Since Friday, over the last four days, twenty-two U.S. troops have
died in Afghanistan after an additional five died on Tuesday. The Pashtun south and east have seen the majority of the fighting. With parliamentary elections slated for September 18th, one might have legit reason to suspect more clearing operations to take place in Kandahar surrounding Kandahar City.
Tonight, President of the United States Barack Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office about the situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The last of the U.S. "surge troops" have arrived in Afghanistan. You can expect them to be kept busy. But can they lift Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government from the trash bin? Probably not. The Afghan President continues to appear more interested in protecting himself and his corrupt cronies than in protecting his country and its future.
Unconventional NATO forces continue to hammer away at the insurgency in the form of raids that are frequent and often-successful. Some of the numbers and reports suggest that over 10% of the estimated-Taliban have been captured or killed in the past few months, including a large number of low-to-mid leaders of the movement. Many of the high-level leaders are, of course, in Pakistan- not Afghanistan. The future of the insurgency, like the future of Afghanistan as a whole, remains very murky.
After nearly a decade of warfare, we still owe it to watch the President's address if only to say that "yes, we are still paying attention".