Regardless of what most Afghans wanted? If so, it makes a mockery of the POP-Coin approach.
Does POP-COIN require popularity? I thought it was mostly about providing a monopoly of force and then security and stability to the population when faced with an insurgent enemy. The Taliban did so in the east and the south of Afghanistan, which were rife with banditry and warlord gangs. During its drives to the west and the north, it did not face insurgents but rather armies like its own in the forces of Massoud and Hekmatyar, which it defeated in the Afghan version of conventional combat with artillery, tanks, and aircraft, not a COIN campaign.