US Escalates Assault on Haqqanis & Insurgents, To No Avail
Little or no measurable progress can be gleaned from recent offensive, or the war in general, as US insists it go on indefinitely
US and NATO forces are escalating attacks in Afghanistan against the Haqqani network in a coordinated offensive in the eastern part of the country, along the rugged border with Pakistan.
The joint operations against the Haqqani network, whom US officials blame for a series of spectacular and deadly assaults on occupation forces in Afghanistan, come after months of rising tensions with the Pakistani government over allegations that the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, harbors and protects the Haqqanis in North Waziristan.
US and NATO forces have so far made no tangible progress against the Haqqanis, given the harsh mountainous Pakistani border region which makes gun battles and airstrikes difficult. Military and insurgent violence has been intensifying for the past four days around Musa Khail, a northwest district of the provincial capital of Khost, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
A resident of Musa Khail, Gulab Khan told McClatchy news service that US and NATO forces arrested on Tuesday an unknown number of armed men whom he described as civilians. Many Afghan civilians own weapons, and there has been no official statements on whether coalition forces had captured or killed any actual militants.
The offensive has so far borne little results for the US, and indeed, the war in Afghanistan is growing more fruitless by the day. Violence is up, the insurgency is as strong as ever, Afghan security forces are untrained and dependent on the US occupation, and it is an extremely expensive waste of time for everyone involved, in both blood and treasure. Yet, Obama administration officials and Pentagon officials insist it must go on indefinitely.
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Tom Mauel
October 19th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
AntiWar reprinted an article from Gannnet yesterday that claimed the US had secured all but a small area of Helmand province and stated that the security situation was greatly improved in the province.
Today in AntiWar there was a story reporting the death of an Estonian soldier in Helmand. A US soldier was reported killed in Helmand last Thursday, October 13 one of four US soldiers reported killed in Afghanistan last Thursday. A US soldier was killed a week earlier in Helmand on Thursday, October 6. Seven US soldiers died in Helmand in September and twelve more were killed in August.
A very high rate of casualties has streamed out of Helmand and Kandahar since last spring and are the highest rate of casualties from any province. So when the Pentagon claims progress in Helmand and the southern heartland they are lying.