The Kandahar Gambit - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times opinion.
... But the real source of tension was the battle that was about to begin. Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, has been advertised as the target of a major U.S.-led offensive this summer. The operation will aim to break the back of the Taliban on its own turf. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the offensive "the cornerstone of our surge effort and the key to shifting the momentum" in the 9-year-old war - as important to the Afghan struggle, he said, as pacifying Baghdad was to Iraq.
In fact, the offensive has already begun with a "soft launch" of U.S. special operations raids to kill or capture suspected Taliban leaders, answered by Taliban assassinations of police officials and a string of suicide bombings. In June, about 10,000 fresh U.S. troops will arrive, part of President Obama's Afghan surge of 30,000, to launch major operations in the province...
More at The Los Angeles Times.
Comments
"Strategists on the staff of Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of Western forces in Afghanistan, said they believe the Taliban is already running low on money, ammunition and confidence."
Any guesses as to who in their right mind would describe the Taliban in Kandahar that way? And since when is Kandahar the campaign that will break the back of the Taliban? I thought that was in Marjeh earlier this year?