A ‘Mini Surge’ in Afghanistan

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A ‘Mini Surge’ in Afghanistan

army.mil

When enough isn’t enough: 2,300 U.S. troops were added to the occupation forces in Afghanistan this month.

Pouncing on the rhetorical success of the U.S. “surge” in Iraq, the U.S. military launched operations Tuesday in the south of Afghanistan as part of a “mini surge” against strongholds of Taliban fighters. The Marines who conducted the operation are part of a 2,300-strong reserve force under the control of the U.S. commander of international troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan McNeill.

The Guardian:

A strike force of US marines punched through Taliban frontlines in southern Helmand yesterday as part of an Afghan “mini surge” intended to weaken the insurgents’ grip on the war-ravaged south.

The marine force, numbered in the hundreds, exchanged fire with Taliban fighters as they pushed through Garmser, a town abandoned by its inhabitants in recent years and ringed by poppy fields.

The American soldiers are the core of a new 2,300-strong reserve force under the control of the US commander of international troops in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill. The Helmand mission aims to disrupt drugs and smuggling routes into nearby Pakistan.

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By C Quil, May 1, 2008 at 9:03 am Link to this comment

After the astounding success of the surge in Iraq, you’ll excuse me if I don’t get all excited about this. Like Iraq, if Afghanistan weren’t sitting on minerals and gemstones and surrounded by countries with huge amounts of oil and gas, and may even have incredible amounts itself, would anybody be there? Another disaster in the making. The Canadians and the Brits are more than a little wary of the “Americanization” of the Afghanistan occupation.

U.S. brings Iraq-like surge to Afghan conflict

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080429.wafghanisland29/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

What’s coming after this - the plastic surge, the cosmetic surge, the elective surge?

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By Travis, April 30, 2008 at 7:11 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I maybe totally wrong but my understanding is that this “mini-surge” is not USA’s idea. It was in fact Canada, who has been holding the burden of southern Afghanistan for a while, who stated that they were going to pull out of Afghanistan if NATO did not send more troops. And the only country that could expense more troops was USA. Just wanted to add that.

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By jackpine savage, April 30, 2008 at 3:09 pm Link to this comment

Has anyone ever defeated the Afghans? Ok, Alexander the Great did…but i don’t see any Alexanders on the march these days.

So surge on, the Afghans will out wait us and bleed us slowly. They’ll fall back, they’ll take some loses, they’ll break off fighting for the winter…but they’ll be there long after we give up and go home. They certainly have not dread fear of superpowers (even if there isn’t one financing them this time).

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