In Preview of Surge, U.S. Calms Afghan Valley but Peace Is Fragile

By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
Wall Street Journal

JALREZ VALLEY, Afghanistan -- A single company of fresh U.S. troops has turned this insurgent haven into a laboratory test for President Barack Obama's Afghanistan troop surge.

Last year, it took a 150-man police escort to get Sayed Jawad Bahoner, the new subgovernor of this district, safely into Jalrez town to assume his post. He slept on the floor of his office building and rarely ventured more than 100 yards outside for fear of the insurgents who ruled the streets.

That was before February, when a company of American infantrymen dropped into town from helicopters and set up outposts along the Jalrez Valley. Mr. Bahoner feels so safe that in April, he summoned his wife and three children from their hideaway in Kabul and moved them into a house in town.

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