'', The New York Times, 21 January 2009

EXCERPT: "The Taliban are everywhere the soldiers are not, the saying goes in the southern part of the country. And that is a lot of places. For starters, there is the 550 miles of border with Pakistan, where the Taliban's busiest infiltration routes lie. 'We're not there,' said Brig. Gen. John W. Nicholson, the deputy commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan. 'The borders are wide open.' Then there is the 100-mile stretch of Helmand River running south from the town of Garmser, where the Taliban and their money crop, poppy, bloom in isolation. 'No one,' General Nicholson said, pointing to the area on the map. Then there is Nimroz Province, all of it, which borders Iran. No troops there. And the Ghorak district northwest of Kandahar, which officers refer to as the 'jet stream' for the Taliban fighters who flow through. The general is going to get a lot more troops very soon. American commanders in southern Afghanistan have been told to make plans to accept nearly all of the 20,000 to 30,000 additional troops that the Obama administration has agreed to deploy. The influx promises to significantly reshape the environment of southern Afghanistan, the birthplace of the Taliban. The region now produces an estimated 90 percent of the world's opium, which bankrolls the Taliban."

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See also:
'NATO chief urges greater efforts on Afghanistan', Reuters India, 22 January 2009
'', Financial Times, 22 January 2009
'Taliban suffer severe casualties in Badghis, Afghanistan', Trend News, 22 January 2009
'Will US troops intensify Taliban ire?', CBS News, 21 January 2009
'Drug trade remains a contentious issue for ISAF, Afghan government', Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 18 January 2009

Related posts:
'Afghanistan after the Taliban', 8 January 2009
'"The Taliban now holds a permanent presence in 72% of Afghanistan"', 8 December 2008
'Afghans wary of Taliban, US', 1 December 2008
'Karzai admits failure in securing Afghanistan', 29 October 2008
'Karzai blames increasing violence on lack of attention', 20 August 2008