Analysis: Afghan war enters decisive phase

[unhappycamper]

Analysis: Afghan war enters decisive phase
By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
Aug 2, 1:24 PM EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- With U.S. troop strength approaching 100,000, the Afghan war is entering its decisive phase. Without measurable progress in the coming months, political support for the conflict may collapse.

Back-to-back months of record U.S. military death tolls - 60 in June and 66 in July - shocked many Americans, even though the Pentagon had been warning of higher casualties this summer as the U.S. and its allies push into longtime Taliban strongholds around Kandahar city and in the southern province of Helmand.

The campaign is aimed at securing Kandahar, a city of about a half million, the major urban area of the ethnic Pashtun south and the former Taliban headquarters. Securing the city is considered pivotal if the NATO-led coalition is to reverse the Taliban momentum in their southern stronghold.

Failure would be a grave - if not fatal - blow to the entire NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

It could encourage President Hamid Karzai, who was born near Kandahar, to seek a political deal with Taliban leaders on terms that Afghan ethnic minorities, women and the U.S. might find unfavorable. And it could discourage Pakistan from ever cracking down on Afghan Taliban fighters living in border sanctuaries since they may someday wield power in Afghanistan after the U.S. leaves.




unhappycamper comment: Marjah didn't work all that well. Perhaps we'll have more luck in Kandahar. :sarcasm:

[Fumesucker]

1. The next Friedman Unit will be critical..

:eyes:

[unhappycamper]

2. lol n/t

[saigon68]

3. The resistance will "fade away" for a while---- Viet-Nam 1967