A Bigger Surge Needed?

Things are not going well in Marjah. This was the place where we were going to show the Taliban that their day was over. There are not enough troops to make the case. The Taliban is cutting off heads, which may make the natives a little nervous. Kabul has not sent nearly enough qualified police or government workers.

McChrystal acknowledges that there are problems, "What we have done, in my view, we have given the insurgency a chance to be a little bit credible. We said: 'We're taking it back.' We came in to take it back. And we haven't been completely convincing." A tribal elder agrees, "By day there is government. By night it's the Taliban."

Another Vietnam? Another Iraq? It sure sounds that way.