More on Afghanistan.

Bill Roggio at The Fourth Rail has a fine selection of stories and links about Afghanistan from two days ago, Back to the 'Stan. He quotes Fox News on the 50 killed, 25 captured numbers. I'm not so sure, but I'm just a woodworker who blogs. My skepticism comes from the big difference in the numbers from the unnamed US military speaker, 11 killed. And in the Arab paper quoted below, the Taliban spokes-terrorist makes his claim for four martyrs and 28 attackers killed. Both speakers seem a bit braggy to me, but see woodworker who blogs disclaimer above. The Taliban did admit his base had been completely destroyed. Bill Roggio links to reports of over 500 terrorists killed since March, certainly good news and devastating to the enemy.

And this is telling good news:

The Taliban's high casualty rates have taken a toll. Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya states the Taliban has been forced to conscript children to make up for their losses. So much for a popular Islamist movement in Afghanistan.
[T]he ranks of Taliban in some areas have been so devastated by heavy fighting that the rebels are forcing families "to give up one son to fight."
"They have been hit so hard they now have to recruit more fighters. They are recruiting younger and younger fighters: 14, 15 and 16 years-old," Kamiya said. "The enemy is having a hard time keeping its recruit rates up."
He said part of the reason the rebels have suffered such unprecedented losses recently was that they have been caught gathering in large groups three times and pounded by airstrikes and ground forces. Some 170 suspected insurgents were killed in a weeklong battle in June in a mountainous militant hide-out.

Follow some of The Fourth Rail links. Again, like Iraq, the Taliban are attacking what they cannot defeat once it is established, representative government. It is tremendously encouraging to hear of their ongoing attrition. The parlimentary elections are Sept. 18th. Not far off.