Younger Finns most eager supporters of Finnish peace-keeping operation in Afghanistan

Majority of Finns do not believe the operation will achieve its goals

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Half of the Finns support the idea of maintaining a Finnish peace-keeping presence in Afghanistan. This, despite the fact that in the Finnish peace-keeping troops’ responsibility area, there have been several dangerous confrontations in recent months.
      Around a third of the citizens would prefer to pull out the troops as quickly as possible, while 16 per cent have no opinion regarding the matter.
      Such were the views in a recent opinion poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup.
      There is little difference between the opinions of women and men.
     
Instead, there are considerable differences between the opinions of different age:groups: those over 50 years of age take a much more critical stand with regard to the operation than do the younger respondents, and of the over 65-year-olds nearly half would pull out the troops.
      Of the youngest respondents, the 15–24-year-olds, only 22 per cent support the withdrawal of the Finnish ISAF troops. Of the 25–34-year-olds no less than 59% want to keep the troops in Afghanistan.
     
The fact that the younger respondents support the crisis management operation may be explained by “feelings of solidarity” towards the international community and the rest of Europe, reckons Commander Juha-Antero Puistola from the Department of Strategic and Defence Studies at Finland's National Defence University.
      “Could it be that the new generation has already grown up as a European generation? The older generation still tends to think that Finland stands on its own two feet and trusts itself as a nation”, Puistola analyses.
     
The supporters of the moderate conservative National Coalition Party, in particular, would prefer the operation to continue. Of them, 70 per cent want the Finnish troops to remain in their area of activities. The majority of the True Finns and the Green League supporters feel the same way.
      The views of the supporters of the Social Democratic Party are best in line with the national average. Of the Left Alliance supporters, the majority would withdraw the troops.
     
A large portion of the respondents, 44 per cent in all, are of the opinion that the Finnish ISAF troops should remain in Afghanistan as long as is needed.
      But even though the bulk of the respondents support the continuation of the operation, most of them have little faith that Finland’s main objectives set for the mission in Afghanistan will be fulfilled. The objectives are democratic rebuilding and furthering of human rights.
      A majority of the respondents consider the accomplishment of these goals fairly unlikely, and 12 per cent do not believe in their realisation at all.
      Juhani Pehkonen of Suomen Gallup does not see a contradiction between the support figures of the operation and the relative lack of faith in its ultimate success.
      “In my opinion this only speaks of the fact that people are sensible and think that at least we should try to do something.”
      Also in Puistola’s view the results only show that the Finns understand how difficult the ongoing operation is.
     
Suomen Gallup carried out the poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat as a telephone interview between September 14th and 24th.
      In all, a thousand Finns were interviewed. The sample represents the Finns over the age of 15, excluding the residents of the semi-autonomous Åland Islands.
      The margin of error is around three percentage points in both directions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign Minister Stubb: Finland must support Afghanistan on road to peace (18.8.2009)
  Defence Minister Häkämies addresses concerns of family members of Afghan peacekeepers (17.8.2009)
  Despite risks, no cancellations for crisis management duty in Afghanistan (6.8.2009)
  Finnish forces take fire again in Afghanistan (5.8.2009)
  Finnish peacekeepers engaged in yet another exchange of fire in Afghanistan (31.7.2009)

See also:
  Rocket-propelled grenade fired at Finnish forces in Afghanistan (22.9.2009)
  Finnish political leaders prepare for trouble in Afghanistan (31.8.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat