Nathan Hughes, writing for the STRATFOR online journal, described the huge logistical challenges for the U.S. and other coalition partners in the landlocked nation of Afghanistan where “hundreds of shipping containers and fuel trucks must enter the country every day from Pakistan and from the north to sustain the nearly 150,000 U.S. and allied forces stationed in Afghanistan, about half the total number of Afghan security forces. Supplying a single gallon of gasoline in Afghanistan reportedly costs the U.S. military an average of $400, while sustaining a single U.S. soldier runs around $1 million a year (by contrast, sustaining an Afghan soldier costs about $12,000 a year).” No wonder that the U.S. President Barack Obama announced June 22 that the process of reducing military forces in Afghanistan would begin this month. Hughes worries that “though the initial phase of the drawdown appears limited, minimizing the tactical and operational impact on the ground in the immediate future, the United States and its allies are now beginning the inevitable process of removing their forces from Afghanistan. This will entail the risk of greater Taliban battlefield successes.”

Please pray for wisdom for the 50-nation coalition and the Afghan authorities and that the Taliban will become disillusioned with the conflict, giving up their misguided struggle to take over the nation so that peace and healing can come to this austere and isolated area of the world.