War in Afghanistan intensifies as election nears

[maddezmom]

By Jonathan S. Landay KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS


LANDING ZONE NORTH DAKOTA, Afghanistan - The Bush administration declared more than two years ago that major combat in Afghanistan was over. Tell that to the 60 young men of Battle Company.

For the past four months, the U.S. paratroopers and other American units have been fighting a war thousands of feet up in the sun-blasted peaks and boulder-strewn defiles of one of history's most grueling battlefields.

They're facing guerrillas who were born here, hardened by poverty and backwardness, and steeped in a centuries-old tradition of resisting foreigners. The guerrillas' aim is to impose another hard-line Islamic regime on Afghanistan, one that might make the country once again a sanctuary for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida jihadis.

The Taliban have killed more than 40 U.S. soldiers and more than 800 Afghan officials, police, troops, aid workers and civilians since March in a campaign aimed at derailing Sept. 18 parliamentary and provincial elections and eroding confidence in President Hamid Karzai and his American-led backers.

more:http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/12437891.htm

[mom cat]

1. hardened by backwadrness? WTF king of a racist statement is that!