was distancing himself from president karzai, especially with the campaign here in afghanistan in 2009. presidential campaign that was marred with allegations of fraud. president obama and his administration making it very clear that they were not happy with president karzai s administration. they were not happy with his government that is seen as a corrupt government not just by the international community but by the afghans here themselves. the afghan people over eight years now living through a war, living through promises made by the international community and by their own government and seeing the tensions actually growing between america and afghanistan, between their president and the u.s. president. in fact the majority of the afghan people when president obama was inaugurated were excited. they thought this would bring change into afghanistan. a year later they re still wondering if that change will come. this is a war president obama has just added 30,000 additional troops.
supported them because they saw them as less corrupt than the afghan security forces as well as the afghan government. so in some areas of afghanistan, obviously the afghan people trusting the taliban more than their own government because the government has been a big, big problem for the last eight to nine years. atia, hang on a minute. i want to bring in our barbara starr, who has been to this region reporting so many times and who knows it so well. she s on the phone with me now. you know, we re talking, barbara, about the offensive in helmond and the problems that the u.s. has and one is its the ability to mill tearily control the country and the other is the ability to win the hearts and minds of its own population which really doesn t trust the government that s viewed as corrupt. so when you look at it, is this all part and parcel of the same package or is there one challenge that s bigger than the
since the start of the war back in 2001 and 2002. right now when you talk to the majority of the afghans throughout the country, you will get differing opinions. this country is very divided. it s very different from one province to the next, let alone district to district. the majority of afghan people what they see as a success is to actually have food on the table. their number one concern when you talk to the majority of afghans is actually poverty. it s feeding their families. it s not so much the war until you go to the southern regions and the eastern regions of afghanistan where they are witnessing the fighting. then they talk about the security over there. success when it comes to the majority of the afghan people is to have some sort of comfort, some sort of peace and some sort of safety. and when you talk to them, they say that they don t see that happening any time soon and they haven t seen that in the last eight years, but they do have one small bit of hope left and they
reporters they wanted to push president karzai on to see areas of progress. they want to see progress in the area of creating a merit-based system for appointments of government officials. as we ve talked about there is concern about widespread corruption in certain areas, especially when talking about government and people holding those positions. a second area is cutting off and taking on the poppy producers, the traffickers that help to fuel the insurgency that the troops on the ground are really fighting to combat. and as well as setting up a judicial system that can help to prosecute those narco traffickers. i want to take you back one more time, candy, to president obama in speaking. it was a big speech on u.s. strategy in afghanistan that he made december, 2009, at west point. listen here. because this is an international effort, i ve asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. some have already provided additional troops and we re confident that ther
strategic standpoint and from a security standpoint, what is the conversation, do you think, between president obama and president karzai at this point? what does president obama need to push president karzai to do? reporter: candy, i just caught the end of your question but president obama we have to remember has been pushing president karzai but not face to face. this is the first time that he s actually come into the country since he was a candidate back in 2008. right now what he s trying to push president karzai into doing is to fight corruption in afghanistan. he knows that the biggest challenge right now is credibility, not just with the international community but with the afghan people themselves. when you talk to the afghan people, they say that afghanistan is actually eating itself up from the inside out. they do see the war as a big problem, especially when you go to areas in the south and the east where they see the constant fighting. but the biggest problem that