'Afghanistan is the new hot-war. It’s getting hotter.'

Michael Yon begins a three-part series with The Perfect Evil:

... In Afghanistan, heroin has become the Devil’s cocktail. “Smack” is already one of the most addictive and destructive drugs on Earth, and now numerous academic studies show addiction levels on the rise particularly among younger children. In a place where 90% of the world’s heroin supply originates, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others harvest profits from opium poppy cultivation to buy weapons and equipment used to attack soldiers and civilians engaged in a mostly stalled reconstruction mission.

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the Taliban has resurged,
re-armed, regrouped and re-emerged
as a serious military threat.

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...We are seeing the results on the battlefields of Afghanistan. Instead of the planned shift toward stability that was expected to be far enough along to enable us to draw down U.S. troops and turn over the security operations to NATO forces, the Taliban has resurged, re-armed, regrouped and re-emerged as a serious military threat.

General Barry McCaffrey on Pakistan and Afghanistan:

In my view, there is little question that the level of fighting has intensified rapidly in the past year. Three years ago, the Taliban operated in squad sized units. Last year they operated in company sized units (100+ men). This year the Taliban are operating in battalion sized units (400+ men).

Bill Clinton on the subject last night...

Now, I've never criticized President Bush, and I don't think this is useful. But, you know, we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan is only one-seventh as important as Iraq.

Bush has said countless times that troop levels will be decided by the Generals on the ground... if they need them, they'll get them. Troop levels in Iraq certainly aren't going down. Tough decisions.

Back to Michael Yon... I've not been checking in with Michael at his site regularly enough. That's wrong. He's amazing.