It's very easy to be wise after the event, but during the early years (before the West was distracted by Iraq) there was widespread public support for our efforts in rebuilding Afghanistan.
Thats stretching facts. Before Iraq, ISAF were involved in a very limited basis in Afghanistan. It wasnt until October 2003 that the UN authorised a much expanded mission, which included delving into Helmand province around 2006, which as anyone who has been there will know, is a much different kettle of fish to the areas we were involved in prior to that point. Before then, much of our efforts were focussed in the north, as commented above here on a much tighter set of terms of reference which were focussed primarily on fighting terrorism in the middle east. I dont see much of that going on in the south.
To my memory, the only British public who wanted to expand the mission were those who were lifelong knuckle dragging labour voters, who fell for John Reids "no shots fired speech". Didnt exactly go to their plan, did it?
At what point was it explained to the british public that we were transitioning from a terrorist fighting force to one that targeted an ethnic pashtun organisation that has to my knowledge, never been involved with terrorism in the west?