To hear NATO talk, the occupation of Afghanistan 11+ years later is “improving” with US and NATO troop deaths having dropped somewhat, as insurgent attacks give way to a more common strategy of “green-on-blue attacks.”

Which may be better for NATO, but 2012 was also the deadliest year of the occupation yet for the Afghan military, which reported 1056 soldiers killed, including 906 in the last nine months.

Afghan Defense Ministry officials attributed this shift to the increase in the number of Afghan military operations. The Taliban appears to have become more interested in targeting them directly as NATO member nations prepare for a drawdown.

In addition to the 1,056 soldiers, an estimated 1,400 police were also slain in the last 10 months, also an increase over the previous year. With NATO continuing to increase the size of the Afghan military, massive numbers of desertions remain a huge problem as well.

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