Increasing the troop strength to 100,000 in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has approved sending additional forces to support Operation Enduring Freedom.

"I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan," said the President in his speech at West Point.

The President also announced the intention to withdraw American troops in 2011.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8389778.stm

Taliban miltants executed an eloping Afghan couple on Monday, April 13th. Governor Ghulam Dastageer Azad of Nimroz province condemned the murders as an "insult to Islam". Even after being unseated from power in 2001, the Taliban continues to implement strict Sharia Law in areas of Afghanistan where the government, local police, and international security forces do not have a strong presence.

World leaders assembled in Strasbourg shared their views on the importance of supporting the war in Afghanistan, expressing a commonly held fear that al-Qaeda would be very likely more able to launch a terrorist attack in Europe than in the United States because of geographic proximity.

Not much after the attacks on Kabul,  a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device injured three civilian contractors at Bagram Airfield, North of Kabul. This attack, just like the last one in Kabul, is a clear indication of the increased risks insurgents are willing to take.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53322

I mentioned two weeks ago that Pakistan, in the wake of the Kabul terrorist attacks and with insurgent activities increasing, would have to start talking very seriously with the U.S. and with Afghanistan. Consequently, it was not entirely unexpected that the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Frederick W. Kagan discusses the dissimilarities between the Vietnam War and Afghanistan, offering points on how to avoid the 21st century conflict from taking turns in similar directions. He agrees that the counterinsurgency approach is feasible and that in order to succeed, Coalition Forces must be able to establish security of the population, but he also recognizes the often publicized problems with the trust in the Afghan government.

This ForeignPolicy.com article discusses the implementation of the recently updated U.S. counterinsurgency methods in Afghanistan. The second part of the article is an interview with General David Petraeus.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4587

I remember discussing last November that the Mumbai terrorists attacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_attacks) had far-reaching implications in the international fight against terrorism. Besides obviously being a human tragedy, the attacks served as an encouragement for other extremist groups to plan similar violent acts. It was not even a question of whether there would be a similar attack in Afghanistan, but when it was going to occur.