Nothing To Celebrate In Afghanistan-- Unless You Just Successfully Bought A Child

Other than among occupation troops, I doubt there was much celebrating of the New Year in Afghanistan yesterday. The news out of that war ravaged hellhole has gone from bad to worse, with casualties on both sides skyrocketing. Reuters reports today that "foreign troops suffered their highest death toll in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2008, and with thousands more troops scheduled to be deployed, this year could be even worse."

Nearly 270 foreign soldiers, 127 of them Americans, were killed in combat in 2008, versus 169 foreign combat deaths in 2007, according to figures compiled by Reuters.

Hundreds more foreign soldiers were wounded in Taliban attacks last year, mostly involving roadside bomb blasts, which according to the U.S. ambassador, doubled to some 2,000 in 2008 from the previous year.

Meanwhile Obama is said to be contemplating expanding the war there by sending in more troops, not for a brief "surge," but for the kind of long drawn-out slog that wrecked the Soviet Union, probably as big a mistake for Obama as his appointment of uber-corrupt Democratic Party hack Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff.

This morning's NY Times reported that two more NATO soldiers-- Brits-- were killed Wednesday and that 20 Afghan policemen guarding a district governor in restive Helmand Province, Mullah Salam, were killed while 16 others joined the Taliban just before the attack. As Obama puts his plans in place, there is far less reporting on the deaths of Afghan civilians-- not to mention the utter destruction of whatever remains of civil society there-- which comes at the hands of both sides of the conflict. You know it's serious when Afghan parents aren't just selling their daughters, but even their sons!

NATO forces in Afghanistan say the Taliban in recent months have been using more sophisticated weapons and techniques in their attacks against its forces, and it has welcomed the U.S. decision to move more troops to Afghanistan.

As schoolchildren walked past a military checkpoint Sunday, a bomb-loaded truck veered toward them and exploded. The flash was captured by a U.S. military security camera. At least 16 young students were killed.

Such suicide bombings have increased across Afghanistan during the last two years, and the U.S. says it plans to send between 20,000 and 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next six months to reinforce the 32,000 U.S. forces already in the country.