The Torch: Canadians, Americans and Kandahar city

Not exactly encouraging:

U.S., Allies Plan to Bolster Kandahar Force

Associated Press
An Afghan policeman at the site of Tuesday's multiple car bombing in Kandahar that killed at least 41 people.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The U.S. and its allies are planning to reinforce Afghan police and army units guarding Kandahar with American and Canadian troops, a move that acknowledges the deteriorating condition of the south's largest city.

According to senior military officials, U.S. and Canadian soldiers will for the first time deploy to bases on the outskirts of the city. The local Afghan forces will be bolstered by an expanded number of embedded American trainers.

The plan represents a high-stakes wager that the Afghans have the ability to keep Kandahar safe, a mission they and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces have so far largely been unable to accomplish. It is also a tacit admission that the U.S. and its NATO allies erred by sending troops to sparsely inhabited parts of eastern and southern Afghanistan instead of to major population centers, such as Kandahar.

NATO has grown increasingly concerned about Taliban encroachment into Kandahar, the militant group's spiritual birthplace. Nearly 4,000 Marines are embroiled in a major offensive in neighboring Helmand province and military officials say the Taliban appear to have taken advantage of the fighting to infiltrate the city with significant numbers of operatives.

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In a sign of the escalating violence that has accompanied election season, Kandahar was rocked Tuesday by five simultaneous car bombs that killed at least 41 people and wounded at least 66, the Associated Press reported, citing local officials. The blast, which flattened several buildings, appeared to target a Japanese construction company that employs mostly Pakistani engineers. Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said a bomb blast killed four soldiers in southern Afghanistan, pushing this year's death toll of foreign soldiers to 295, more than the number who died in all of last year...
"It's vulnerable," said Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance, who commands the 2,800 Canadian troops in Kandahar province. "I don't see it as precarious; but if we don't address it more thoroughly we could be in deep trouble [emphasis added]."..
Under the plan, the U.S. would send hundreds of the new troops into Kandahar to train and live with Afghan security forces. The Afghan police and army will retain primary responsibility for protecting the city and reversing the recent Taliban encroachment [seems there was some over-optimism about that this spring], Gen. Nicholson ["Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan"] said.

He said the bulk of the American reinforcements will be deployed to new bases on the main approaches into the city, population centers in their own right. Additional forces will be sent to the Arghandab River Valley, a fertile region of the province that also houses a significant share of the area's population, he said [more here and here]...

Looks like we're needing substantial US help even within and near Kandahar city itself--supposed to be the CF's main resposibility now with the arrival of the US Army's 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. From a post just under two weeks ago (in which Brig.-Gen. Vance also expresses realism about the situation):

...
"The Americans are taking over what is a large but sparsely populated area of the province in the west and northern regions," Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, commander of [Joint] Task Force Afghanistan, explained to the Star in an interview from Kandahar Airfield last night.

"That means we are able to concentrate our forces in the approaches to Kandahar city, where 85 per cent of the population lives."

Canadian control of that crucial perimeter should – if all goes according to plan, and they're still in the transitional phase – convince the skeptical populace that foreign forces are committed to their security, not just to killing Taliban, while allowing for quick-pace development and reconstruction, so lacking in the province even though the money is there...

Canada sacrificed treasured lives establishing far-flung outposts (distance is relative when 70 kilometres from the airfield is the Wild West) to expand what was in fact a lightly indented footprint, with much of that hard-fought ground returning to Taliban "control" [emphasis added] – meaning they can operate largely unencumbered – as soon as Canadians left, Afghan national forces not yet ready to "hold" what our troops "cleared."

Over and over, the discouraging pattern repeated itself [emphasis added]. Now, Americans are assuming those responsibilities, as well as the forward operating bases in Arghandab and Zhari districts, while Canadians focus mostly on the civilian core of greater Kandahar city – the brunt of the inner urban security actually turned over to mentored Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police...

Meanwhile, MND MacKay stands firm: