General David H. Petraeus, the top commander of American forces in Afghanistan, in his interview with The New York Times, has made an attempt to paint a very rosy picture of military progress while at the same time announcing a 'defence and depth strategy along Pak-Afghan border. No matter what tall claims are being made by the military leadership of NATO and ISAF, ground realities are different. One can understand that since Gen Petraeus has to testify before the US Congress for the first time after he took over the command eight months back, he has to create an imaginative scenario. The actual situation is that due to severe winter, Taliban had reduced their activities. The Taliban would soon re-launch their offensives across Afghanistan. But in the same breath, Gen Petraeus concedes saying that other aspects of the war remained difficult and progress is patchy and slow. Another important side of the interview is that the General has once again tried to fix the blame on Pakistan saying that many of the Taliban leaders had escaped to sanctuaries in Pakistan. What is shocking is the fact that Gen Petraeus did not indicate NATOs failing as well as its blunders costing the local population heavily. The latest example is March 1 episode killing nine innocent boys. Earlier, on Feb 17 NATO bombing killed 65 civilians over which the Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his indignation and refused to accept Petraeus apology. Later Defence Secretary Robert Gates and President Obama had to apologise. These developments had created a big trust deficit between the Kabul Government and ISAF on the one hand and Afghan people and ISAF on the other. Analysing these ground realities, one can draw only one conclusion that the situation in Afghanistan is far from being satisfactory. Instead the NATO and ISAF forces must realise that Afghan people hate them more than ever before. Now it would not be possible for the NATO commander to make Afghan people believe that they had come to restore peace and strengthen democracy.