Progress in Afghanistan

Sgt. 1st Class Jared Christopher Monti
Age: 30
Hometown: Raynham, Mass.
Died: Thursday, June 22, 2006

Jared C. Monti seemed to always put the needs of others before his own.
While serving in South Korea, he was swept down a river after testing a crossing to make sure it was safe. In Kosovo, he picked up a group of Albanian kids who were being harassed by Serbs and drove them to school. He never went home for Christmas or Thanksgiving because he wanted the married guys to be with their families.
"We use to send him care packages, and he would give them to all the kids," said his brother, Tim. "He carried candy around in his pocket for them, and he would tell us how he would give kids rides in the Humvee because they were scared to walk across town."
Monti, 30, of Raynham, Mass., was killed June 21 by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Gowardesh. He was assigned to Fort Drum.
He joined the Army immediately after he graduated high school in 1994 to make enough money to go to college. He wanted to be a fifth-grade teacher.
He is survived by his parents, Paul and Janet.
"He was just a kid that liked people and did a lot of things quietly. He was a very humble boy," said his father.

August was the worst month so far in Afghanistan for coalition fatalities - 77 (72 from hostile action), total coalition fatalities now since the 2001 invasion: 1409.
http://www.icasualties.org/OEF/ByMonth.aspx

Also I had thought most of the fighting was occurring along the eastern border provinces, or in Kandahar, when by far the largest share of fatalities is the in southern province of Helmand with 301 fatalities. Edit: Since the US launched a major offensive in Helmand in July to take back some areas/towns from the Taliban before the August election, its likely many of these Helmand fatalities were recent and from the US Marines, who staged the Helmand offensive.

It should hardly come as a shock to anyone who has been following the debate on Afghanistan strategy, but after six hours of debate among senior national security advisers, the administration seems well on its way to what the Los Angeles Times calls a "subtle shift" in strategy. Al-Qaida has, of course, been considered an enemy all along. But whereas the Taliban used to be seen as a close ally that supported the enemy's ambitions, now the White House is taking great effort to make sure the public understands they're not one and the same. The Taliban are seen more as a local group that could eventually become like Hezbollah — a terrorist organization that is a political force and causes instability in the region but is not a threat to the United States. The new strategy would weaken the Taliban, leaving them unable to take over the government or give safe haven to al-Qaida, without destroying them. As the Wall Street Journal points out, changing the focus of the war could give the White House the justification it needs to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan either by a small number or not at all—no one is advocating a troop decrease—while still ostensibly following Gen. Stanely McChrystal's advice. It was revealed yesterday that McChrystal's request to Obama for additional troops included an option of adding more than 60,000 troops. This is news because, so far, 40,000 was always talked about as the highest figure. Now it seems 40,000 additional troops is the middle of three options, and is seen as the primary choice of senior military officers. Obama will discuss the specific numbers with his advisers for the first time today. The LAT says Obama is "at least a week away" from making any kind of decision.

...And if that is not a concern then think about this
The IED: Weapon of Choice - washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092601410.html

How long before IED's are used in US metropolitan areas?

This last bit is not coherent. Look at why IED's are used in Afghanistan, and what's required to make them.

It's based on a comment made by one of the people in the video.

Materials to make IEDs are readily available in the US or can be brought in via any of the illicit smuggling/trafficking operations.

Yes by the WaPo reporter, who just says 'many people' say we'll see them here. That's a silly comment imo

No the 'materials' are not readily available here, the important material being the explosives, not the triggering device. The number one source for IED explosives in Iraq is artillery ordinance, which is widely available there. In the US (and I expect elsewhere), explosives are extremely tightly controlled since 911 including the base materials.

One can easily purchase materials on the 'global black market' in Central Asia, Africa, S. America, . . . . and given the illicit substances that are readily available on the streets of most metropolitan and suburban areas in the US - it's not as hard as one would imagine.

Actually, explosive materials have been under stricture control since 1995 and Timothy McVeigh's bombing in Oklahoma April 19, 1995, which is interesting given the bombing at the WTC on February 26, 1993.

I would also recommend reading Steve Coll's Ghost Wars.

What do you mean? That US residents can easily buy explosives on the black market overseas and get them into the US?

Transportation hubs now commonly have electronic explosives detectors,

Since the 2002 Safe Explosives Act Yousef's fertilizer truck bomb is going to be quite a bit harder to repeat.

Even so, I doubt fertilizer is very suitable for man powerful portable explosives. An individual would do much more damage w/ a firearm I expect.

The IRA never seemed to have much trouble moving them in the other direction - and security in Northern Ireland went a lot further than taking nail clippers off you at the airport....

... Best source for an IED is military explosives/munitions. You would need a country with many 1000s of military bases in remote areas with many miles of poorly guarded fences and forgotten about stores.

Last week, Laura and Gary Sklaver buried their oldest boy, Ben, who was 32 when killed by a suicide bomber in the remote village of Murcheh in the distant land of Afghanistan. Ben was a captain in the U.S. Army. Now he has become one of 804 Americans, 37 from Connecticut, to lose their lives in an expanding war that belongs mostly to the parents and families of those who serve a nation preoccupied by a wounded economy and political polarization.
. . . .
Ben Sklaver grew up drawn to service. He admired his grandfather, who served with George Patton's Army in World War II. He joined ROTC at Tufts, received a master's in international relations from the Fletcher School of Diplomacy, was commissioned as an officer in the Army Reserve in 2003 and became convinced that a world consumed with conflict and terrorism might be changed by Americans bringing clean water, medicine and food as much as by drones, missiles and military might.
. . . .

One [More] Death in Afghanistan: Ben Sklaver's Story
http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...930683,00.html

...two more casualties of a war waged by the forgotten few.