Assessing strategy, one week into Marjah offensive
It’s been one week since NATO and Afghan forces began their offensive in Marjah, Afghanistan. In that time, much of the Taliban has fled the region and key leaders have been caught. But will controlling the city help defeat the Taliban in the long run?
Marjah is heavily riddled with IEDs and the remaining Taliban fighters have begun guerilla warfare attacks and sniper combat. And new reports show that the significant capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar owes its success to luck; Americans didn’t know exactly who was in their custody right away.
To get the latest from Marjah and to assess how close we are to the end of the offensive, we speak with Rod Nordland, a foreign correspondent in Kabul for our partner, The New York Times. Also joining us is Dr. Nadir Atash, a former Afghan official and author of “Turbulence: The Tumultuous Journey of One Man’s Quest for Change in Afghanistan.”
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