The Taliban's growing strength, which surprised Dutch forces here, helps explain why NATO members are reluctant to send more troops to an increasingly dangerous battlefield and have instead adopted a strategy based less on military force.
Growing strength? Well, the enemy is using more car bombs and such, but that just kills civilians which alienates Afghang. And enemy casualties are an order of magnitude higher than ours. Their "offensives" are really just spasms of activity that give us more targets to shoot at and kill. Major General David Rodriguez explains the annual enemy spasms:
There's always an increase in activity, but again, I would not characterize that as an offensive. And we're expecting the same type of things that they did this year. They will try to attack the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government leadership, by both IEDs and suicide -- vehicle-borne IEDs as well as suicide bombers.
And we think they're going to continue to do that.
And again in most of the places that they have occurred in Regional Command East, the people have stood up to them. And it is not a popular tactic at all. It actually increases the people's support to their government, and the lack of support to the enemy.
Get a grip, people. Talk of us losing in Afghanistan has been going on since about Tora Bora in 2001. We aren't being beaten by those jihadi thugs. Just because our enemies work themselves up into suicidal frenzies, we shouldn't panic. Calmly aim and kill them.
What is suprising is that members of a military alliance are reluctant to fight in Afghanistan. Some of them send their troops to Afghanistan with great gnashing of teeth and we are supposed to be grateful for these war tourists who only eat up supplies at the end of a long logistical line?
I certainly don't mean to slam the Dutch by quoting their experience. The Dutch actually fight with us. But the point remains. Enemies fight back. That's why it is a "war." Why should those facts be surprising?
UPDATE: Strategypage describes the failed strategy that the enemy is adopting in Afghanistan that some here interpret as signifying a "resurgent" Taliban.
