Little progress so far in southern Afghanistan

A soldier walks through a wheat field while patrolling with A Troop, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment of the 5th Stryker Brigade, on April 27 in the Maiwand District of Kandahar province.


Little progress so far in southern Afghanistan
By Anne Flaherty and Anne Gearan - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Apr 27, 2010 20:14:01 EDT

WASHINGTON — The American-led effort to gain control of southern Afghanistan is off to a slow start and the political clock is ticking as U.S. troops head into what could be the bloodiest fight yet in the eight-year war.

The U.S. and its NATO allies last week set a goal of starting to transfer control of Afghanistan to the central government by the end of the year, and President Obama has said U.S. troops must start leaving in 2011.

But the slow pace of progress makes it less likely Obama can meet these tight deadlines, and it’s not clear if he can buy more time: He has struggled to persuade Congress to commit troops based on the current schedule.

The expanded U.S. campaign began in late winter in the small farming hamlets of Marjah, in Helmand province, and has advanced more slowly than expected, officials said.

Now U.S. and NATO troops face a much more formidable task: securing Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and the area from which al-Qaida planned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Military Industrial Complex has made great progress in transferring our national wealth, our individual wealth from your pockets to theirs. Of course this has left the rest of us here at home to struggle to provide for the basics of life, to pursue our American dream with fewer and fewer resources amidst the ruins of a society and economy that is in serious decay.

But hey, the rich are getting theirs. Progress! Hope! Change!

Maybe not, there is almost more $$$$ to be made.

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