Afghanistan - on the road with Obama's boys

In the early hours of 2 July last year, around 4,000 US marines landed in southern Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province. Khanjar, or "Sword strike", was the first major military operation carried out under the presidency of Barack Obama, who announced it with a speech that could have been made by his predecessor. "Al-Qaida and its allies–the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks–are in Pakistan and Afghanistan… I've already ordered the deployment of 17,000 troops. These soldiers and marines will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east… And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you." As Lieutenant Colonel Christian Cabaniss, the commanding officer of the marines in Helmand, told it, the mission was simple–as the sun rose, the Taliban would "wake up to find marines everywhere". They would then call for reinforcements, only to be told that they, too, saw marines everywhere. They would have "no stomach to stand and fight, and disappear", enabling the marines to "target the population, not the enemy". Sadly, it's necessary to point out that in this case "targeting" meant winning over the local population so they would reject the Taliban altogether.