I just posted last week at the American Thinker that the increase of violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan is not a resurgence but desperation on the part of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Somebody agrees with me.
WASHINGTON: A new study says that despite continued violence, the threat in Afghanistan has not increased to the point where it can challenge NATO forces in open combat, given major US gains in striking at the leadership of hostile Islamist movements and the Taliban in the south of the country.
The assessment by Anthony H Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is based on a visit he made to Afghanistan in late January this year. However, violence in the area is rising and the more traditional Taliban structure under Mullah Omar in the south remains a major problem.
The mix of Taliban and other Islamist elements in the east became far more sophisticated and cooperative in 2007. Al Qaeda’s influence over the Afghan groups has increased, and the combined role of Al Qaeda and the emerging Pakistani Taliban has sharply increased in influence and in the territory over which the latter have de facto control.
Note to trolls. Please note that the CSIS acknowledges problems, as do I, but the point is that they do not yet rise to the level of threatening the Afghan government.
On a side note: countdown until this article turns up on another blog with no H/T to here begins now.
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