Within a couple of months the Taliban and their allies are expected to launch their Spring Offensive. By all accounts this year's offensive is supposed to be the biggest ever since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001.
It has been reported that this year the Taliban will be showing up with its own coalition of the willing which may see mujahideen from the north, some warlords and the drug lords joining the Taliban to give NATO fits and to drive the already shakey Karzai administration out of power.
NATO is bracing for the big event, even hobbling together a Fast Reaction Force designed to quickly reinforce any area in danger of being overrun.
We tend to forget that for a country as large, in size and population, as Afghanistan, NATO forces are stretched thin on the ground. If the Taliban come with the expected force, they'll have their hands full holding on to the areas they still control and defending Kabul.
The Guardian reports that the Americans will be making quite an extraordinary request at today's NATO conference in Spain. Apparently they'll be asking NATO to undertake its own Spring Offensive, I guess to somehow pre-empt the bad guys.
It might not be a bad idea if you had your own territory under control and if you had enough surplus troops and equipment and support to mass the sort of force needed to go on the offensive without leaving yourself exposed and vulnerable behind the offensive. But NATO doesn't have its own territories under control nor does it have surplus troops and equipment to mount this sort of offensive.
Given the mess the Americans have made just two countries over, we should be really skeptical about embracing any US adventures in Afghanistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment