Afghans have hands full in Helmand

The US Marines left Helmand Province last month, and Stars & Stripes reports that the Afghans left there have been busy ever since. They report over 800 insurgent attacks in just the last week;

“What’s scary is that for years there was a direct correlation between the presence of foreign troops and the levels of violence,” said Graeme Smith, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. Operations by coalition forces generally led to higher levels of fighting as foreign troops launched offensive operations and insurgents found plenty of targets to attack, he explained. “But now we’re seeing continued escalation in violence even as the number of foreign troops diminishes. This fighting season is shaping up to be as bad as 2011,” when the U.S. troop “surge” in Afghanistan came to a close.

That’s nothing. Wait until the end of the year when most of the US troops are gone from the entire country.Since the “surge” began in 2009, the only strategy in Afghanistan has been withdrawal. The CIA and the Department of Defense told the President that if he didn’t fully support the generals with the 60,000 troops they asked for, this would happen. And couple that with ridiculous rules of engagement that seriously tied the hands of the troops just to appease that criminal Karzai, what did they really think would happen?

In previous years, international troops, and especially air power, were able to prevent the Taliban from massing their fighters, said Smith, who spent many years living in southern Afghanistan. That kept insurgents from overrunning urban centers, but it led to more guerilla-style warfare.

“Even though (international troops) succeeded in holding those capitals, it stirred up a lot of resentment,” [Graeme Smith, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group] said.

I wonder how much resent will be stirred up when the Taliban are running the province again.

Category: Terror War