One Utah

The Army Times provides this concise sitrep on Afghanistan:

“U.S. military deaths, suicide bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007. Taliban militants killed more than 925 Afghan police, and large swaths of the country remain outside government control.”

A number of things have gone wrong during the last year, including:
• Record violence that killed more than 6,500 people, including 110 U.S. troops. Britain lost 41 soldiers, while Canada lost 30. Other nations lost a total of 40. The Associated Press estimated that 4,478 Taliban militants died.
• More than 925 Afghan policemen died in Taliban ambushes in 2007, including 16 killed Saturday during an assault on a Helmand province checkpoint. Police are frequent targets because they are deployed in small units.
• The general perception in Afghanistan that the government is not capable of providing security or meeting the basic demands of the population, and that it’s involved in corruption.
• 2007 was a record-setting year for opium production, despite efforts at eradication that drove farmers to side with the Taliban. The obvious solution– buying the opium from the farmers –hasn’t been tried by our side.
• Taliban suicide bombers set off a record number of attacks this year — more than 140. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, promised an increase in suicide attacks, ambushes and roadside bombs against U.S. and NATO forces in 2008.
• The unstable political situation in neighboring Pakistan threatens more trouble for Afghanistan, as Al Qaeda, Taliban and other militants expand the regional scope of their operations.

UPDATE: Over on DailyKos, elishastephens reminds us that the death toll above includes hundreds of innocent civilians, even assuming that none of the 4,478 “militants” were really non-combatants.

UPDATE: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) editorializes on the failure of NATO in Afghanistan: “Historically, Afghanistan is the great breaker of armies… Could it also break NATO? That’s no longer idle speculation.”

This entry was posted Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 9:46 am and is filed under Afghanistan, Disaster, Military, This Blog, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.