on using polls to support foreign policy

There's a debate going on in this post, as I knew there would be when a Canadian who supports Canada's presence in Afghanistan (which he calls "Afstan") showed up.

Here are some letters to the editor that ran recently in the Globe and Mail.
Are we really so naive as to trust a poll taken in an occupied, war-torn country? What Afghan is going to identify themselves as a Taliban supporter when a bombed-out home could be the imagined result?
--Earl B. Morris, Coquitlam, BC

If 46 per cent of the people of Afghanistan are aware of Canada's presence in their country, shouldn't the headline on your editorial Glad You're Here, Say The Afghans have read: Know You're Here, Say Fewer Than Half The Afghans?
--Charles Tilder, Victoria, BC

Imagine you're an Afghan. You've spent your whole life living under totalitarian regimes: the Taliban, the mujahedeen warlords they grew out of, and the Soviet-backed government before that. None have hesitated to use secret police or violence to deal with dissenters. Perhaps you know someone who spoke out and was arrested or disappeared.

Let's say you are one of those who views the Western presence in Afghanistan with skepticism. Perhaps you sympathize with the Taliban. More likely, you simply see foreign soldiers in your country as an army of occupation. You've heard all this talk about bringing freedom to your people before.

Someone knocks at your door. He's an Afghan like you, but he says he works for a Canadian company. He wants to ask you a few questions about how you feel about the presence of foreign troops in the country. He tells you he doesn't represent any military, government or insurgent group, so there's no need to feel intimidated.

Do you take his word for it? Or will you tell him what you think he wants to hear, just to be safe?

Afghans cannot be accurately polled for their opinions in the midst of a of a civil war.
--Stephen Cudmore, Vancouver, BC

Three good letters. (And all from BC!)

Mark from Ottawa et al., please keep the debate in its current thread. Thank you.

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