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Tide of Afghan opinion flows against US surge
It was early on a summer morning when Haji Gul Zarin and his village turned against the presence of US troops in Afghanistan. They should have been celebrating the wedding of his nephew, but instead they were gathering the remains of the bride and 46 others and putting them into bags after an air strike hit their party.
"We will never accept peace talks and negotiations with the government. We just pray to God that He will destroy these stupid Americans and their allies," Mr Zarin said more than a year later in Nangarhar province.
Now, with the conflict about to expand, the legacy of that fateful day in July 2008 might just be a sign of the dangers awaiting the new US strategy designed to end the war.
Mr Zarin's village, in the east of the country, was once the kind of place the White House sees as a route towards an exit. People there had come to a collective agreement that they would not support the Taliban, even clashing with insurgents when they tried to enter the area. Any household caught sheltering a rebel was ordered to pay a fine to the tribe as punishment.