Afghanistan? That's still going on?

Many times on this blog I have mentioned that Afghanistan is both a place and a conflict that I do not understand, primarily because I have avoided trying to understand it. My attention has been focused on Iraq these past several years primarily because I knew Iraq was where I was going to deploy to. My thoughts on Afghanistan have swayed from, "it's kind of bad there but not as bad as Iraq" up to my more recent thoughts of "holy crap Batman, things are getting bad there, I'm glad I'm in Iraq."

I do know a few things about Afghanistan: it's a tribal society run by warlords; they despise central government and foreign power influence; it doesn't matter if you control Kabul; Kandahar is key.

The city of Kandahar and the province are the spiritual home of the Taliban due to that organization's beginnings in Kandahar. Control Kandahar, and gain the trust and cooperation of the people there, and you are a big step closer to keeping Afghanistan under control...or something like that.

According to Carlotta Gall from the NY Times, coalition forces have had a lot of recent success in the Kandahar Province and have taken the initiative away from the Taliban. Military officials, like usual for counterinsurgency, are being cautiously optimistic. However, it appears the tide may be going our way in that area which means much of Afghanistan may follow. Part of the success, according to the article is the combined civil and military effort; the highly accurate HIMARS rocket system.

Hi! I'm here to welcome you to a world of hurt!

There's certainly a long way to go in Afghanistan and even if the Taliban are defeated in Kandahar, they may easily slip back in after a drawdown of forces. I remain, like many of my military comrades, cautiously optimistic. Perhaps we will actually be able to leave Afghanistan with a little bit of dignity.