It's pretty obvious that there is something fundamentally wrong in how western public opinion follows the war in Afghanistan. Today in Italy the focus will be high for several days after the death of 6 Italian soldiers in an attack (with 15 Afghan civilians who for the media count little), but after that, everything will be back as before, a complete disinterest.
In the other countries participating in the war, the attitude is just as unhealthy. The point is that Western public opinion is not very interested in Afghanistan or the war, nor in their soldiers fate. In other countries the news of the fallen in battle or attacks get a rather low media attention. Italy is perhaps the only country where every death create a great national emotion for the fallen. This is not intrinsically wrong, but on the war itself there's never the slightest elaboration.
The Western media usually don't follow the troops and so for public opinion is impossible to understand the reality of war, and whether it makes sense or not to continue it. In part this is due to the conditions of the country, where many journalists, Western and otherwise, have been kidnapped and killed. Is partly due to the fact that it's still a war of low intensity, made of bombings and small clashes, too confusing to attract a wider audience. And it is partly in the interest of Western nations not to let the media see the true, terrible state of the country and the many civilian casualties caused by both the Taliban and NATO forces.
The truth is that many Western governments lack the political courage to call Afghanistan with its real name, a war, and even to make a serious effort to win it. To do that indeed the number of soldiers should be increased significantly and also the number of clashes against the Talibans, who right now control large parts of the country. Or thay should have the political courage to seek peace, stop the bombing of civilians, find an agreement with the Talibans, which in this case probably would be willing to cut their contacts with Al Qaeda. But if to really solve the situation in Afghanistan in one way or another doesn't really matter to anyone, not even to the managers of Western companies that have interests in natural gas, we will continue with the endless stream of deaths for years, until the Taliban victory.
Francesco Defferrari
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