"No More Acceptable Civilian Casualties In Afghanistan"

Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops moved into Taliban-infested villages of southern Afghanistan with armor and helicopters Thursday in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country.

The offensive in the once-forgotten war was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the southern part of the country and the world's largest opium poppy producing area.

The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested Helmand River Valley before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election.

Dubbed Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," the military push was described by officials as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase, involving nearly 4,000 of the newly arrived Marines and 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to fight and clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces.

"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement. (Read Full Article)

Beginning Thursday, American soldiers in Afghanistan will be under orders to back down when they're chasing Taliban fighters whenever they think that civilians might be at risk.

Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, will issue the directive as part of an effort to cut down on civilian casualties, which have enraged the Afghan government and residents. Instead of calling in air support or firing into civilian homes where Taliban fighters have sought refuge, commanders will be instructed to reach out to tribal elders or undertake other efforts to dislodge the fighters.

The order is consistent with what National Security Adviser James L. Jones told McClatchy in Washington Wednesday was President Barack Obama's concern about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

"General McChrystal has been given instructions when he left here that, in all military operations, that we redouble our efforts to make sure that innocent loss of life is minimized, with zero being the goal," Jones said, noting that, "In one mishap you can create thousands more terrorists than you had before the mishap."

Civilian casualties have become a major source of tension between Afghans and U.S. and other coalition forces here. Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks out frequently against coalition forces and their use of airstrikes on campaign stops as he seeks re-election, and earlier this year, the parliament passed a resolution condemning the use of airstrikes.

Military officials, however, said that the Taliban already exploit the way the U.S. has been fighting and purposely flee to villages in anticipation that coalition actions will lead to civilian casualties, exacerbating tensions between the coalition and the civilians. (Read Full  Article)

More than 80 percent of Pakistanis view the Taliban and al-Qaida as a critical threat to the country, an opinion poll released Wednesday said, marking a turn in public opinion that stands to bolster the army's ongoing offensive against militants close to the Afghan border.

The findings will likely be welcomed by Washington, which is pressing Islamabad to take the fight to insurgents blamed for scores of bloody bombings in nuclear-armed Pakistan in recent years as well as attacks on NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.

The army has been battling militants in the Swat Valley in the country's northwest since April, a campaign that has driven some 2 million civilians from their homes. In recent weeks, it has made initial forays into the mountainous tribal region of South Waziristan, where top Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.

The survey showed that 81 percent of Pakistanis believe the activities of the Taliban and other Muslim extremists were a "critical threat" to the country, up from the 34 percent polled on the same question in September 2007. Eighty-two percent said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida was also a critical threat, exactly twice as many who thought so two years ago. (Read Full Article)

    America has finally learned how to conduct a war against terrorists that use civilians as shields. Civilian casualties play into the hands of the terrorists. When American forces kill civilians , the battle may be won but the war for the hearts of the people is lost. Because the Taliban has now adopted the terrorist tactics of al-qaeda in targeting innocent civilians, the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan are turning against them. American and Pakistani forces must fight a war against the Taliban with the strict rules of engagement the Obama Administration is now calling for. Afghanistan is now a war that America can really win for democracy and the well being of the Afghan people, with the present strategy, as I see it.

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