U.S. Efforts in Kandahar, Barely Begun, Already Are Faltering (No Turning Point Until November)

[tekisui]

Source: McClatchy

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Although it's just beginning, the U.S.-led effort to pacify the Taliban's spiritual capital in southern Afghanistan already appears to be faltering.

Key military operations have been delayed until the fall, efforts to improve local government are having little impact and a Taliban assassination campaign has brought a sense of dread to Kandahar's dusty streets.

NATO officials once spoke of demonstrating major progress by mid-August, but U.S. commanders now say the turning point may not be reached until November, and perhaps later.

At the urging of Afghan leaders, U.S. officials have stopped describing the plan as a military operation. Instead, they've dubbed it "Cooperation for Kandahar," a moniker meant to focus attention on efforts to build up local governance while reducing fears of street battles.

"We're not using the term 'operation' or 'major operations' because that often brings to mind in peoples' psyche the idea of a D-Day and an H-Hour and an attack," U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan, said Thursday in Washington.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed him. "This is not Fallujah," Clinton told reporters, in a reference to the house-to-house fighting that drove Sunni Muslim insurgents from the Iraqi town of Fallujah. "Lessons have been learned since Iraq. A lot of lessons."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/13/94133/kandahar-offensive-scaled-back.html#ixzz0nvu0z28L

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. That durn light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel is receding again..and again..and agin. K&R

[EFerrari]

2. Somebody needs to be a sister city with Kandahar.

I checked at Sister Cities International and there's nothing. That would help in several directions, not to mention, it would be harder for McChrystal to pull anything shady there.

We've learned from Fallujah, too. We've learned what the Pentagon will do to a civilian population if there is no oversight.

[gratuitous]

3. November? Why that's just one Friedman Unit away!

Ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy, a turning point!