KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 25, 2008
101 GIs Killed; U.S. "Losing" Afghanistan?
2008 On Pace To Be Deadliest Year Since Invasion As Transformed Taliban Stay On Offensive
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U.S. soldiers shake hands with Afghan children during a foundation laying ceremony of a school on the outskirts of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Aug. 11, 2008 (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan)
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Arms and ammunition are displayed after being recovered from the Taliban during a joint military operation in Shindand district of Heart, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Fraidoon Pooyaa)
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An Afghan police officer is seen at a checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
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Play CBS Video Video Eye To Eye: McCain On Mideast John McCain talks about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan and sharply criticizes Barack Obama's understanding of the war on the terror. McCain also addresses criticism of favoritism in the media.
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Video Candidates' Goals For Mideast "CBS Exclusive": Barack Obama and John McCain each describe how they would handle the war on terror, including how they plan to stabilize Iraq and quell the insurgency in Afghanistan.
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Video Obama Focuses On Afghan War Barack Obama has deemed the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent." He calls for more troops to be sent there during the last leg of the Bush administration. Lara Logan reports.
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Fast Facts Afghanistan Learn about the people, economy and history.
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Fast Facts Pakistan Learn about the people, economy and history.
The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., a 36-year-old from Marrero, La., died of gunfire wounds while helping train Afghan police in the northwest. The total number of U.S. dead last year - 111 - was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed.
Top U.S. generals, European presidents and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.
"The U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban," Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report Thursday. A resurgent al Qaeda, which was harbored by the Taliban in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, could soon follow, Cordesman warned.
Cordesman called for the U.S. to treat Pakistani territory as a combat zone if Pakistan does not act. "Pakistan may officially be an ally, but much of its conduct has effectively made it a major threat to U.S. strategic interests."
An influx of Chechen, Turkish, Uzbek and Arab fighters have helped increased the Taliban's military precision, including an ambush by 100 fighters last week that killed 10 French soldiers, and a rush on a U.S. outpost last month by 200 militants that killed nine Americans.
Multi-direction attacks, flawlessly executed ambushes and increasingly powerful roadside and suicide bombs mean the U.S. and 40-nation NATO-led force will in all likelihood suffer its deadliest year in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on a visit to Kabul last week, said he knows that something must "be raised with Pakistan's government, and I will continue to do so." French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who rushed to Afghanistan after the French attack, warned Thursday that "terrorism is winning."
"Military sanctuaries are expanding in the (Pakistani) tribal areas," Gen. David McKiernan, the American four-star general in charge of the 50,000-strong NATO-led force here, told The Associated Press last week. McKiernan has called for another three brigades of U.S. forces - roughly 10,000 troops - to bolster the 33,000 strong U.S. force here.
Complicating relations between the Afghan government and the U.S., last week a joint Afghan-U.S. military operation in Herat province killed around 90 civilians, President Hamid Karzai's office says. The U.S. said it was investigating.
Some 188 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, including the 101 Americans, according to an Associated Press count. This year's toll is easily on track to surpass the record 222 international troop deaths in 2007.
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Center for Strategic International Studies
According to Defense Department statistics released Sunday, at least 508 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Of those, the military reports 362 were killed by hostile action.Pakistan may officially be an ally, but much of its conduct has effectively made it a major threat to U.S. strategic interests.
Anthony Cordesman,Center for Strategic International Studies
U.S. critics of the Afghan government are becoming increasingly vocal. Rep. Jim Marshall, a Georgia Democrat who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said last week that Karzai's government "is not nearly where it should be."
"I'm not willing to have a long-term U.S. commitment, a substantial U.S. commitment to Afghanistan without seeing substantial reform and improvement in the government," Marshall said on a visit to Kabul.
Karzai's influence barely extends outside the capital. The Interior Ministry is seen as uniformly corrupt, and opium poppy cultivation has soared in recent years.
McKiernan said that "there is a sense of real frustration with the government of President Karzai. People were expecting gains over time but they aren't feeling much."
Karzai admitted in an AP interview last week that Afghanistan still lacks a properly functioning government and that corruption is rampant. He said he will run for a second term next year in hopes of addressing those problems.
The president also blamed the rise in Afghan violence directly on Afghanistan's and NATO's neglect of the sanctuaries, training grounds and financial center of the Taliban - a clear reference to Pakistan.
The U.S. is believed to have launched several missile strikes into Pakistan's tribal areas this year in an attempt to take out militant leaders. Missiles destroyed a suspected hide-out in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, on Wednesday, killing at least five people.
Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. analyst who has studied Afghanistan for years, said Taliban militants have simply become better at war after seven years of practice against U.S. and NATO forces. Fighters, particularly militant commanders, are also using their sanctuary in Pakistan to devastating effect, he said.
"I think there's got to be a strike on the leadership structure, including Mullah Omar, Siraj Haqqani, and (Gulbuddin) Hekmatyar," who reside in Pakistan, said Jones. "As the insurgency has become more sophisticated, many of the senior leaders continue to exist, and they are one of the reasons the insurgency is getting better."
Marshall, the Democratic congressman, said Pakistan itself is feeling threatened by the increase in militancy on its soil and wants to see insurgent leaders taken out.
"You've seen the progression here," Marshall told AP. "Initially we wouldn't even fire back across the (Pakistan) border. We changed that. We're firing back. We're pursuing, and now acting on intelligence we are prepared to use discreet weaponry to take out high value targets" in Pakistan.
"They want the minimal American presence to help them do that," he said.
Rep. Chris Shays, a Republican member of the House Homeland Security committee, said it appears the United States is making some of the same mistakes in Afghanistan that it did in Iraq, such as underfunding the training of the Afghan army. He also called for an increase in the use of "soft power" like aid work and "some sort of effort in reconciliation."
"I don't pretend to know enough about how that would be involved," he said in a visit to Kabul last week, "but the bottom line is that as I look at this issue, I don't see how we can succeed on our present track."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 511 Commentsif we allowed the liberals to have thier way..the UN and the EU would still be trying to figure out who to shock and awe with thier infamous ''harsh condemnation" for 9/11.
The whole thing is con job and so many Americans have bought it hook, line, and sinker it''s pathetic.
Two worthless wars facilitated by a black-ops demolition attack on the twin-towers by the bush/cheney/saudia crime syndicate leading to an obscene attack on the American pocketbook and our freedoms.
Say it together now 962 times - wmd, wmd, the sky is falling.
And a MILLION people are dead for the profits of it.
I can''t believe anyone with a brain or a conscience would vote for more of the McSame genocidal policy.
You''re not a christian if you support murderers.
Oh you poor kool-aid drinker. John McCain is not the architect of these endless wars, it is Joe Biden and the neo-cons. Joe Biden even has a war named after him, "Joe Biden''s War" is the slang for his relentless bombing of Serbia in cahoots with Bill Clinton. McCain''s war is the one where he was a hero defending his country with life and limb. joe biden''s war is the one where he promoted war for its own sake, and caused the bombing, flaming deaths of thousands of civilians to help the muslim terrorists of "Kosovo" in their ethnic cleansing campaign. Remember that one?
And joe biden''s other war, the Iraq War, the one where he broke ranks with Democratic tradition, he broke ranks even with his own conscience and honour (he was elected to the Senate all those years ago as a rabif anti-war candidate) and he called for the killing, killing, killing of Iraquis to satisfy his egomania and bloodlust.
what exactly did john McCain do other than defend his country as a hero? How is he responsible for Bush and Biden''s endless wars?
They only report a fraction of the real war.
Bisest liars are:
CBS,CNN,ABC,NBC, of course the #1 lying news network is SOB FOX. you guys can drink my s.h.i.t....juices.
Waiting in a line to hear the battle cry, when John McCain is Commander In Chief,
All are gathered here, GOP victory is near,
The sound will fill the hall,
bringing power to us all !!
VOTE MCCAIN in NOV ! STAY THE COURSE !!!
It is Bush/Cheney intention to keep this war ongoing because it is the only way to scare the Idiot Americans to vote Republican.
A war is the Republican Party only means to get votes - therefore stay alive.
It is Bush/Cheney intention to keep this war ongoing because it is the only way to scare the American people to vote Republican.
This war is the Republican Party only tool to get votes.
WE let them scare us into this mess...and WE didn''t finish the job before we started the next mess...
The Taliban wants Americans to purchase more Heroin so that they can kill more Americans.
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Posted by notblue at 05:39 PM : Aug 25, 2008
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But, fortunately the vast majority of sane people do NOT agree with YOU! And, that IS a blessing!
That''s why Gen McKiernan has called for another three brigades of U.S. forces....
Now these little Fake Republican, Jesus Nutball, Belgianweiser Bumpkins screeching on here are irrelevant. They''re fuuking ignorant, low educated doofballs with uninformed opinions that think coming on a blog and screeching means something.
It Doesn''t.
Afghanistan is in serious trouble. REAL experts say so...
Posted by proisrael at 05:24 PM : Aug 25, 2008
How old are YOU?
Posted by proisrael at 05:19 PM : Aug 25, 2008
Are you THAT attached to DUMBYA?
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