U.S. troops battle to hand off a valley resistant to Afghan governance

Some truth finally from the battlefield.  An infantry battalion commander concludes that his task force is “locked in an endless war for an irrelevant valley.”   Ask any Soldier and Marine that has served in the Pech Valley, Kunar Province since 2005 and they will tell you the same thing.

It’s about time commanders are finally telling it like it is.  “There is nothing strategically important about this terrain…we fight here because the enemy is here. The enemy fights here because we are here.”

“The best thing we can do is to pull back,” he said, “and let the Afghans figure this place out.”

Go figure, the truth.

Taliban Fighters Appear Blunted in Afghanistan

I wouldn’t put much stock into the fact that the Haqqani network “appears blunted” because they have failed to conduct a large-scale operation in Kabul proper in over seven months.  Haqqani has joined forces with Mullah Omar (Quetta Shura) and Hekmaktyr and continues to direct assaults into eastern Afghanistan.  Haqqani is a wily foe who can strike at will in Afghanistan, to assess otherwise is a grave mistake.

Afghanistan to look into missing medicine

It’s called endemic corruption – to the victor goes the spoils…

Key Highlights:

• The Afghanistan Defense Ministry said Sunday it will investigate missing U.S.-donated medicines and pharmaceutical supplies meant for its army and police. A statement said that the ministry will assess and investigate how much is missing from the $42 million worth of medical goods the U.S. has donated this year.
• The statement came after Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press last week that an investigation had been launched into the issue, and that Surgeon General Ahmad Zia Yaftali had been removed from his post as part of the inquiry. Three officials from the country’s top medical facility, Dawood National Military Hospital in Kabul, were fired, he said then.
• It’s unclear just how much has disappeared from the medical goods the U.S. has donated this year.
• U.S. officials say they do not account for the supplies after delivering them to the Afghans.