Marjah was where we had our showcase campaign a few months ago to demonstrate the effectiveness of our new COIN strategy. The mantra of this approach is "take, clear and hold" with the last equating with victory. Victory is when the locals not only prefer US forces to the Taliban, but trust US forces keep them safe so they can flourish. That's the whole point. You're supposed to gradually expand this "oil spot" of normal life until life in most the country is normal.
Yesterday the two top US officials in the region, Richard Holbrooke and Karl Eikenberry, came in for a visit to confer with Marjah's elders. Bad enough that insurgents took pot shots at their helicopter (for 20 minutes!). Bad enough that three suicide bombers were headed to the meeting, and seem to have been thwarted mostly because it ended early. The thing that really sinks it for me was this paragraph buried near the end of the Financial Times report:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/074dca5a-7d96-11df-a0f5-00144feabdc0.html
<begin excerpt>
Several of the dozen elders who travelled to the district headquarters to meet Mr Holbrooke said they were attending the gathering in secret for fear of Taliban reprisals. "There is no security in Marjah," one said.
<end excerpt>
If the biggest wheels in Marjah feel terrified to be seen with us in public, then clearly we don't hold shit.
(Pre-emptive apologies to Carrol for using "us" this way. It just sounds punchier.)
Michael