The Battle of Marja Begins

Hmm, this could be an actual turning point in the Afghan war much like Fallujah was in the Iraq war.

But U.S. and Afghan officials know that die-hard Taliban forces have been burying hundreds of improvised explosive devices around the town in recent weeks. "It's giving time and space to those who want to fight to dig in," says Ali Jalali, who served as Afghanistan's first post-Taliban Interior Minister and now works with the Pentagon's National Defense University in Washington. "It could be very bloody, and that could affect public opinion in Europe and the U.S."

I hope they have the escape routes hemmed in because city fighting is the worst kind of fighting. Luckily unlike Stalingrad or Huế the Taliban do not have armies in reserve to envelope any attacking Americans.