Gates Sees Crucial Test for U.S. in Afghanistan

[tekisui]

Source: New York Times

COMBAT OUTPOST KOWALL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Tuesday that the United States faces an “acid test” this spring and summer to determine if gains in the war are sustainable.

He also said that there are unlikely to be any American troop withdrawals in July from the hard-fought southern part of the country. President Obama has ordered that withdrawals begin in July and his commanders are determining where they will come from and how many there will be. Mr. Gates’s trip here is in part to participate in those discussions.

On the second day of a two-day trip to Afghanistan, Mr. Gates traveled first to the bloodiest spot in the war, the Taliban narcotics center of Sangin in Helmand Province, and then to a village in the Arghandab district of Kandahar Province, where a fledgling program to arm local Afghan police is underway. Both are in the south.

In an attempt to show that the United States is making progress, Mr. Gates strolled for 15 minutes without body armor — although surrounded by a heavily armed security force — down a dirt road to the Arghandab village of Tabin, where he met with eight new recruits of the Afghan Local Police.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/world/asia/09gates.html?src=twrhp

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Turning another corner. Same shit, different year. Another six months and we will see progress. Give it up, end the war.

[msongs]

1. summer is prime time for war profiteers to maximize their incomes nt