As Marja assault progresses, coalition considers challenges in rebuilding area

[Adsos Letter]

Source: By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 21, 2010

MARJA, AFGHANISTAN -- On the satellite photographs of Marja that Marines scrutinized before launching a massive assault against the Taliban a week ago, what they assumed was the municipal government center appeared to be a large, rectangular building, cater-cornered from the main police station.

Seizing that intersection became a key objective, one deemed essential to imposing authority and beginning reconstruction in this part of Helmand province once U.S. and Afghan troops have flushed out the insurgents.

But when Marine officers reached the area, they discovered that two-dimensional images can be deceiving. What they had thought was the flat roof of the municipal building turned out to be a concrete foundation, and the police station was a bombed-out schoolhouse.

Although thousands of Marines and Afghan soldiers remain engaged in a grueling fight against Taliban holdouts concentrated in southern Marja, top commanders and civilian stabilization advisers face an even more daunting task: how to establish basic local governance and security in a place where there are no civil servants, no indigenous policemen and apparently no public buildings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/20/AR2010022002331.html

[Fumesucker]

1. Hoocoodanoed?

:wow:

Is our military learning?

I thought I was beyond surprise after the last ten years.

No, not quite..

:wtf: