Afghan War Surge to Soon be Backed by Tanks
The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan is said to be making progress. They'll soon have some new firepower, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports.
The American troop surge is about to pack a bigger wallop. Early next year, Marines in southern Afghanistan will have a company of tanks with which to pursue the Taliban. That's only 15 tanks, but retired Army Gen. John "Jack" Keane, a confidant of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, thinks it's just the beginning.
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"It may be the lead company for more tanks to follow," Keane said.
The first use of tanks in Afghanistan is part of what an aide to Petraeus calls "squeezing down like a giant anaconda" on the Taliban.
"We've never been able to do that before, and that's making a difference and beginning to erode the morale of the Taliban," said Keane. "It's starting to break their will."
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The pace of American operations keeps going up from week to week. Night raids up six fold. Air strikes nearly double, but it comes with a built-in drawback.
"This marked increase in night raids and operations has been very visible to the Afghan people, and they have been vocally complaining to their government," Stephanie Sanok, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.
Civilian casualties are down 8 percent. Still, 429 innocent Afghans have been killed or wounded this year. The question is whether the numbers add up to a strategy that will allow the U.S. and its allies to meet the goal they are about to set at the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
"A transition to Afghan responsibility that begins in 2011 with Afghan forces taking the lead for security across Afghanistan by 2014" is how President Obama summarized the long-term U.S. strategy Friday at the summit.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle is next door in Pakistan, where the government has shown no willingness to go after key terrorist safe havens.
"Either the Pakistanis pull the plug and stop supporting them or we take them down," said Keane. "If those are still there then I don't see how we could make 2014."
The surge may be working, but it is too soon to say that about the strategy.