Majority in Norway supports troops in Afghanistan

The survey was conducted by the research firm Norstat for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports that 57 percent of those who were asked, think that Norwegian soldiers should take part in NATO's Afghanistan operations. Only 32 percent of the Norwegians who answered the survey were opposed to Norway's military presence in Afghanistan.


Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of the Labour Party told NRK he was encouraged by the poll results, as were members of the political opposition in parliament. Norway's centre-left government, dominated by Labour, has at times been torn by the Afghan issue. That's because the Socialist Left (SV), a member of the centre-left government coalition, is formally opposed even to Norway's membership in NATO, and many SV politicians have called for a pull-out of Norwegian troops in Afghanistan.

The survey was conducted after terrorists attacked the Serena Hotel in Kabul, where a Norwegian journalist was killed, and an employee of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry was injured. "This shows we have succeeded with our arguments, and it's important that the government and the opposition stand together on this issue," Jan Petersen of the Conservatives told NRK. Petersen, a former foreign minister himself, gave current Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg much of the credit for the strong public opinion in favor of a Norwegian presence in Afghanistan.


Ingrid Fiskaa, who leads a peace initiative in Norway, wasn't convinced. "These figures show deep skepticism and opposition to the war, and that it's clear that NATO is making living conditions worse for people in Afghanistan," she said. Most of the Norwegians interviewed at random for the NRK report disagreed, with many saying that Afghanistan likely will descend into chaos and civil war if NATO pulls out. They also fear the Taliban will then regain power in the war-torn nation.


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