Victory in Zabul, War Continues

The New York Times is reporting that the joint Afghan-American military operations against the Taliban in certain parts of Zabul have been successful. This is definitely good news, though tainted by the fact this doesn't appear to be the entire story. For example, the article implies that only one American was killed, yet adding up casualty reports I've seen in recent days, I'm thinking there were at least four in the wider operation. My guess is this is one unit's experience which is being highlighted for PR reasons. I'm sure other units are also winning in this offensive, but this kind of spin offends me.

However, it was also good news that Pakistan appears to have been providing covert military support to this operation. Meanwhile, RFE-RL, which temporarily doesn't have a weekly report to provide permanent links, is saying that the Taliban have established a recruiting presence at Kabul University. We are still not out of the woods yet.