Gates Laying Down Next Surge Targets, Coordination

SecDef Gates is conferring with both military and civilian leaders in Afghanistan in advance of the next surge targets, following the model that was laid down in Marjah.

Preparations have begun for a crucial campaign to assert Afghan government control over Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said Monday.
The NATO-led force is growing in districts surrounding the city of Kandahar that are under the Taliban thumb as part of a gradual increase in pressure ahead of an eventual military operation, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said.
"There won't be a D-Day that is climactic," he said.
The general spoke after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan to check on the progress of the war's expansion directed late last year by President Barack Obama.
The 30,000 additional U.S. forces Obama ordered are now arriving and most will be in place by summer. Without being specific, McChrystal suggested that any heavy fighting in Kandahar will wait until more U.S. and NATO troops are ready.
The fighting, when it comes, will not resemble the recent successful operation to retake the area around Marjah, also in southern Afghanistan.
"Kandahar is much larger, much more complex," McChrystal told reporters.
The large city is the spiritual home of the Taliban insurgency and while the city is not now under the Taliban flag the insurgents are a constant, entrenched presence in and around Kandahar.

By: Brant