Taliban Launches Spring Offensive

Fighting has continued is Kabul, Afghanistan for the past two days now; the Taliban is starting what is being called a "spring offensive".  This increase in violence is the first attack in the Afghan capital is over six months.  The targets within the capital included the NATO Headquarters, Afghan parliament, and various foreign embassies. The Taliban has claimed that yesterday's attacks were the beginning of a "spring offensive" by their forces.

In an article from BBC it was stated that the Taliban's, " 'fighting season' tends to begin when the warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes along the border with Pakistan, allowing fighters to cross into Afghanistan."  Additionally as a on-the-ground perspective, a friend of mine who is currently deployed in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army stated about a month ago that his group was anticipating a spring offensive to begin soon by the Taliban and that the U.S. Army were preparing accordingly.

Right now it is Monday morning in Afghanistan and the fighting has continued.  Recently NATO claimed that the Taliban was weak and the Taliban claims these series of attacks to be their response to such claims.  Unfortunately these attacks have weakened the level of confidence of many Afghans.

With these recent attacks, it again appears that Afghanistan is not ready for U.S. troop withdrawal any time soon, however with an upcoming election and a war-weary population, President Obama might be pressured to begin showing some signs of U.S. troop draw-down.  This will prove to be a challenge as November gets closer and the President must choose between fulfilling what he pledged to do (withdrawal the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan) and the Afghan need for continued U.S. support.