The Gravity of the Situation in Afghanistan

by: Brandon Friedman

Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 22:36:41 PM EDT


Just to put this in perspective: There have been 556 Americans killed in Afghanistan since 2001.  64 42 of them--nearly 12 8 percent--have been killed in the last six weeks.

CORRECTION: I screwed this one up.  Someone just corrected my math.  I mistakenly divided the number of COALITION casualties for June and July by the total number of AMERICAN deaths.  This means that the correct figure is around 8 percent of the total--but not 12 percent.  I apologize if this has screwed anything up for anybody

Brandon Friedman :: The Gravity of the Situation in Afghanistan
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The growing coalition of Taliban and Jihadis (0.00 / 0)
Anderson Cooper's discussion with Nic Robertson and Peter Bergen can be found about 3/4 of the way down in this transcript:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRA...

"need more troops, but not just any troops"

Also, there is an excellent article from the Times of India featured at World News. "Greater Threat as J&K jihadis bond with Taliban."
The direct link has problems. Scroll down the front page of:

http://www.worldnews.com


Go Over (0.00 / 0)
To the post I put up last night, there's a link to a Us News and World Report article, that just came out, about same, there was also an interview, yesterday, on NPR with the journalist.

'Hearts and Minds, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there." -- President Lyndon Johnson

[ Parent ]
This is also part of the nightmare scenario... (0.00 / 0)
...that a number of people in the intelligence community described when Bhutto was murdered -- that the build up of extremists militia in the south of Pakistan (the badlands) coupled with the instability of the Musharif government could eventually lead to a civil war in Pakistan which might end with the extremists getting control of Pakistan's nukes.

If our guys can't follow them into their safe havens in the south, who's going to root them out, Musharif? Doesn't seem likely. Question: Is there REALLY a GWOT? If so, who the hell's running it? Maybe he should be fired.


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