The Afghanistan casualty count for January, supposedly one of the slowest months for fighting and casualties in that country, got worse almost by the day in the first month of 2010, portending darker times that will test our willingness to stick this one out.

February picked up where last month left off. Four NATO troops were killed Monday, two of them British soldiers on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan. A Spaniard was killed and six others were wounded while escorting a UN relief convoy, and an American GI died in a similar roadside bomb attack, also in that country’s volatile south.

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