Image from The New York TimesNo Secret As U.S. Marines Plan For Afghan Assault -- Reuters
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Haji Zair, 45, has just been appointed the new district governor of Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in the center of Afghanistan's Helmand province. His first goal is just to be able to live there.
The area is still controlled by the Taliban, the last major bastion of the fighters in the southern part of Afghanistan's most violent province, and for now, Zair only enters the district by day, retreating to his home outside by nightfall.
He is counting on a huge extra force of U.S. Marines that President Barack Obama has dispatched to southern Afghanistan to change that, in what is likely to be the first big military push of Obama's new "surge" strategy.
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Update: US military telegraphs coming battle in hopes some Taliban choose to sit out the fight -- Canadian Press
My Comment: This is very unconventional. I would never broadcast to the enemy my intentions .... this tells me that there is something else in play, or the U.S. Marines are becoming very cocky.