Warfront With Jihadistan: 'Friendly' Fire

U.S. troops in Afghanistan have endured an increasing rate of so-called "green-on-blue" attacks -- "green" referring to Afghan Army forces, "blue" to NATO forces -- perpetrated by disgruntled allies or Taliban infiltrators. Some 40 U.S. and NATO troops have been killed so far this year in such attacks, and they show no signs of abating. In fact, U.S. troops are still fighting and dying at a rate of about one per day in Afghanistan, while nearly 70,000 troops will remain in the country after Oct. 1.
The primary task for U.S. forces now is to train the Afghans to handle their own security. There are approximately 350,000 Afghan security forces, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for U.S. troops to do their jobs with the rise in insider attacks. Yet preventing Afghanistan from again devolving into the terrorist breeding ground it was prior to 9/11 is still America's foremost national security interest there. As it stands, however, many Americans -- apparently including the commander in chief -- would rather forget about the war than remain vigilant.

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Digest · August 24, 2012