DEBKAfile
Obama's war is Afganistan is going badly
The approximately 60,000 NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan are unable to achieve the goals of the war –even with the additional 21,000 US combat troops promised this year and “the big jump in the size of Afghan security forces”demanded by the new US commander,Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
DEBKAfile’s military analysts see no real corroboration for the UK Chief of Defense Staff Sir Jock Stirrup’s assertion that the Taliban is “losing”in Afghanistan and “real governance”is emerging in Afghanistan.
He spoke Saturday,July 11 after the deaths of eight British troops in 24 hours in the embattled South Afghan province of Helmand,which the British death toll in 10 days to 15 and 184 in the nine-year war.
The 3,000 British troops were hit devastatingly in the third week of their Operation Panther’s Claw,launched to clear central Helmand of Taliban insurgents before Afghanistan’s August elections. A total 9,000 UK troops are deployed in the country.
The main thrust of the effort,the large-scale Operation Khanjar or Strike of the Sword,was mounted on July 2 by 4,000 US marines and 650 Afghan troops in the southern part of the province bordering on Pakistan.
July already threatens to become one of the bloodiest months of the war,with seven US troops killed Monday,July 6,and another five NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan Friday,July 10.
Most of the losses were caused by powerful roadside bombs (IEDs) and some suicide attacks.