Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan – Asked point-blank “Are coalition forces winning the war in Helmand?” a senior military commander here said: “Yes.”
“I can say that definitively,” said Marine Col. Norman Cooling, the operations officer for the regional command, where 20,000 coalition troops are deployed.
Cooling said the province, in southern Afghanistan, has turned around in recent months. Attacks are down and the local population has rejected the Taliban. “Wherever you put coalition forces, one – there’s painful violence, and two – it starts settling out, and you start seeing improvements,” he said.