James Mattis at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan on March 14.
Breaking Defense: The Great Afghan Paradox
By most metrics the war in Afghanistan is going badly.
By most metrics the war in Afghanistan is going badly. According to the most recent quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the troop strength of Afghan Security Forces is in “sharp decline” even as the Taliban are on the march throughout the countryside.
The number of “security incidents” is similarly on the rise, to include a series of recent suicide bombings in Kabul, including one in late April attributed to Daesh (aka the Islamic State) that targeted and killed nine journalists and four police officers. Opium production skyrocketed by nearly 90 percent in 2017, and the Afghan government continues to rate near the bottom on Transparency International’s “Corruption Perception Index.” The publication Long War Journal, which tracks the conflict, recently estimated that the Taliban now “controls or contests” 58.5 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts, a high-water mark for the Islamist extremist group.
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WNU Editor: The difference now is that we are seeing Afghans slaughtering Afghans .... and on an unprecedented scale. And while U.S. and coalition casualties have been incredibly low .... I do not know how long will this last before heavy Afghan losses result in a decision to pull-out and let the Afghans sort this mess by themselves .... or to increase the U.S. military presence in the country and to escalate even further the war against the Taliban.
