Afghan fighting intensifies

U.S. deaths in Afghanistan hit an all-time monthly high this week, when a roadside bomb killed four American soldiers patrolling a Taliban-infested eastern province near Pakistan. The death toll for July stood at 31, two more than the total for June 2008, previously the most deadly month in the nearly 8-year-old war. U.S. and coalition casualties have mounted steadily since U.S.-led forces launched an offensive against Taliban fighters in June.

The Taliban this week released a video showing a captured American soldier, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, 22, of Ketchum, Idaho, expressing fear that he would never see his family again and urging the U.S. to withdraw from Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates condemned the Taliban for using the soldier for propaganda and said the U.S. was using “all available assets” to locate him.

Here we go again, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. Casualties are mounting, terrified hostages appear in videos, and the local population is enraged by civilian deaths. “This sounds an awful lot like President Bush’s war in Iraq, but in fact it is President Obama’s war in Afghanistan.” Gates says the U.S. has a year to show results, but what are the benchmarks for progress? The administration needs to better explain what we’re fighting for.

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Does the administration even know? said Abe Greenwald in National Review Online. Obama has already hinted at “a premature scaledown of force,” suggesting that after the Afghan elections next month, he would emphasize “the development side.” That could mean abandoning Afghanistan to “lawlessness and terrorism.” If Obama doesn’t have the stomach for a real fight, we’d better brace for defeat.

Not so fast, said Thomas Friedman in The New York Times. The U.S. has made terrible blunders in Afghanistan, but it’s finally learning how to fight there: “Clear areas of the Taliban, hold them in partnership with the Afghan army,” and build relationships with local leaders. Real success, though, will come only if the corrupt and incompetent Afghan government wins the people’s loyalty. That’s a big if.