Is the real reason for the ferocious anti-Americanism in Afghanistan the Koran burning or a decade of US troops on the ground?

Violent anti-America demonstrations flared up all around Afghanistan over the weekend.  For three days – Afghans have taken to the streets in response to a Florida Pastor’s decision to set the Koran ablaze back on March 20th.  The Taliban has since used that desecration to rally Afghans against the government and American military forces. 

On Friday – seven UN employees were killed and in total over the weekend there have been 20 reported deaths and more than 80 people injured.  Yesterday – a crowd of a couple hundred people gathered in Jalalabad to burn an effigy of President Obama.  Whether the real reason for this ferocious anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan is the Koran burning or just a decade of US troops and private security forces on the ground – or both – the situation in that country is deteriorating.  Since the President’s troop surge – 592 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. 

And the deaths to Afghan fighters and civilians are dramatically higher.  While the media was focusing so much attention on the partisan bickering over Republicans defunding NPR and Planned Parenthood a few weeks back – the Afghanistan war– the longest war in American history – continued to churn at 40,000 times the cost of NPR per day – and with a rising death toll.  This war must end.