The AP reports:
General McChrystal’s troop request came as part of an assessment in which he declared, “Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) – while Afghan security capacity matures – risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.” The commitment of additional troops to the fight, the opening of a new operation with a bad-ass name like Cobra’s Anger, the reporting of enemy body counts produced by Marines dropped behind enemy lines in MV-22 Ospreys — this is how U.S. troops begin to regain the initiative, if not on the ground then in the media, where the Taliban have been increasingly successful in their effort to foster the perception that a U.S. defeat is inevitable. Four months after McChrystal delivered his assessment, Cobra’s Anger feels like the first step in reversing insurgent momentum.
