suffered their first combat deaths of the new year, the military report
Monday, with four troops killed a day earlier in the country’s violent
south.
The battlefield losses came as Afghan President
its winter recess and vote on a new Cabinet lineup as soon as this
weekend. On Saturday, lawmakers defied the president by rejecting
two-thirds of his Cabinet picks.
Western officials are worried about the weakness of
the Karzai government as the Obama administration embarks on a troop
buildup that will nearly double the American military presence in
As the first of 30,000 new U.S. troops begin flowing
into the country, adding to some 68,000 already deployed here, Western
commanders have warned that a commensurate increase in casualties is
likely. That is in part because the additional American forces will
push into parts of the country that were previously under the sway of
the Taliban and other insurgents.
In 2010’s first reported battlefield deaths,
military officials said four American troops had been killed in a
roadside bomb in the south. A British soldier was also killed in a
separate explosion.
Roadside bombs are the No. 1 killer of Western forces in
and have become the signature weapon of the Taliban and other
insurgents. Multiple fatalities in a single incident, such as the
strike that killed the four Americans, have become commonplace, because
members of the Taliban are using larger and more powerful improvised
explosive devices, or IEDs, capable of destroying armored vehicles and
killing most or all of those inside.
The military did not reveal the location of the latest U.S. deaths, but most Americans in the south are based in Helmand and
Most of the arriving reinforcements are to be deployed in the south, where thousands of
Fighting also has flared recently in
The Western war effort has been complicated by
months of political paralysis, and the deadlock may deepen in coming
days. While parliament’s weekend rejection of 17 of Karzai’s 24 Cabinet
choices was seen in some quarters as a welcome display of independence
on lawmakers’ part, it has also left the government barely functioning.
Setting the stage for a potential showdown, senior
aides to Karzai suggested that the president may put forth some of the
same Cabinet nominees when the issue comes up for a second vote. Among
those rejected was
The support of a number of onetime militia leaders
such as Khan helped Karzai win a second term in office, though the
August election was clouded by massive fraud. While Karzai was
eventually declared the winner, international auditors stripped him of
nearly a million votes, depriving him of the clear mandate he had
sought.
If Karzai is able to strong-arm his Cabinet choices
through parliament, it may add to widespread public disillusionment
over corruption and inefficiency in the government. But a new political
defeat for the president could open the door to prolonged infighting
that could render his government an even more unstable partner for the
West.
Western diplomats have made it clear to Karzai they
expect him to carry out sweeping reforms, but that will be difficult if
the Afghan leader is preoccupied with fighting off challenges from
political rivals.
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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