The Battle For Highway #1 In Afghanistan

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Securing Highway 1 in Afghanistan
A key element of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan is to keep Highway 1 secure between Kabul and Kandahar. U.S. commanders along that route are faced with tough decisions on how to best deploy their limited troops as they prepare to turn over responsibility to the Afghan army. Source: CNES and spot image via Google Earth. Gene Thorp/The Washington Post.

U.S. And Taliban Fight For Key Afghan Highway -- Washington Post

SAYAD ABAD, Afghanistan — The Taliban fighter crouched in a muddy field about 100 yards from Highway 1. The mid-afternoon sun melted the last patches of winter’s snow as he waited for an American convoy to pass.

Three miles away, Lt. Col. Robert Horney and his soldiers pulled on body armor and climbed into their vehicles. The trucks were rolling when one of Horney’s junior commanders suggested that he delay the convoy until dark, when insurgents rarely attack vehicles with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

“We are the U.S. Army,” Horney thought to himself with some irritation. “We go where we want to go.”

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My Comment: This continuous fight for the same piece of useless dirt should make us all aware that this conflict is going nowhere. Unfortunately .... good lives are being lost everyday .... and the politicians back home (including most of the American public) are either quiet or uninterested.