US ARMS IN WRONG HANDS - AT 6:41 A.M. ET:  We chided The New York Times in the story below, so now let us have praise.  A well-reported Times story tells a troubling picture of what is emerging as America's main battlefront, Afghanistan/Pakistan:

KABUL — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.

Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces, according to an examination of ammunition markings by The New York Times and interviews with American officers and arms dealers.

The presence of this ammunition among the dead in the Korangal Valley, an area of often fierce fighting near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, strongly suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops.

COMMENT:  If true, it's obviously a grim and chaotic situation.  Just as bad, stories like this, which must be reported, provide ammunition to the cut-and-run crowd, which has now transferred its passion from Iraq to Afghanistan.  Whenever America is involved in a conflict, this bunch has exactly the same policy advice - cut our losses and get out.  They had plenty of practice in Vietnam, and have used it well.

May 20, 2009