Check status of Afghanistan war fatalities at December 2009, June 2010, and December 2010.

ISAF deaths reached 566 in December 2011, making this year the second most lethal one since the war began in 2001. "Surge" or no "surge" — in plain words: despite the substantial increase of boots on the ground in 2010 — the fatality rate of the western troops increased at the average annual rate of 47%.

NATO/ISAF forces have lost the Afghanistan war quite a while ago, but recognition of the fact is slow to trickle down. Numbers are explicit enough. On December 2011, after 10 years and 3 months of increasing war effort, the western coalition did not achieve any military or political progress worth mentioning.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest one ever engaged by the United States or the European allies in the modern times since the 18th century. Notwithstanding the 150,000 troops and the 100,000 security and support mercenaries in the field, the $560 billion spent by the United States — other NATO member states keep information on war expenses under hermetic lock —, and the massive use of the more advanced destruction technology that modern industry can supply, the only deliverables western powers can show are the 2,847 deaths and an unknown number of their own forces wounded (15,000 on the US side alone — other NATO members keep silent on this score), at least 36,000 Afghans killed or injured, hundreds of thousands of displaced Afghans, a wrecked countryside and a corrupt state administration, and spreading throughout Asia and Africa mounting anti-West hatred. All the while, at home, NATO members are going broke, with the economy and the finances in a shambles, and the social tissue in shreds.

Acknowledging the fact that they are getting nowhere, president Obama spoke in June 2011 of a "surge recovery", an euphemism to designate a policy to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, while trying to develop minimum conditions to preserve the United States interests in the country and in the region. Easier said than done. Proof is the news reported by the New York Times (Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012) according to which US officials started in Qatar preliminary discussions with negotiators representing the Taliban aimed at preparing the grounds for ending the war. It is high time that western powers recognize failure and stop the waste.

Sources: Afghanistan: Coalition Fatalities, Congressional Research Service [CRS] Reports.

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