May Offensive

It's May again, and that means the Taliban's spring offensive! Not quite as looked forward to as, say, the Nordstrom sale. It's probably not a good sign that my friends and I have become blase about the occasional bomb blast that rattles one's windows.

What's going on is terrible, of course. There's been some serious fighting in the south, along the Pakistan border (coincidence, I'm sure!), and the usual share of innocent bystanders have gotten killed in the cross-fire. In Kabul, where pitched battles aren't practical or realistic, there's been an uptick in rocket attacks and bombings... and innocent Afghans have taken the brunt of it.

It's all reminiscent of last May, when in a ten day period all hell broke loose. Hopefully this surge in bad stuff will end as quickly as it did last May. However, I don't remember the big battles in the south last year that have been going on over the last week. Something has changed, but I don't know what it means. Good that scores of Taliban fighters are getting their asses thoroughly kicked. Bad that they've been able to group like this for battle. Bad that they're running from American fighters into villagers' homes and getting those destroyed in the process, along with their inhabitants.