Taliban fighters have overrun a second district in western Afghanistan, a district governor said Friday, warning the rebels could be planning to sweep into his own area.
The police and administration heads of the strategic Bakwa district in Farah province had fled after days of attacks by scores of rebels, the official said, after the militants late Monday took the adjacent Gulistan district.
Taliban insurgents have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan, including Bakwa, but are easily ejected by the international militaries here to aid the country's own weak security forces.
Sure they can eject the Taliban, but they can't keep them out. More importantly, the Taliban is in too many places for the international forces to keep up with. This is just another incident that proves once again we are not committing enough forces to get the job done.
A proposal has been put forth by Marine commanders in Iraq to redeploy Marine forces from Iraq to Afghanistan. Apparently it would be about 11,000 men, the entire Marine force dedicated to Anbar province. It's not a bad idea as long as we're not expecting those troops to be replaced. We already know our forces are overextended (the Army especially, and they're they ones who'd have to make up the difference). As long as the Marines are truly ready for it, I say fine. Of course, it'll take them a few months to redeploy no matter how you slice it, so we can't get them in there that quickly, but unless we have other troops to deploy immediately there's no loss in that.
UPDATE:A suicide attack has reportedly left 100 dead in in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, in one of the deadliest attacks since the Taliban was toppled in 2001. Taliban militants also seized another district in Farah province, in Western Afghanistan.
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