The latest battle for Kandahar, the birth place of the Taliban is unfolding as Operation "Dragon Strike" hits its stride. But after months of shaping the battlefield and allowing the enemy to either flee or dig in the outcome seems destined to be mixed. Marjah was and now Kandahar is the center of the war effort, but how much of this is just whacking at moles when the enemy can slip in and out of neighboring Pakistan?
As politically uncomfortable as it may be for the Obama administration, the enemy's center of gravity is north west Pakistan or Waziristan. While the Obama administration has greatly stepped up drone attacks at a certain point this underscores the lack of a real operation into the Taliban and al-Qaeda strong hold. A coordinated multi-brigade operation into the badlands of pakistan would take advantage of U.S. strengths: tactical surprise, air power and air assault capabilities and overwhelming fire power. By comparison the drone strikes seem like a delaying tactic until President Obama begins to pull the troops out in the summer of 2011.
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