andrew besovich is a professor of boston university. they are in opposition on this. is this uptick in violence good news, by which i mean when the surge began in iraq, general petraeus warned that the initial effect of the surge would be to actually raise troop casualties because the united states forces would be actively engaging the enemy in ways they had not done so far. is that what's happening in afghanistan? >> i think we're inevitably going to see some increase in casualties in the next few months, but i do think casualties aren't necessarily a particularly good indicator of whether you're winning or losing. casualties, both to the civilian population and to coalition forces, tend to be very low in two kinds of places, places that are completely controlled by the government and places that are completely controlled by the enemy. so, the absence of casualties doesn't necessarily mean you're doing well or doing badly. and the presence of casualties that we're finding in some areas just tells you that fighting is going on. it doesn't really indicate whether we're