[canuck_conservative]

No let-up in the Afghan conflict, though it still gets small-potatos coverage compared with Iraq.

[csmusaret]

Attacks increase every spring.

[uncbob]

Unfortunately we have neither the manpower or the $$$$$$ nor the will to do what is necessary to win the war on radical Islam

Nuke attack is inevitable cause the American Public is clueless

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Afghanistan is strategically a LOT harder than Iraq to control. It is filled with drastic mountains perforated with caves, and almost half of the country has a border with Pakistan.

Though the Pakistanis have offered to fence large sections of the border, the Afghans bitterly protested, because much of their population freely flows across the border at intervals, and are far closer to Pakistan than to their own country.

[Mr Rogers]

“...comprehensive data released by the NATO-led command show a steady escalation in violence since NATO took charge of the Afghanistan mission in 2006”

Why am I not surprised?

[MNJohnnie]

So now that they lost the argument on Iraq for the final time, the Left will now switch to trash talking the effort in Afghanistan.

[maine-iac7]

Kazai has just issued a statement that may - finally - have the greatest effect in turning this tide.

Last weeks little ambush on the ANA troops on the Kunar border - either by the Paki troops giving the talis a heads up or directly attacking the ANA themselves - has, it would seem, backfired.

The Pakis screamed bloody murder at the US because their air cover to save the ANA troops killed Paki military - (well known to be infiltrated with/simpatico with, the talis) turned back on them as we had video record of the whole thing - that shows we didn't attack their outpost - but it looks like they left their outpost to attack the ANA troops - and that's how they got killed - on video - oops.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFzfzO1J3TT_eqpmvsK7pYkw3H4gD91AEAHO0

"Karzai said Afghanistan has the right to self defense, and because militants cross over from Pakistan "to come and kill Afghan and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same."

About damn time!

The most porous stretch of border between the infested Paki area and Afghanistan is along Afghanistan's Kunar Province in the isolated northeast mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Those mountains and valleys provide taliban entry in and out of the Kunar like water through a colander. The pakis let them flow into the Kunar at will to strike the ANA and our troops and then to scurry back to safety in Paki.

This has been devastating and results in our troops having to, effectively, fight the same battles with the same miscreants (actually, the Pakis and other countries there call the terrorists "miscreants" - sounds more benign, but look it up...it really fits) over and over, day after day.

The Kunar is so isolated from the rest of Afghanistan, they don't even speak Afghani, but Pushto. Our troops up there have been in the worst fighting of the entire WOT...intense and daily. Most of them are isolated on tiny fire posts they literally pickax out of the mountain side, 2 1/2 hours of hiking with 100 lb packs, (it's in the high 90's now and will get MUCH hotter) like mountain goats, away from the OPs. (no running water or power, no showers for weeks at a time, almost daily fire-fights )- all the time, totally vulnerable to ambush and snipers.

The Korengal Valley of the Kunar is the worst - aka "Taliban Central"...The Sky Soldiers of the 173rd have been carrying the heavy load - and the heavy losses.

It's about damn time someone starts to shut off the swinging door to/from Pakistan.

Good on Kazai! (I'm sure this was all worked out with us - and is the perfect solution. How can Pakistan argue that Afghanistan doesn't have the right to protect it's borders and it's troops? If the edict came from us directly, there would be a hue and cry, not only from Pakistan but the miscreants sympathizers, aiders & abettors in DC.

This could be the most far reaching move of the entire war in Afghanistan - Dear God, let it be so.

Today, Kazai is my hero.

.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

This brings up a very fundamental issue about the global nature of terrorism and how we fight it. Most of the country, including the left, agreed that we needed to go into Afghanistan when we did in response to 9-11. Had we stopped there Afghanistan would have become the focus of foreign terrorists and radical Islamic fundamentalists.

The roadside bombs, etc. would have been a recurrent issue in Afghanistan, as they have been in Iraq. For all we know, Iraq might have been one of the countries exporting foreign ‘fighters’ to Afghanistan.

My point is that this has always been a more global fight. Irrespective of whether one believes that going into Iraq was the right thing to do, it is highly unlikely that concentrating our efforts in Afghanistan would have ended the global threat.

Ultimately, to win this fight will require us to do many things, including doing all that we need to do to keep our own country strong (e.g. promoting education and innovation, maintaining our edge in technology, rewarding innovation (including those innovations that will help us become energy independent), and having the kinds of national debates and discourse that foster pride in who we are, etc.). We, and the rest of the world, also have to find some way to stop the hatred that fuels violent radical fundamentalism from being passed from generation to generation. As long as hate is taught in Madrassas and elsewhere, we will have an ongoing battle.

[theBuckwheat]

While we are making sober assessments, let’s see one on the self-loathing state of the MSM’s coverage of the GWOT.