After 16 years, the Afghan government controls only 57 percent of the
country’s districts, according to a report from SIGAR, the U.S.
government’s top watchdog organization
in Afghanistan. Though the number of U.S. casualties is relatively low,
the dirty secret of the war is the astonishing number of Afghans who are
dying. The number of civilian casualties has already reached a record
high this year, with at least 1,662 deaths and 3,581 wounded—many
resulting from U.S. and Afghan airstrikes.
