I've been worried for a couple months that we've called off the offensive in Regional Command East, which was supposed to be the last time we'd knock down the enemy before turning over responsibility to the Afghans for fighting the enemy we reduced.
We will go on offensive in Regional Command East after all:
The Taliban made their intentions clear over the weekend, mounting spectacular coordinated attacks that spawned an 18-hour battle with Afghan and NATO forces. And now, the U.S. is gearing up for what may be the last major American-run offensive of the war — a bid to secure the approaches to the city. ...
The U.S.-led spring offensive, expected to begin in the coming weeks, may be NATO's last chance to shore up Kabul's defenses before a significant withdrawal of combat troops limits its options. The focus will be regions that control the main access routes, roads and highways into Kabul from the desert south and the mountainous east. These routes are used not only by militants but by traders carrying goods from Pakistan and Iran.
The strategy in eastern Afghanistan involves clearing militants from provinces such as Ghazni, just south of the capital. The pivotal region links Kabul with the Taliban homeland in the south and provinces bordering Pakistan to the east.
NATO, under U.S. command, will also conduct more operations in eastern provinces such as Paktika and Paktia that are considered major infiltration routes to the capital from insurgent safe havens in Pakistan.
The Obama administration has not told the military to make casualty avoidance the prime goal this year. Good. The president may want us out, but he hasn't reined in the military in trying to win in Afghanistan.
In a way it will be tough on our troops. It is hard to know you might die in the last offensive. But at least they know we are trying to win and their deaths aren't for nothing at this point.
Good hunting. And thank you to all of our troops out there.
UPDATE: I'd feel better about the offensive if it wasn't so obviously our "final offensive" regardless of the outcome:
NATO allies insisted they are not pulling the plug early on the Afghanistan war as top military and diplomatic officials from the U.S. and NATO allies met Wednesday. The allies are finalizing a plan to shift primary responsibility for combat to Afghan forces and firming up a strategy for world support to the weak Afghan government and fledgling military after 2014.
Yes, it is standard operating procedure in defeating insurgents to turn over responsibility to local forces as soon as they can handle the job in order to get our own forces out. But telegraphing our handover to our enemies can't be good. Especially when so many here are eager to portray the handover as something we are doing to avoid our inevitable defeat.
The reality is that we are beating the Taliban. Their "spring offensive" was a joke that Afghan forces easily handled. We really are good at defeating insurgents--even in Vietnam contrary to the myth our left wing peddles. Really, the idea that Iraq was a fiasco until we amazingly gambled our way to battlefield victory is ludicrous. And Afghanistan is a violent place rather than being a violently anti-American place where we can't even trust our allies.
We can turn over the war to Afghans. Yet you'd think that we of all people would be better at marketing this shift as something on the road to victory rather than to defeat. Maybe the military will have luck lobbying for a gradual transfer of responsibility rather than the hard deadline the Obama administration would prefer.
