Marja: '...“This is a bleeding ulcer right now”'

A post by Paul Wells of Maclean's magazine, one of our few pundits who--ignore his brashness--makes a serious effort to understand things Afghan rather than treating them merely as a sub-set of Canadian politics:

Gen. Stanley McCrystal checks up on the progress in Marja and discovers, in extraordinarily frank language, that there hasn’t been enough. Marja is intended to be a prelude to the push in Kandahar that will be the last major Canadian operation [more here] before the bulk of our military engagement there ends. And Marja is not going well at all.

More:

A senior NATO general in Afghanistan says it will probably be months before Afghans in Marjah shun the Taliban and form a strong local government.

British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter tells reporters Wednesday that the 3-month-old, U.S.-led NATO operation in the southern region has been a military success. But Afghans in Marjah have been reluctant to form a strong government capable of shaking off Taliban influence.

Carter, who is NATO's commander in southern Afghanistan [command area being rather reduced], acknowledges that the process of building a new local government could take 3 to 4 months. Carter said a second major offensive in Kandahar was on schedule to ramp up this summer.

Via milnews.ca at Milnet.ca.