September 3, 2006
IF THEY FIGHT THEY DIE:
Dozens of insurgents reported dead (AP, 9/03/06)
NATO says dozens of Afghan insurgents have been killed in an operation by Afghan and NATO forces against Taliban fighters.Posted by Orrin Judd at September 3, 2006 6:05 AMOfficials say the goal was to clear out those fighters from an area near the main southern city of Kandahar.
An Afghan defense official cites intelligence reports as saying 89 suspected Taliban militants died during two days of fighting.
That explains their strategy of hiding and issuing communiques declaring imminent victory.
Posted by: Brandon at September 3, 2006 2:06 PMAnother report said over 200 fighters were killed.
NATO should start targeting the warlords. Get Heykmatyr tonight.
Posted by: jim hamlen at September 4, 2006 10:24 AMUnfortunately, body counts are not a good way to see if you are winning. In the end, ground has to be held, the locals loyalty won to the central government, and the enemy's leadership killed. What's the context of this engagement? What have we achieved by it?
Afghanistan is so screwed up I would not expect every hill or valley be won, but there are better metrics than how many have been killed to determine if we're closer to victory.
Posted by: Chris Durnell at September 5, 2006 2:17 PMAfghanistan is inherently ungovernable--we're just there to kill Charlie.
Posted by: oj at September 5, 2006 2:21 PM