Word: moshtarak
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...before the start of the U.S. surge last summer, morale among British forces was undermined by mounting casualties - three-quarters from improvised explosive devices - and public skepticism about the NATO mission. Operation Moshtarak, this spring's offensive led by U.S. troops, has helped buck up spirits but misgivings remain. Prime Minister Gordon Brown denied that the decision made at a January summit in London - to offer cash to insurgents to lay down arms - amounted to a bribe. But the idea is a hard sell to soldiers who saw colleagues killed providing security last year for presidential elections stained by fraud...
...friends," he says. Ferocious loyalty to their comrades and regiments sustains soldiers in the teeth of dangers and privations. "We are going into the heart of darkness," Lieut. Colonel Matt Bazeley told his troops at Camp Bastion as they prepared for the first phase of the Moshtarak push. "It is bloody dangerous out there. This is real. This is it. This is what you have been trained...
...haul was measured in tons, not kilos. But the Marines lacked the element of surprise; to minimize civilian casualties, U.S. and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal had warned of the offensive weeks in advance. The drug traffickers and many of their Taliban protectors had cleared out long before Operation Moshtarak (Dari for together) began. (See pictures of Person of the Year 2009 runner-up General Stanley McChrystal...
...poppy fields. But its backwater appearance is deceptive: until last month, it was the hub of a dozen international drug syndicates reaching across borders as far away as Europe, Russia and the Far East. The U.N. reckons Marjah has the world's highest concentration of opium production. So Operation Moshtarak is more than a military offensive; it is also the biggest counternarcotics operation ever attempted. It marks a new emphasis by the White House and the Pentagon on choking off the Taliban from their drug funds and ending their support among the Pashtun tribes of southern Afghanistan...
...especially India, Pakistan's hated rival - will be influential in Kabul. The Taliban and the Haqqanis are insurance against such an eventuality. Baradar's detention has not yet changed Pakistan's assessment of how its own interests may best be defended. Remember, too, that no matter how well Operation Moshtarak seems to be going, many Taliban commanders think they are winning. Whatever happens in Marjah, they can point to a widening influence across Afghanistan. They also have been heartened by last week's announcement that the 2,000-strong Dutch contingent will be departing this year because Holland's coalition...