Playing Whack-A-Mole In Afghanistan

By Cernig

Some disturbing news from Afghanistan, via the BBC.

US and Afghan troops have abandoned a remote village in eastern Afghanistan where militants killed nine US soldiers and wounded a dozen more on Sunday.

A statement said the outpost had been temporary and that "regular patrols" in the area would be maintained.

Afghan police are continuing to fight insurgents after the pullout on Tuesday, local officials say.

... "We are confirming that we have vacated our combat outpost at Wanat," said Nato spokesman Mark Laity.

The outpost had only been constructed days before it was attacked.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) announced the camp had now been "disestablished" but said there would be a "continued presence" in the area - namely patrols and the use of Afghan security forces.

Omar Sami Taza, a spokesman for the governor of Nuristan, said US troops had withdrawn from the area, "leaving the district in the hands of only 20 policemen".

"American troops have taken all heavy weapons out of the district," he told the BBC. "This is why we have lost the district to the Taleban because our police couldn't defend it with one AK-47."

However, the local police chief, Hazarat Ali, told the BBC: "Our police are still in the district, the elders are backing us. We have not lost our district."

Recently, a friend who served in Afghanistan in 2007 told me that his battalion had been heavily involved in sweep and clear operations while there, but that coalition forces simply didn't have the manpower to hold cleared areas. The upshot was a game of whack-a-mole all too familiar to those who observed the same thing in 2006 in Anbar province, Iraq. It's good, therefore, that US politicians have belatedly decided to concentrate their attentions on Afghanistan and that both presidential hopefuls now back sending some extra help to that country. McCain's plan to get those extra troops from Europeans, though, is about as bright as his plan to use money saved through "victory" in Iraq (a war and occupation funded through deficit spending!) to pay for his budget. European (especially British) military chiefs are already pissed off about America's political elite ignoring Afghanistan for so long. Imagine how they'll react to being told "OK, we've noticed that war again - time for you folks to step up!"

Comments

[RAM]

Kinda sorta reminds a person of Khe Sanh and all those other hills and dales our guys died fighting on back in the day, doesn't it? Seems to be working out just about as good, too.