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NOT GOOD. It's bad when one of our primary allies in Afghanistan has requested that our forces leave their sector:
A senior British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making it difficult to win over local people.A precise tally of civilian deaths is difficult to pin down, but one reliable count puts the number killed in Helmand this year at close to 300 civilians, the vast majority of them caused by foreign and Afghan forces, rather than the Taliban.Airstrikes called in by U.S. Special Forces appear to be the major culprit. French forces in Afghanistan have also been critical of the U.S. "kick in the door" style of warfare in Afghanistan. Without granting that the French or the British have any intrinsic aptitude at counter-insurgency operations, it's nonetheless important to note that they have been conducting such operations for nearly as long as the United States has existed, and that their militaries are more organizationally suited to these campaigns than ours is. While on the subject of the allies, I don't think that enough Americans perceive just how critical the Canadian contribution to Afghanistan has been. Sixty-six Canadians have died during the Afghan campaign, a number proportionally larger than the 422 American dead. Canadians have also driven several innovations in the operation of Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Over the course of the War on Terror, Canada has been the best kind of friend that the U.S. could have; one that refuses to participate in our stupidest adventures (Iraq), but that backs our sensible operations to the hilt. --Robert Farley
