"What's happening in Marjah is that the U.S. military and NATO went into one of the most difficult areas of the country, one of the bellies of the insurgency, displaced the Taliban and settled in. The people are pleased with this. This was an area called 'Little America' in the Kennedy and Johnson era. They remember the Americans. We came in with agricultural support and seed. And we broke up big drug bazaars. So a tremendous amount of gain occurred immediately.”
“Marjah was not postponed. It's simply that the transfer of security authority from the Marines to the Afghans is going slower than some of the more optimistic projections at the outset. This doesn't surprise me. As a general rule in Afghanistan, things go slower than are expected."
- Richard Holbrooke, US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, telling CNN's Fareed Zakaria that six months after Operation Moshtarak began is too soon to gauge Marjah’s success.
Remember this when July 2011 comes and goes.
IMO they will now escalate. Pakistan will be under the gun now even more.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your thought on Zakaria.