US, NATO on the Defensive in Eastern Afghanistan?

The title of the AFP article is "US, NATO on the Defensive in Afghanistan". I believe this is misleading. There have been many developments in Afghanistan and surrounding areas in the past year.

Number one is the fact that the Pakistani government has signed peace deals with terrorists in the regions neighbouring Afghanistan. This has expectedly lead to terrorist safe-havens where the taliban and al Qaida are able to regroup.

Number two is NATO, the US and the Afghani National Army have beefed up their presence in eastern Afghanistan.

Adding more troops to the area will naturally lead to more fighting. AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Insurgent attacks have put US and NATO forces on the defensive in eastern Afghanistan, an area recently touted as a counter-insurgency success but now a focus of spreading insecurity, analysts say.

In the latest attack, at least nine US soldiers were killed Sunday when insurgents stormed a remote combat outpost in Kunar province near Pakistan.

It was the deadliest attack against US forces since 2005, but it followed a trend of bolder and more capable insurgent operations as Pakistan's new government has taken a hands-off approach to militant sanctuaries in its tribal areas.

....

"It's very serious because NATO is already under a lot of pressure," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer now at the Brookings Institution.

"There used to be one deteriorating front, the front in the south. Now that we see the situation in the east is heating up too, it really stretches NATO and American resources very far," he said.

Increasingly concerned about the rising violence, the Pentagon has begun shifting the weight of its combat operations to Afghanistan but within constraints on available forces imposed by the war in Iraq.

It has repositioned an aircraft carrier from the Gulf to the Arabian Sea to support military operations in Afghanistan, extended the deployment of 2,200 Marines in the south and is weighing deeper troop cuts in Iraq to free up more soldiers.

Currently there are 36,000 US troops in Afghanistan, and 150,000 in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meanwhile made an unannounced visit to Islamabad over the weekend to urge the Pakistan military to do more to stem the flow of insurgents into Afghanistan.

"Part of the effort here is not just militarily in Afghanistan, but it's working with our Pakistan colleagues, and the Pakistani government in addressing the situation on the Pakistan side of the border," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

But Pakistan has shown little willingness to get tough on insurgents.

And that is the whole problem. The taliban will never be defeated unless we attack their home base. Imagine the allies not attacking the NAZIs in Germany back in WWII but just focussing on surrounding countries. The NAZIs would probably still be in power.