The Kill Company

[Greyhawk]

The Marines will get no extra troops, American or Afghan. In light of that they've asked if they can arm the locals ala SoI (another semantic story, by the way) - but whatever it might be called, so far the answer is also "no".

What do they get? They get one year to do what Marines do. I'll bet they're well aware of what they're doing, and quite adept at explaining it in the correct terms to media embeds.

To bring that more in line with the topic of this thread, hopefully few will get their names in the paper for all the wrong reasons. Apparently (from another account) one group of Taliban, cornered in a building with female hostages walked away dressed in Burkas as part of a deal to let those females go.

On a "positive" note re: numbers - not in that story, but meanwhile some in Britain are arguing they should send more troops and gear. Their Afghan death toll just exceeded Iraq, and that "more" argument is the opposition response.

[Kiwigrunt]

Good article, Greyhawk. (‘A fight for ordinary peace.’)

Something else I think is potentially troubling is this:

Experts from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development will arrive in Nawa this summer to assist with longer-term reconstruction and governance initiatives, including a $300 million program to provide agricultural aid to 125,000 farmers through vouchers to purchase seeds and farm equipment. That program will also seek to employ 166,000 young men in projects for six months.

Once these hearts and minds have been bought, sorry, won, what happens in six months time? Do the farmers receive more vouchers? Are the workers given new jobs? It would appear to me that hearts and minds bought and then lost may end up becoming more troublesome than hearts and minds never won. And I say this without wanting to get into the ‘hearts and minds’ conversation as such (which I'm enjoying).

[added] hmmm, just realised this post is a bit off topic here.