The Guardian Takes A Look At The Afghanistan Endgame: 'It's Taken A Year To Move 20km'

Today's AfPak round-up:

Endgame in Afghanistan: "It's taken a year to move 20km." Filmmaker Sean Smith presents an unvarnished picture of Afghanistan's grinding stalemate: Marines patrolling in 130 degree weather in full combat gear, a battlefield littered with IEDs that prevent troops from rescuing fallen comrades, and few objective signs of progress to boost troops' morale. According to one staff sergeant, U.S. forces in Helmand Province have only gained 20km of territory in the past year, and don't expect to reach the Pakistan border until mid-2015. [Guardian]

Read Smith's diary of his time with soldiers in Kandahar and Helmand.

"No hearts and minds here": U.S. troops struggle near key Taliban route. U.S. troops are failing to connect with Afghans in the Arghandab Valley, which many Taliban fighters pass through on their way to Kandahar City, and many frontline soldiers and junior officers think they know why. An Iraq-style counterinsurgency strategy focused on building support for a central government, they say, won't work in a country whose residents have historically rallied around tribal leaders rather than national ones. [Reuters]

Afghans torch U.S. embassy vehicles in Kabul. The riot began after an American vehicle hit an Afghan civilian car, reportedly killing four passengers. According to one resident, the vehicle was hit after it attempted to drive onto a main road from a sidestreet. Rioting Afghan men threw stones and shouted "death to foreigners" and "death to Karzai" as they set fire to the vehicles. [AFP]

Gates: Leak investigation could target Wikileaks founder. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the military's leak investigation "should go wherever it needs to go," possibly even targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for releasing documents with the names of Afghans cooperating with NATO forces. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he believed Wikileaks and Assange "might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." [AP]
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