Afghanistan suffered a wave of coordinated terrorist attacks on April 15-16, 2012. Kabul was the principal target – with three attacks alone within the city limits. These attacks made international headlines and rattled veteran Afghanistan watchers.
A noteworthy and unforeseen result of the attacks was an outpouring of support for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) – particularly police and army Special Forces units – by Afghans. The groundswell of pride in the performance of the ANSF – which killed nearly 40 insurgents and suffered less than 10 fatalities itself – is new and surprising. It took mainstream media a few days to recognize this development. On April 19, the Guardian was among the first to do so.
Traditionally, and despite repeated statements by the Government of Afghanistan and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) about the increasing capabilities of the ANSF, many people – especially my Afghan and Afghan-American friends – were dubious to say the least. My friends echoed public sentiment in Afghanistan and regularly singled out the police for its poor performance, low literacy rate, and near-constant reports of defection to insurgent groups.
Their tune and that of the wider Afghan community and diaspora may be starting to change. There has been a massive uptick in social media support – on Facebook and Twitter alike – for the ANSF. The following tweet captures this development perfectly:
I am not the first to notice this trend. In fact, a close Afghan-American friend of mine focused my attention on it with the following tweet:
The new Facebook page below is one of many to crop up in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Its message rings loud and clear:
There is even a public campaign being organized to cover Afghan cities with posters praising the “heroes” of the ANSF on May 5, 2012. Several thousand people have been invited to participate and nearly 300 have indicated they will do so (see below):
And the Afghan National Army’s (ANA) FB page now has a solid following. Nearly 600 people liked the picture of the ANA solider below, who was reportedly wounded during the fighting in Kabul. The picture has been widely reposted on FB and tweeted and re-tweeted:
The comments posted on the ANA FB page about the above picture are telling. Posts repeatedly herald “The Brave Afghan” depicted in the picture above. They also express “love” for the individual members of the ANA and invoke the name of “Allah” to keep them safe. Almost all posts emphasize how heroic the ANA forces are, how well they performed, and how proud Afghans are of their military. Take a look at a few snapshots of them:
The Afghan National Police (ANP) is not without its strong supporters, too. The tweet below is a good example of how the police have been singled out for praise, which has been rare of late in Afghanistan:
There have been even stronger expressions both pride in the ANSF coupled with criticism of the Taliban and other insurgent groups. A good example is the following tweet:
And then there are the posts that are even more nationalistic and simultaneously critical of ISAF. These posts did not always acknowledge the critical role ISAF forces played in training the ANSF and supporting them in their response to the recent attacks.
While the Government of Afghanistan (GOA) has a long way to go before it can fully stand on its own two feet, increased Afghan public confidence in at least one part of GOA is positive. Whether widespread expressions of support by Afghans for the ANSF on social media sites will continue remains to be seen. Much will depend upon the performance of the GOA in the coming months as it, and especially the ANSF, take on greater governance responsibility throughout Afghanistan. Afghan confidence and pride in their government is a key metric of the success the U.S. mission and worthy of our continued attention.
Eli Sugarman is a Truman Security Fellow.
