Strategypage writes of the enemy offensive in this year's campaign season:
The Taliban Summer Offensive actually turned out to be larger than last years, but was much less effective. Nearly 3,000 people died, about 20 percent more than last year and, as with last year, most of them Taliban fighters. But over 500 of the dead were civilians, most the victims of Taliban terrorism. Unlike last year, there were far fewer civilians actively assisting the Taliban. This year, the big players were the drug gangs, and tribal groups that are heavily into the heroin trade. They have the money the Taliban lack, and pay for the thousands of Taliban gunmen let loose to defend the drug producing areas around Kandahar. This city has long been the capital of "Talibanstan", mainly because it is in the midst of the area where the most pro-Taliban Pushtun tribes reside.
So I was wrong in that the enemy did manage a bigger offensive. But right in that we were better prepared to hammer the enemy again. It was a bigger fizzle but still a fizzle.
And right in the sense that the Taliban needed a new sponsor--the drug barons--to achieve this larger but less effective effort.
Another reminder that war is not static. Combatants adapt. Luckily, the enemy adaptation did not allow them to advance their objectives. And another year passes with the Afghan government strengthening itself.
