Another step forward in Marjah:
“MARJAH, Afghanistan — Marines and Afghan troops cleared the last major pocket of resistance in the former Taliban-ruled town of Marjah on Saturday — part of an offensive that is the run-up to a larger showdown this year in the most strategic part of Afghanistan’s dangerous south.
“Although Marines say their work in Marjah isn’t done, Afghans are bracing for a bigger, more comprehensive assault in neighboring Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban where officials are talking to aid organizations about how to handle up to 10,000 people who could be displaced by fighting.”
Again, we say that the win in Marjah is not the elimination of Taliban fuckos (as fine a thing as that is) but the political, economic and social gains that can be made after it. And now that they’re signalling another operation to the east in Kandahar, we can see how one battle shapes the next. I stand by my prediction that if these large-scale ops are followed by assertion of effective policing and governance, this time next year we’ll be talking about a much changed Afghanistan.
Stay tuned.
