New British And US Strategy To Break Taliban

U.S. Marines and about 650 Afghan soldiers and national police officers receive a final briefing about Operation Khanjar before boarding CH-53D Sea Stallion and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters on Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009. The Marines are assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 3, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Philippe E. Chasse

From Times Online:

In the baking heat and dust of Afghanistan last week Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe was heading into hostile territory to check on his men engaged in a big operation against the Taliban.

He was riding in the front passenger seat of a Viking BVS10, a tracked vehicle with two cabins, originally designed for Arctic combat. The air-conditioning is poor and the armour not much better. Vikings are protected on the upper side but vulnerable to bombs exploding below.

In other circumstances, Thorneloe, a senior officer with 1,000 men under his command, would have travelled by helicopter; but it appears none was available (though yesterday the Ministry of Defence declined to confirm or deny this).

“He wanted to get up among his boys at the first possible opportunity,” said an MoD spokesman. “A resupply convoy was going up there and he hitched a lift on that.” The commander, he said, wanted to “get the lie of the land” in the offensive against insurgents.

Read more ....

My Comment: they may have a strategy, but I still do not see the light at the end of the tunnel for this conflict.