Disapproval of Taliban: Victory for U.S. or Disapproval of violence in Pakistan & Afghanistan?

Last week Gallup USA survey made headlines in newspapers regarding the increasing unpopularity of Taliban’s in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The survey shows that Taliban has lost their approval in both of these countries and there is very little support for them left in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is especially true of Pakistan according to this survey result where just 4 percent of people still believed that Taliban’s are having positive impact in some areas of the country while almost 8 in ten said they are having negative impact. Should this be considered a victory for U.S? Or it might be considered as a support for the Pakistan government military initiative against Taliban.

Pakistanis witnessed the deadliest attacks in the year 2009 after the military launched campaign against Taliban’s in South Waziristan. Hundreds of people lost their lives in suicide and car bomb blasts in almost all the major cities of Pakistan. North West Frontier province was the most affected one and as a result the Taliban today has least support in that province. Baluchistan was least affected by the violence wave and as a result still a quarter of residents see some positive aspects of Taliban. So the frequent incidents of violence which inflicted heavy loses to civilians made Taliban unpopular in Pakistan.

Disapproval of Taliban did not mean approval of U.S or war on terror, even probably not the approval of Pakistani’s military offensive against Taliban. As at the same point of time we see a further decline in U.S. favorability ratings in Pakistan and Afghanistan which was already poor. Pakistanis support for military campaign against Taliban is also correlated with the increase in violence in Pakistan.

Does this not suggests that people in Pakistan and Afghanistan have not only disapproved Taliban rather they have also disapproved U.S. leadership and its war on terror. Does it also not suggest that people in these countries are more inclined towards peaceful means of settlement rather than the method adopted by U.S i.e. the war on terror?