It is was predictable. Afghanistan had been ignored for years. Now the situation has worsened dramatically. A two front war could not be sustained. That was the mistake we made in Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia. It didn't work then it won't work now. This is mess that will eventually mean troops in Pakistan. The Bush administration is inattentive. They busy trying to start a war with Iran.
Taliban insurgents carried out a bold assault on a remote base near the border with Pakistan on Sunday, NATO reported, and a senior American military official said nine American soldiers were killed.
The attack, the worst against Americans in Afghanistan in three years, illustrated the growing threat of Taliban militants and their associates, who in recent months have made Afghanistan a far deadlier war zone for American-led forces than Iraq.
[...] The militants have since regained strength in the tribal areas of Pakistan, which they have often used as a base for raids into Afghanistan, an increasingly sore point for the American and Afghan governments.
The new American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan emphasized that issue on Sunday in an interview that took place before details of the Kunar attack were disclosed, asserting that the militants were not only entering Afghan territory but also firing at targets from the Pakistan side.
“It all goes back to the problem set that there are sanctuaries in the tribal areas that militant insurgent groups are able to operate from with impunity,” said the commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, who took over the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in June.
The quagmire will extend into the next administration. Mr.Obama will get us into the mess deeper because he needs to prove something and keep his promises made during the campaign. He lacks the expertise to get us out. He needs some advisers or running mate who really understands what is going on and won't play political games.
Senator Barack Obama is proposing that the United States deploy about 10,000 more troops to battle resurgent forces in Afghanistan, a plan intended to shift the American military focus from the Iraq war to the marked rise in violence from the Taliban.
“As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, wrote in an Op-Ed article published on Monday in The New York Times. “We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.”
Mr. Obama, who is among those who maintain that Afghanistan has been neglected because of the administration’s Iraq policy, has not previously offered such a specific plan for how to strengthen troop levels in Afghanistan. His proposal comes as he prepares to visit American commanders to assess progress in Iraq and needs in Afghanistan.
You need further proof that Obama is attempting to establish his foreign policy bona fide:
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama will be visiting the Palestinian Authority president in the West Bank next week, a Palestinian government official said Monday.
Obama will be meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on July 23, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
Obama is expected to visit Israel, but officials could not yet confirm what his plans are there. Erakat was in Paris, France, where Abbas had been attending a summit.
This visit would be a dangerous and unnecessary stunt. It gives an opportunity for the extremists to assassinate him.
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