Kandahar: NATO at a Crossroads

ISLAMABAD - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has threatened to attempt to delay or have cancelled the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's planned summer offensive against the Taliban in the southern province of Kandahar, even as more than 10,000 American troops have poured in for the battle.

However, there may be a more compelling reason to delay the Kandahar offensive, which, after the recent operation in Marjah in Helmand province, would be the biggest in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001: across the border in Pakistan, the tribal areas are not, as had been planned, cleared of militants.