Aid groups in Afghanistan question U.S. claim of Taliban setbacks

[unhappycamper]

Commerce bustles along Bamiyan, Afghanistan's single paved thoroughfare.


Aid groups in Afghanistan question U.S. claim of Taliban setbacks
By Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, December 28, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Citing evidence that Taliban insurgents have expanded their reach across Afghanistan, aid groups and security analysts in the country are challenging as misleading the Obama administration's recent claim that insurgents now control less territory than they did a year ago.

"Absolutely, without any reservation, it is our opinion that the situation is a lot more insecure this year than it was last year," said Nic Lee, the director of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, an independent organization that analyzes security dangers for aid groups.

"We don't see COIN has had any impact on the five-year trajectory," he said, referring to the counterinsurgency strategy that U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, has championed.

While U.S.-led forces have driven insurgents out of their strongholds in southern Afghanistan, Taliban advances in the rest of the country may have offset those gains, a cross section of year-end estimates suggests.

Insurgent attacks have jumped at least 66 percent this year, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office.



unhappycamper comment: For some reason this reminds me of the last four years of the Vietnam occupation. Put on a happy face and all is well.