(U.S. Marines from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines fires mortars in the town of Marjah in Nad Ali district of Helmand province February 14, 2010)

U.S.-led NATO and Afghan forces are in the third day of their offensive to establish control over the town of Marjah and surrounding areas in southern Afghanistan.

(British soldiers from the First Battalion The Royal Welsh mobilise for Operation Moshtarak)

U.S-led NATO forces launched early on Saturday an offensive against a Taliban stronghold  in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, said to be one of the biggest  since the fall of the Taliban in 2001  While the operation to clear and “hold forever” the town of Marjah may not be the turning point in the eight-year Afghan war, it’s the first big test of President Barack Obama’s troop surge strategy.

(Outside the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah)

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told CNN this week that his biggest worry was not Afghanistan, not Iraq and not even Iran which is hurtling into a fresh confrontation with the West over its nuclear programme.  The big concern was Pakistan with  its nuclear weapons and  a radicalised section of society.

“It’s a big country. it has nuclear weapons that are able to be deployed.  It has a real significant minority of radicalised population. It is not a completely functional democracy in the sense we think about it.  And so….. that’s my greatest concern.”