It appears we have had some recent successes, if you will, in Afghanistan:
Afghan forces scouring mountains in the country’s south found the bodies of 76 suspected militants killed during a blistering barrage of their camps by Afghan and U.S. forces, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
Meanwhile, Afghan government and U.S. military leaders met with tribal chiefs in a tent on a dusty plateau near the battlefield and urged them to help fight militants still holding out.
In all, a total of 178 militants have been killed and 56 suspected insurgents have been captured since Tuesday in some of the deadliest fighting since the fall of the Taliban four years ago, ministry spokesman Zahir Marad said.
”Our forces have collected the bodies of 76 more rebels from the battlefield,” Marad said, adding that the corpses were scattered across a wide mountainous area in and around the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province.
Not without a heavy price, though:
About 465 suspected insurgents have been reported killed since March, after snows melted on mountain trails used by the rebels. In the same period, 29 U.S. troops, 38 Afghan police and soldiers and 125 civilians have been killed.
Aaron
Nancy Pelosi said that war was over.
She should be impeached for being a liar.
ppgaz
According to Tom Brokaw — I know, I know, I’m about to cite MSM here — Taliban insurgency is on the rise in Afghanistan.
Other recent reports describe the country as a few urban areas that are more or less governed by the, uh, government, surrounded by …. the old Afghanistan, where regional and tribal power struggles still go on, where poppies are still a thriving industry, and where insurgents need only keep moving to stay out of the sights of the American peace-keepers. Out there, according to these stories, nothing much has changed from ten years ago.
Of course, Brokaw had to surround his Taliban comments with a plethora of footage of kids — beautiful kids they are, too — reciting in schoolrooms and being patted on the head by American soldiers, so as to convey the idea that things are going, you know, well, or at least in a happy direction. Michael Moore himself would have been proud of the way these shots can be cut and pasted together to create a skewed impression. (Of course, Moore has the good sense to just buy canned footage, rather than spend zillions to send crews over there to shoot it at his expense).
Anyway, after watching the No Bad Commentary (NBC) happy tv show, it occurred to me that we have soon forgotten what it was we went to Afghanistan for in the first place. We went in there to smack the Taliban, and more importantly, clear the way to corner and kill or capture Al Qaeda terrorists and their iconic leader, OBL. “Dead or Alive”. Remember those, the good old days?
Well, Al Qaeda, despite the happy pronouncements coming out of the Pentagon and the White House, seems to be very much alive, well, and dispersed. OBL is a ghost. He is about as accessible as the Loch Ness Monster. The people out in the country in Afghanistan are doing what they have always done, namely, run their little fiefdoms and do whatever they please.
Exactly what “war” do we now think we are “fighting” over there? What is its goal? To turn Afghanistan into Lancaster-Palmdale? To chase Taliban around in a game of “here I am, now I’m not?” To make it safe for Kharzai to come over for his periodic photo-ops and wear his colorful vestments for the cameras?
Fast forward 2-3 years, please. What situation in Afghanistan then, compared to the one that exists now, will we be able to hail as a great American victory? Are you willing to bet your own money that this outcome will have been accomplished? Viewing the Afghan theater as an entity unto itself, how far have we come toward accomplishing the single and unambiguous objective we went in there to achieve? When will we get the next video from OBL? maybe we should ask him how we are doing??
ppgaz
There is no proscription against lying, Aaron. If there were, then all politicians would be in jeopardy.
Has a member of the House of Representatives ever been impeached? Explain your answer.
p.lukasiak
How many people will die this year because Afghan heroin is freely and cheaply available?
Kimmitt
125 civilians
“When elephants fight, it is the ants who suffer.”
James Emerson
Afghan forces scouring mountains in the country’s south found the bodies of 76 suspected militants killed during a blistering barrage of their camps by Afghan and U.S. forces, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
***sigh***
In Vietnam we used to get the daily body as proof that we were winning. But that body count was politically motivated, and included the bodies of women and children to make the conflict look better to the American public. Seems to me the same political calculation is in use in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We have body counts caused by artillery barrages and air stikes. How In Hell can anyone tell who the Hell we’re killing without being on the ground…up close and personal?
Counting the bodies left on the field is the easy if not grisly part. Counting the recruits enlisting with the Islmamists because their families are being killed is more difficult. But the motivation for them doing so should be easy to understand.
Even the war supporters must understand this?
Doug
29 Americans and 38 Afghani paramilitary dead since March? What in the name of George S. Patton is going on over there!?
Stormy70
Bin Laden is dead, IMO. Such as it is. Or extremely neutralized.