Paging General Petraeus! Here's a little bit of news that you may have missed. Via McClatchy comes a report from John McCreary, "a former senior intelligence analyst for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," who finds our Afghanistan mission in dire straits:
According to McCreary, May saw more violence than any other month since the 2001 U.S. intervention that toppled the Taliban and forced Osama bin Laden and his followers to flee into Pakistan. He says there were 214 violent incidents in more than 100 of the country's 398 districts last month. That was up from April's count of 199 violent incidents in 86 districts.
Writes McCreary: "Despite official efforts to spotlight improvement, the spring offensive this year is far worse than last year's spring offensive. The security situation has deteriorated again. At no prior time has the Taliban managed to stage attacks in over 100 of the 398 districts."
"If Taliban fighters are heading to Pakistan, they are going back to base to rest and to get more ammunition and supplies," he concludes.
In other words, even though there are now more U.S. and ISAF troops than ever before - about 50,000, including 33,000 Americans - Afghanistan may be on track to seeing its bloodiest year yet since the U.S. intervention.
Naturally, it's a relief that General Petraeus has recently signaled that he would be willing to submit to a change in mission, should he be ordered to do so by a new commander-in-chief. Now, all we need is a commander-in-chief that recognizes that the mission left unaccomplished in Afghanistan and Pakistan is the gravest threat to our security.