Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan...

From The Guardian via HuffPost:

US military build-up in Kandahar will bolster Taliban, warns security monitor
Nato's counterinsurgency tactic shows no signs of success, says Afghanistan NGO Security Office
Jon Boone in Kabul guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 18 July 2010
The US military build-up in Kandahar is likely to further strengthen the hold of the Taliban over the vital southern Afghanistan city, a highly respected security organisation said today in a bleak report warning of record Taliban violence and rising civilian deaths across the country.

Money quote:

"We do not support the [counter-insurgency] perspective that this constitutes 'things getting worse before they get better', but rather see it as being consistent with the five-year trend of things just getting worse," the report said.

Tell me again: why are we there???