Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed dozens of Taliban fighters in the south of the country after an ambush by a large group of insurgents, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
Despite the high casualty rates among Taliban rebels whenever they clash directly with Afghan and foreign troops, the insurgency shows no sign of abating, but instead has spread from the south and east to areas previously considered safe.
They die like this because they are tribal warriors and not real guerrilla fighters. They know scream and leap tactics, pretty much. That's the good news.
The problem is, there are plenty of young men in Pakistan to recruit and send across the border even though a large percentage never come home again on this one-way ticket to paradise. Without this sanctuary, the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan would be nuisances.
Worse, even enemy deaths at high rates threaten the will of shakier NATO allies like Germany, since they are viewed as some nebulous "violence" we can't suppress.
And even here, I imagine that the Left will protest Afghanistan as much as they protest Iraq once Iraq settled down. Watch for the tipping point when Afghanistan casualties in a month exceed our Iraq casualties because Iraq calms.
Eventually, assuming Pakistan doesn't shut down the frontier sanctuaries, solving the problem will have to rely on local Afghan political and military strength to deny local support.
Until then, we should continue to send the jihadis to their paradise.
