A U.S. soldier of Task Force Mountain Warrior Alpha Company pauses during a patrol in Kandaru, at the Pesh Valley in Kunar Province August 7, 2009. REUTERS/Carlos BarriaFrom Yahoo News/Reuters:
KABUL (Reuters) – NATO's new chief called Friday for additional reinforcements in Afghanistan, and the alliance announced the deaths of eight more U.S. and British troops as violence worsens in the eight-year-old war's deadliest phase.
In neighboring Pakistan, officials said they believed that country's Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, had been killed in a missile strike, a major coup in the fight against the militant movement which has roots in tribes on both sides of the border.
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My Comment: It appears that the war in Afghanistan is now entering a new and deadlier phase. What is troubling about the present battlefield is that even though the Taliban comprise a minority within Afghanistan, there are sufficient enough numbers of them to prolong and continue an insurgency war that can possibly last for decades.
The only hope for the Afghan Government and their Western allies to win this war is for the Afghan Government to build their own security forces to a point that will be able to deter the Taliban from ever reaching sufficient strength or be a threat.
Unfortunately, this is easier to say than to do. Afghan society is notoriously corrupt, and the Afghan Army has (so far) been an insignificant player in the counter-insurgency warfare against the Taliban and their allies.
There are calls to enlarge the Afghan Army to 400,000 (from the present troop level of 170,000). But I feel this will be insufficient. To develop an effective force, resources, time, and training must be applied. An officer corp with trained NCOs must be established. Equipment and the proper military infrastructure must be constructed.
But again .... unfortunately .... this will take years and multi-billions of dollars. Conditions and resources that are not available to be committed to Afghanistan now .... nor in the future.
The end result is what we have now. Continuous warfare with no signs for peace on the horizon.