Thursday, January 14, 2010

Getting Ready For A Fight In Afghanistan

Image from The New York Times

No Secret As U.S. Marines Plan For Afghan Assault -- Reuters

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Haji Zair, 45, has just been appointed the new district governor of Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in the center of Afghanistan's Helmand province. His first goal is just to be able to live there.

The area is still controlled by the Taliban, the last major bastion of the fighters in the southern part of Afghanistan's most violent province, and for now, Zair only enters the district by day, retreating to his home outside by nightfall.

He is counting on a huge extra force of U.S. Marines that President Barack Obama has dispatched to southern Afghanistan to change that, in what is likely to be the first big military push of Obama's new "surge" strategy.

Read more ....

Update: US military telegraphs coming battle in hopes some Taliban choose to sit out the fight -- Canadian Press

My Comment: This is very unconventional. I would never broadcast to the enemy my intentions .... this tells me that there is something else in play, or the U.S. Marines are becoming very cocky.

1 comment:

Marcase said...

Well, if you switch on the light and the cockroaches scuttle back to their lairs, you might find where they're hiding.
If some of the Talibs are avoiding the fight, securing the area might be easier, especially if it means avoiding civilian casualties.