"Although it's just beginning, the U.S.-led effort to pacify the Taliban's spiritual capital in southern Afghanistan already appears to be faltering. Key military operations have been delayed until the fall, efforts to improve local government are having little impact and a Taliban assassination campaign has brought a sense of dread to Kandahar's dusty streets......
American and Afghan officials, however, so far have made little headway in building a foundation for a respected local government capable of winning the confidence of the nearly 1 million Afghans who live in and around Kandahar.......
One major question is whether there will be enough forces for Kandahar, where McChrystal's plan calls for the deployment of 20,000 U.S. and Afghan troops.
U.S. defense officials and defense analysts said that McChrystal used 10,000 troops in Helmand to gain control of a rural river valley with about 50,000 residents. But in Kandahar, however, Afghanistan's second largest city, with an estimated population of 800,000, he's calling for just 20,000 troops......
The challenges in Kandahar come amid a growing recognition in Kabul and Washington that efforts in neighboring Helmand province to install a new administration in the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah quickly have stumbled. Marjah was meant to be the proving ground for McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy, which emphasizes building governments trusted by local populations over combat operations.
.........Marjah "is already coming unraveled," the U.S. defense official said. He noted that on the eve of the Marjah offensive in February, McChrystal described how he planned to bring in a "government in a box." "But when they opened the box, there was nothing in it," the U.S. defense official continued.
McCrystal insisted Thursday that progress was being made in Marjah. But he also conceded that the locals "remain to be convinced" that they'll see an honest local administration."
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