by Dave McGill

One week ago, it was announced that the Marja campaign would take another month before the Taliban could be routed and the area secured.

Today, like magic, the Taliban are not to be found, and conditions are rapidly returning to normal with, as the L.A. Times noted, even popcorn vendors appearing on the streets of the city. Such are the ways of guerilla warfare, under which combatants who aren’t killed can simply evaporate by blending into the civilian population or by relocating to other areas.

An explosion in an affluent section of Kabul on Friday killed 16 and gave further evidence of the shifting tactics of the Taliban. Another improvised explosive attack today killed 11 in Helmand province.

It is good news, nonetheless, that a major poppy-growing area that contributed substantial moneys to the Taliban, has been wrested from the control of the insurgents. The next major campaign will be in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan later this year. Kandahar has a population of 300,000.

Last week, the Department of Defense released the obituaries of nine military personnel killed in Afghanistan, ranging in age from 20 to 30. According to the website, icasualties.org, U.S. deaths in that nation have passed the 1,000 level and now stand at 1,007. Since General Stanley A. McChrystal took over last June, U.S. deaths in the eight-year war have risen by 43%.

As the elections in Iraq approach, an old name is rising into prominence. Ahmad Chalabi, the Shiite who helped the Bush administration create the pattern of distortions leading up to the invasion, is now being credited with orchestrating the disqualification of hundreds of Sunnis from running for office. In this instance, he is in opposition to the will of the Obama administration, which has exerted major efforts to have the disqualifications removed.

The situation has pitted the influence of the United States against the influence of Iran, a Shiite nation, and the latter is the clear winner. Army General Ray T. Odierno was quoted earlier this month as saying that he had evidence that Chalabi was directly influenced by Iran. In the opinion of this writer, the circumstances raise the possibility that Chalabi may have always been under the influence of Iran, the nation that arguably had the most to gain by our invasion and removal of Saddam Hussein, and the creation of a Shiite government.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense, last week, released the obituaries of four military personnel killed in Iraq, ranging in age from 23 to 40. Two of the deaths occurred in a helicopter crash and the other two were classified as resulting from non-combat-related injuries. Total U.S. deaths in Iraq now stand at 4,380, according to the website icasualties.org.