Losing ground in Afghanistan

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: July 1, 2008

As progress is made on the security front in Iraq, coalition forces are losing ground in Afghanistan—and with deadly results. From the Associated Press:

Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban’s growing strength.

The fundamentalist militia in June staged a sophisticated jailbreak that freed 886 prisoners—

Let’s stop right there. A militia was able to free 886 prisoners? What kind of prison was this, a tent city? Or is that “fundamentalist militia” organized, trained and equipped well enough to wage a successful assault of that magnitude on a

secure

supposedly secure building?

—then briefly infiltrated a strategic valley outside Kandahar. Last week, a Pentagon report forecast the Taliban would maintain or increase its pace of attacks, which are already up 40 percent this year from 2007 where U.S. troops operate along the Pakistan border.

Some observers say the insurgency has gained dangerous momentum ...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted that more international troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May, the first time that had happened. While that trend - now two months old - is in part due to falling violence in Iraq, it also reflects rising violence in Afghanistan.

As for the casualties, at least 27 U.S. soliders and 13 coalition soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, while 29 U.S. soliders and two coalition soldiers were killed in Iraq in June. That makes last month “the deadliest month since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban,“ according to the AP—this despite the fact that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan—about 32,500—is a fraction of the number of those in Iraq (about 144,000).

Are we headed for another surge—this time, in Afghanistan?

Barack Obama has argued that the Bush Administration’s attention to the War in Iraq has caused it to lose sight of the war against the Taliban.

These numbers bolster his argument.