This weekend marked the start of the ground war in Afghanistan. More than 200 U.S. commandos and light infantry Rangers landed and fought with Taliban forces near the regime’s spiritual stronghold of Kandahar in a military airport 60 miles to the southeast, some 20 Taliban soldiers reportedly killed before helicopters lifted the U.S. troops out of the area. The opening of the ground war also saw the first U.S. operational casualties, when two U.S. paratroopers also died when their helicopter crashed near the Pakistani-Afghan border.