By Steve Hynd
Saint General David Petraeus is keeping up the happy talk while warning of more Afghan violence to come.
"There's been considerable progress in taking away from the Taliban safe havens," Gen. David Petraeus said in an interview with NATO TV aired on Wednesday.
"They have to fight back, they're losing momentum that's quite clear," he said. "They know they need to regain that momentum."
...Petraeus said intelligence reports indicate that Taliban leaders are worried by the situation and that there is "friction and discord" between the guerrillas in the field and their leadership in Pakistan.
Why the U.S. military should be concerning itself with Taliban safe havens, rather than Al Qaeda ones, is anyone's guess - unless they plan to keep the war going. "Petraeus said intelligence reports indicate that Taliban leaders are worried by the situation and that there is 'friction and discord' between the guerrillas in the field and their leadership in Pakistan". The Sainted General thinks that is a good thing. Others, experts living in Afghanistan and who study Afghanistan for a living, beg to difffer. They say the US military is "choosing to get the war fundamentally wrong" and that "friction and discord" between new, more militant commanders and the old-school Taliban leadership is actually prolonging the war by making negotiations for peace less likely to succeed.
The kicker line is that Petraus expects this year to see an escalation of violence - just as every year since 2002 has seen an escalation of violence, more deaths, more casualties and more $billions wasted. The military wants us to believe that this is a sign of "success".
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