"Fragile turnaround in an enemy stronghold; Afghan district sees renewal as Marines take over" by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post | October 25, 2009
Remember, readers, the Washington Post is the CIA 's newspaper, so you are getting this straight from the agenda-pushing horse's mouth (located in the back, WaPo?)!
And PAY ATTENTION to the QUALIFIERS, okay!?
BAD WORDS for a "report," WaPo.
NAWA, Afghanistan - Before a battalion of US Marines swooped into this dusty farming community along the Helmand River in early July, almost every stall in the bazaar had been padlocked, as had the school and the health clinic. Thousands of residents had fled. Government officials and municipal services were nonexistent.
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Taliban fighters swaggered about with impunity, setting up checkpoints and seeding the roads with bombs.
Who are Taliban?
Also see: North Korea Training Terrorists
??
As for CHECKPOINTS:
Happens a LOT MORE than YOU ARE EVER TOLD, 'murkn!
In the three months since the Marines arrived, the school has reopened, the district governor is on the job, and the market is bustling. The insurgents have demonstrated far less resistance than US commanders expected. Many of the residents who left are returning home, their possessions piled onto rickety trailers, and the Marines deem the central part of the town so secure that they routinely walk around without body armor and helmets. “Nawa has returned from the dead,’’ said the district administrator, Mohammed Khan.
Then Afghanistan MUST BE GOING GREAT, huh?
Nawa provides one ground-level perspective into the debate over US force levels in Afghanistan among members of President Obama’s national security team. In this district, the war is being waged in the manner sought by General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan: The number of troops went from about 100 to 1,100, and they have been countering the insurgency by focusing on improving security for local people instead of hunting down the Taliban. The result has been a profound transformation, suggesting that after eight years of war the United States still may be able to regain momentum in some areas that had long been written off to the Taliban.
Can YOU SAT TOTAL PROPAGANDA, readers? I knew you could.
Yup, we can STILL WIN!
Tell it to THESE GUYS: Morale Dips For American Marines in Afghanistan
That gets WORSE, too: AmeriKa's Afghanistan Abortion
Insurgent attacks on civilians and NATO forces, once a near-daily fact of life here, have almost ceased in Nawa and are far less common than they were in surrounding areas, a turnabout reminiscent of what happened in Iraq last year after a sharp increase in American forces there.
Yeah, except the SURGE FAILED and the MSM is STILL LYING ABOUT IT!
And we should believe them now because.... ?
But even if Nawa remains peaceful, replicating what has occurred here may not be possible.
Wow, a DOUBLE PLOP!
And AS LONG AS there are FOREIGN OCCUPIERS there will be NO PEACE!
Achieving the same troop-to-population ratio in other insurgent strongholds across southern and eastern Afghanistan would require at least 100,000 more US or NATO troops - more than double the 40,000 being sought by McChrystal - as well as many thousands of additional Afghan security forces.
Related: Why Obama Doesn't Want to Talk About Afghanistan
You guys can't tell the truth about nuthin', can you?
Nawa also is blessed with stable social dynamics - the three principal tribes in the area largely get along - and it has a district governor whom the Marines regard as unusually competent. The Helmand River valley contains some of Afghanistan’s most fertile land, enabling reconstruction workers to improve livelihoods through agricultural assistance programs.
This is ONE REASON I NO LONGER BUY all the SECTARIAN CRAP!!! The people have LIVED TOGETHER FOR CENTURIES, INTERMARRIED, and WERE NOT BOMBING MOSQUES until WE GOT THERE!! How odd, huh?
“We have to be very careful when we say we want to use Nawa as a model,’’ said Ian Purves, a British development specialist who advises the battalion. “First off, will Nawa work as we want? And even if it does, there’s no guarantee what we’re doing here will work anywhere else.’’
The turnaround here remains fragile. Marine commanders in Nawa acknowledge that their gains could melt away if the Afghan government and security forces do not move quickly to deliver essential public services, or if US troop levels are reduced here before stability is cemented....
I'm so tired of screaming and yelling to get out right now.
It's the SAME OLD WAR PRESS so I should just ACCEPT that you will NEVER SEE WITHDRAWAL unless the MASTERS WANT IT -- just like Vietnam. It was ended NOT because of PROTESTS (conventional, agenda-pushing myth) but because it was getting TOO EXPENSIVE to CONTINUE (yes, protests were part of that, but...) and the SHADOW RULERS TURNED AGAINST IT!
McChrystal has not proclaimed Nawa a success or even cited it in discussions with White House officials as a justification for more troops, mindful that similar assertions have been made in other parts of the country only to have those areas slip back into insurgent control. But no Marine from the battalion in Nawa has been killed in combat since late August, even as US troop fatalities have spiked in other parts of Afghanistan.
After a while you really get sick of it.
McChrystal and other senior military officials in Afghanistan hope that what is happening amid the canals and cornfields in this patch of southern Afghanistan is different and can be applied elsewhere.
Yeah, corn fields "that will soon be ploughed up to plant a spring crop of opium poppy."
THAT is why we are THERE, America! To PROTECT the DRUG TRADE!
Skeptics of McChrystal’s strategy worry that the Afghan government will not move with haste to take advantage of security improvements created by the United States. The propaganda makes you ill at this stage.
Yeah, raining down bombs on them is providing security!
Despite repeated requests, the government in Kabul has not sent officials to Nawa to help on issues that matter most to local people: education, health, agriculture and rural development.
Just goes to SHOW YOU, dum-dum Amurkns, that PEOPLE ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE!!! The TALIBAN LOVE THEIR KIDS and WANT THEIR LIVES to be BETTER like ANYONE ELSE!!!
But, they dress funny, and they smell bad, and they have weird ways, and....
Pffft! I'm SICK of THAT, too!!!!!!
--more--"
