What the hell is “popular opinion” in the A-stan context, and why the hell would it matter? If 2/3 of the country are just average slobs but 1/3 are dedicated, fanatical throat-slitters for Mohammed, the throat-slitters are going to win.
And I find your characterization of the shooters as Talib infiltrators to be naive. There is no “Taliban Command Central” giving individual shooters “orders.” These are choices made by muslim fanatics to kill some infidels and grab their 72 virgins.
And it will continue to happen as long as we are there.
Our “experiment” in A-stan will end as ignominiously as prior tries by the British and the Russians.
NOBODY wants to invest a hundred years of blood and treasure in that land of throat-slitting goat-humpers, hoping to reform them in the end. It was and is and shall be a fool’s errand to do so.
I agree with you on that point.
Allow me to clairfy my “popular opinion” point. The MSM, liberals, anti-war fanatics, and other enemies of western civilization (but, I repeat myself) want us to believe that the “Afghan people” want to be ruled by the Taliban (or other fanatical Islamists). They report these incidents as if they amounted to referenda on the presence of western troops. I'm saying that's bogus.