The Afghan Reset

Afghanistan is rarely out of the headlines — and seemingly for the wrong reasons. At the beginning of March, six UK military personnel were killed by a Taliban attack in what was the single worse loss of life for UK ground forces since the launch of the NATO–led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan. This brought the number of UK dead to over 400 and the total number of ISAF fatalities to nearly 3,000. The tally among Afghans is even worse. The United Nations Mission to Afghanistan reported in February that 3,000 civilian deaths had occurred in 2011 alone. While the large majority was due to Taliban and other anti–government activity, night–search operations plus aerial and drone bombings, carried out by ISAF and its Afghan allies, still accounted for an estimated four hundred killed. The recent shootings of 16 innocent Afghans by an apparently deranged US soldier has only added to a perception, gaining ground even within the Afghan government, that the foreign military presence has outstayed its welcome.