Operation Khanjar: Obama Administration Sends in Marines to Increase the Fight in Afghanistan

After several years of war with too few troops and too little national commitment, Marines are taking care of business in Afghanistan.

(HELMAND, Afghanistan) - 4000 Marines landed in Afghanistan a few days ago and officials report that Operation Khanjar or Strike of the Sword is in full swing.

Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade accompanied by around 650 Afghan soldiers, are part of Operation Khanjar, staged on the Helmand River.

Wikipedia reports that this is the biggest push since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict earlier in 2009, and the largest for the Marines since the 2004 invasion of Fallujah, Iraq.

The American operation comes on the heels of a British-led operation called Operation Panther's Claw in the same region and is the first big push since American General Stanley McChrystal took over as Allied commander.

The operation involves both the U.S. and Afghan military occupying towns and villages along Afghanistan's Helmand River.

Their goal is the secure the civilian population from the Taliban, while pushing troops into insurgent strongholds along the river.

After the Marines and Afghan soldiers take and hold the captured areas, responsibility for maintaining the security will be transferred to the Afghan soldiers.

The Marines are also helping to raise the level of security in the Helmand Valley in time for scheduled August 20th 2009 presidential elections.

The first aggressive phase lasted 36 hours. Garmsir and Nawa are reportedly key targets of the assault, which are towards the southern border with Pakistan.

Many of the insurgents are said to take refuge in those locations, and are reported to be involved in the opium trade that in part funds the Taliban.

Special thanks to Wikipedia and the U.S. State Department for information in this article.

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Seth July 5, 2009 10:01 pm (Pacific time)

To All--An interesting fact usually ignored is that when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan prior to our invasion, they had stamped out the trade in opium. They also put an end to the lawlessness of the warlords/tribal chiefs who did whatever they wanted to the civilians, such as stopping families traveling and dragging out and raping 10-year-old sons. They did treat women as third class citizens and were religious fanatics who do a lot of other terrible things. But they also did some good things. To finance their war against the coalition forces they are now in the opium trade. They pay better than the Afghan army or the Afghan police. Both of which have massive desertion rates. We should get out of Afghanistan now. And yes, Idiot Child, this country is full of a bunch of stupid warmongers. We borrow trillions from the Chinese to maintain our empire. If you care to read a little bit of history [I won't count on that] the Russian Empire [the former USSR] went broke and split up because they could not maintain their empire. It will happen to the US also. Do you remember chaining promising us back in 2002 that invading Iraq would not cost us anything because the Iraqi oil would pay for the costs? Ha Ha! C'est la vie.

Matt Johnson July 5, 2009 6:09 pm (Pacific time)

Vic you sell your house yet? Still moving to Mexico? If I had the extra money I would buy your place and then you wouldn't have to live in a country that has all these warmongers.

Vic July 5, 2009 12:34 pm (Pacific time)

"Marines are taking care of business in Afghanistan" .....a bit of unintended honesty in that tagline? Because that is why we are there...business...big business...big money. Does anyone really believe that we are on some kind of humanitarian mission over there? Is anyone out there so naive as to believe that we are spending billions of dollars and thousands of lives to "secure the civilian population from the Taliban"? I am from Alabama and there are a lot of religious fanatics down there too...should we start bombing Baptish Churches and summer camps? Is that our God-given right and duty now...to go around the world with WMDs protecting people from themselves? I doubt it, but to just come out and say " We need five billion dollars a month to wage wars of conquest and theft, the plunder of which will go to a select few at the expense of the many"... probably wouldnt fly. Another thing that is interesting re "business" is that since the NATO cruaders have invaded Afghanistan, the opium crops have every year been at record levels......Hmmmmm..

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