| In Marjah, a town in the southwestern province of Helmand with a population of 80,000, the Operation Moshtarak known as Operation Together of NATO and Afghan National Army forces launched on 13th February is running into violent Taliban confrontation frequently. The world's largest opium producing province and Marjah provide funds to the Taliban around $25 million every year. The adjacent complex of canals together with residential compounds makes evasion easier, not a small facility with improvised explosive weapons. NATO has pumped in over 15,000 troops with helicopters and drones to assault Marjah and the Taliban have perplexed their calculations by continuing fighting without a break. In spite of President Hamid Karzai’s appeal to NATO forces to save civilian population, collateral deaths are growing relentlessly, with the U.S.'s high-tech electronic combat killing innocent children, women, and men in an unparalleled manner. The University of New Hampshire has diligently developed a database that seeks to account for every Afghan civilian killed by the U.S./NATO forces from the beginning of 2001 attack. The master table made available to media shows that close to 10,000 civilians have been killed by U.S./NATO military actions in Afghanistan during last nine years. Shamefully, the data reveals that more Afghan civilians have been killed under the Obama regime from 2009 than under previous administration of George W Bush.
It requires one more month to get rid of the Taliban from the targeted areas according to the estimates of a senior British Officer. The commanders of the combined forces are aware that stability can be restored only with public faith. Cynicism and pessimism are rightly widespread among the local people, who hate corruption and the chaotic state of affairs of the Afghan government that is expected to root out the Taliban in Helmand. The Taliban are in actual control of stable civil authority and day-to-day security according to one reliable analysis. Talks with the Taliban have been hinted by the U.S. perhaps with the hope of marginalizing their own extreme elements. But that plan may not work well because the younger Taliban leaders are hardliners. Further, it is doubtful if a centralised state can be created in a society where people for hundreds of years have been functioning on tribal culture. Added to this, NATO may take over Marjah but it will make the supposed capture of Kandahar province, a more important Taliban stronghold than Helmand, will not be an easy task. The U.S. prospect of creating a reshaped Afghan body politic so that it can depart within a year and a half will not be possible when civilian deaths go up and record of war crimes become bigger.
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