Afghanistan, Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

The more I hear about how much progress is being made in Afghanistan, the more concerned I become about the long-term prospects for success. So I’m looking forward to getting some firsthand insights from my partners at military​.com, who are heading to Afghanistan for a clear-eyed assessment of what’s really happening.

Military.com’s Christian Lowe and Ward Carroll are packing their gear now, and we’ll be hearing from them soon.

Meanwhile I’m heading over to a the National Press Club tomorrow (Friday) afternoon for an event hosted by Politics Daily, on the occasion on it’s first birthday. Columnists David Corn and Peter Wehner will engage what being billed as a “civilogue” (which I assume is a portmanteau of sorts for “civilized dialog”) on “Afghanistan: Where Do We Go From Here?”, moderated by veteran military writer David Wood. I’ll be interested to hear if there are any new ideas, that I haven’t already heard in the past few years of debate.

Here’s the key passage from the Pentagon’s latest unclassified progress report to Congress, just released, which covers October 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010:

” The continuing decline in stability in Afghanistan, described in the last report, has leveled off in many areas over the last three months of this reporting period. While the overall trend of violence throughout the country increased over the same period a year ago, much of this can be ascribed to increased International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) activity. Polls consistently illustrate that Afghans see security as improved from a year ago. At the same time violence is sharply above the seasonal average for the previous year – an 87% increase from February 2009 to March 2010.”

The good news — I suppose — is that the bad news isn’t worse.

Tags: Afghanistan, Politics Daily