especially considering the survey took place "in two crucial souther provinces"--places I would assume would have the best news coverage.

Afghans in two crucial southern provinces are almost completely unaware of the September 11 attacks on the United States and don't know they precipitated the foreign intervention now in its 10th year, a new report showed on Friday. [. . .] The report by The International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) policy think-tank showed 92 percent of 1,000 Afghan men surveyed in Helmand and Kandahar know nothing of the hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. targets in 2001.

If any foreign forces came over, I would either be fighting back or fleeing.
These guys have no idea why anyone is in their country. They think it is an entirely unprovoked attack.

"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," ICOS President Norine MacDonald told Reuters from Washington."We need to explain to the Afghan people why we are here, and both convince them and show them that their future is better with us than the Taliban," MacDonald said.

[Regulator75]

They need the internetz.

[Hack&Lube]

This is quite a startling statistic. I don't know how the US could get their message out though. It's 10 years later and only now they realise this? This should have been a priority from the get go to try to win local support.

That said, I'm not sure what good it would have done. A bunch of Afghani shepards would be wondering: "so why did they invade my country of Afghanistan when a couple of terrorists from Saudi Arabia crash a plane into a building?"

In my old workplace I used to work late shifts to the point where the cleaners would come in. One of the janitors was from Afghanistan and he told me that all his family ever knew was the history of Afghanistan being stepped on and unjustifiably invaded by every country for the last 1000 years (Ottomans, English, Soviets, etc.) so they just see it as an extension of that.

[Coys1882]

A lot of Canadians are just as unaware. I worked two summers up at a Uranium mine in Northern Sask where a lot of the employees are northern natives. There were 8 of us on the crew and I was the only person who knew what WW2 was.

[Table 5]

I've met people in regular society with regular jobs who still weren't aware of the BP Gulf Oil spill 3 months after it happened. I'm not sure what their excuse was.

[red '00]

Big deal. 97% of North Korea still think they won the most gold at the winter Olympics.

[ynwa03]

Is the 8% just those who are 'harbouring' bin Laden?
This should open people's eyes. This 'war' is not about terrorism or bin Laden or 9/11.

[GirlySports]

Shouldn't the new government of Afghanistan (Karzai et al) be informing their own people of why we are there helping them? They own the media now!

[killer_carlson]

open up the internet world over there.

Imagine open communication without censorship in the middle east. It would have an economic coup, and either a Vegas or a gomorrah resort.

Plug them in!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

open up the internet world over there.

Imagine open communication without censorship in the middle east. It would have an economic coup, and either a Vegas or a gomorrah resort.

Plug them in!

That's Dubai!

[d_phaneuf]

good thing Obama just committed the war there to continue until 2014 and beyond, maybe he can move that 92% down to something like 75% in the next 4 years

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

open up the internet world over there.

Imagine open communication without censorship in the middle east. It would have an economic coup, and either a Vegas or a gomorrah resort.

Plug them in!

Internet? Only 10% of Afghanistanis have access to electricity. They need to be plugged in alright....be they need to start with a lightbulb.

[JD]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

That's Dubai!

Sort of. There is still censorship of the internet here.

As far as I've seen, however, the remainder of media seems to be as open as what I experience back home.

[T@T]

I call total BS on those numbers, they probably polled mostly Taliban men disguised as farmers acting dumb.

[theonlywhiteout]

Originally Posted by T@T

I call total BS on those numbers, they probably polled mostly Taliban men disguised as farmers acting dumb.

if 92% of the country is Taliban then the problem is much worse than ignorance.

[VladtheImpaler]

Well, 92% of them probably can't read, so not a huge shock...

[Acey]

Well of course they don't know about it, considering the US gov't did it anyway.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Well, 92% of them probably can't read, so not a huge shock...

It was 92% of males in two provinces where populations are most likely to side with the Taliban . . . . . so, likely not reflective of the entire country and secondly, probably reflective of a group not particularly trustful of a pollster.

Generally, 92% of people rarely agree on anything anywhere although a few years ago about 95% of Afghans in another poll did believe that a mentally challenged Muslim man who wanted to convert from Islam to Christianity should have been executed.

Cowperson

[mykalberta]

EDIT - nevermind.

[shermanator]

You can use statistics to prove anything, 14% of all people know that.