Losing the War on Terror
From Think Progress
AFGHANISTAN -- SECURITY REMAINS ELUSIVE IN INSURGENCY-RIDDLED SOUTH:
Only one week after NATO took over command of southern Afghanistan from U.S. forces, a sharp spike in violence is already "taxing" the international coalition. In the "worst upsurge of violence" since 2001, the Taliban recently overran two districts before being beaten back. The NATO force is larger than the American contingent that previously patrolled the area, but officials now worry that they will have to "pull back to avoid being spread so thin that they do not have a decisive amount of force anywhere." One senior officer in the region was quoted as saying that British troops are already "on the brink of exhaustion" and have suffered "great hardship." The violence comes as Tom Koenigs, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, warned reporters that he doubted the insurgency was going to be over in a year. "There is a virtual unlimited reservoir of Taliban fighters," he added. "It is not possible to defeat the movement by inflicting heavy losses on it." Unfortunately, troops have not yet been able to do any reconstruction projects, which were somewhat neglected by the American forces due to a "shortage of troops." As a result, popular discontent has grown, and opium harvests are at their "biggest ever" in the region. "It was better when the Taliban were in power," says Haji Khan, a village elder. "There is no peace, no security. Things have got much worse over the past year."
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