WASHINGTON: At his home in Richmond, Virginia, Larry Syverson spends part of every day worrying there will be an unwanted knock on the door. Syverson’s son, Branden, is an American soldier serving in Afghanistan, conducting dangerous patrols in an area infested with Taliban.

“I worry every day that I might hear someone come to the door unexpected. Just last week two of his best friends were killed over there,” he said.

That’s why Syverson, 60, an environmental engineer, is trying to organise a protest in Richmond against the war in Afghanistan for the second weekend in October, almost eight years after the conflict began. He is a member of Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group made up of relatives of military personnel that is preparing to turn its attentions from the conflict in Iraq to the one in Afghanistan. He has three sons in the military who together have served five tours in Iraq as well as Branden’s stint in Afghanistan.

“I am extremely proud that they have chosen a military career. I just don’t like the way that they are being used to fight these unnecessary wars,” said Syverson. That is a growing sentiment in America. As Barack Obama appears likely to increase America’s already greatly enlarged troop commitment to the Afghan war, the war itself is becoming increasingly disliked. The conflict used to be called America’s “forgotten war”. As casualties have spiked, so has hatred for the war: a solid 57pc of Americans now oppose it. The anti-war movement prepare to turn to Afghanistan.