Here's the key quote, "Until recently, most of that fighting was limited to ethnic Pashtun south and eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban's stronghold. The Pashtuns who make up 42 percent of Afghanistan's 34 million people, account for the vast majority of Taliban militants...But now, as frustration is mounting with the slow rebuilding, endemic corruption, and the tactics of Afghan and foreign soldiers, non-Pashtun militants...have sprouted alongside their former Taliban enemies in northern and western Afghanistan."
So, lets see. There is insurgency in the 'south,' 'eastern,'northern,' and 'western' Afghanistan. Unless Afghanistan has a fifth direction, it would seem that the fighting is occurring throughout the country. Citing directions relieves the WSJ from having to say the whole country is up-in-arms against the Americans and their allies.
The WSJ journal discusses at length one of these militants, a highly respected mujahedeen commander who was a scourge of Soviet occupation forces and is a former strong ally of the US.
It is a sign of a drastic situation that is going down hill fast when your allies cross over to the other side
Obama will have only a limited time to make decisions to address the potential disaster. Any decision he makes will be unpopular. If he sends in more troops, the American public will show its opposition, not to speak of the left in his own political party. If he stands pat, the situation of American troops will only worsen, raising images of the last days in Saigon.
One way out is for Obama to just declare victory and get out. But it is probably too late for that; too much is known about the actual facts.
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