The Other War Continues

The Taliban continue to fight against coalition and Afghan forces, doing not much more than expanding their own body count.

"The reports we have received from the battle ground says 89 Taliban have been killed since yesterday," Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said.

"Three Canadian soldiers have been killed and six wounded in the fighting," he added.

The operation was the biggest by NATO since it took over command of the southern region on July 31 from U.S.-led coalition forces, Major Scott Lundy, a spokesman for the alliance, said.

At the same time, a British support aircraft crashed, killing 14 on board. The aircraft, a Royal Air Force Nimrod MR2 spyplane crashed on Saturday, supporting NATO and Afghan forces in and around Kandahar. Gina Cobb also notes the crash of the RAF plane.

The Taliban have continued to fritter away their capabilities against NATO, Afghan, and US forces, and while coalition casualties have been quite low, the Taliban lose troops at a rapid pace in every engagement.

All the same, there are still significant problems facing Afghanistan, not the least of which is the resounding reliance of many in the country on opium production. Opium production is at a new high, and at least some portion of the money is going into the coffers of terrorists and the Taliban.