Bad News from Afghanistan

This is not good news.

Despite battlefield gains against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the United States is failing to win over Afghans in the heartland of the Taliban, a new study shows.

Almost 90 percent of men polled in contested districts in southern Afghanistan believe foreign military operations are bad for them, according to research by the International Council on Security and Development, or ICOS.

Over half the people who took part in the study in southern Afghanistan, where military commanders say President Barack Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops has helped push insurgents out of key areas, said their opinion of foreign troops was more negative than it was a year ago.

The conclusions of the study, conducted in April among some 1,400 fighting-age men in over a dozen areas, raise troubling questions as General David Petraeus, the U.S. and NATO commander, prepares to make recommendations to Obama about how quickly the United States should bring home troops and move toward ending a long, costly and unpopular war.