Hey, Hey it's the Taliban

Afghan Taliban a Growing Menace to Stability
Tue August 26, 2003 06:52 AM ET
By Mike Collett-White

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Operating in growing numbers, the Taliban and their allies have succeeded in destabilizing large parts of Afghanistan and creating conditions that could undermine the U.S. military and central government.

Aid and reconstruction is suspended across swathes of territory in the center, south and southeast, giving Afghans the impression the international community has abandoned them now the Taliban has been formally ousted.

"Once people are discouraged, that is the point of success for them, as no one will collaborate (with the authorities)," said Khalid Pashtun, director of foreign affairs in the south of the country.
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Officials and aid workers say that most Afghans, including Pashtuns in the conservative south, oppose the ousted Taliban regime, which has stepped up attacks on government forces and is moving in groups as large as 600 fighters.

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Critics say the United States may be paying the price for committing only around 10,000 soldiers to Afghanistan compared with about 136,000 in Iraq.

Osama Bin Who?

Isn't this one of the victories Michael O'Hanlon was citing in an article?

In reality, this is no victory, but a dangerous quagmire against a group which should have been destroyed in the field months ago.

Amazing.

As I write this, Bush is chortling about killing more "terrorists", when in reality, they are kicking our asses up and down the Hindu Kush and central Iraq. His wars are failing. His version of "decisive" action is the action of a child going after a bully, not a democracy dealing with real threats.

He's talking about how the taliban ran. Well, yes. They ran away and ran right back.

And in his sociopathic way, he's equating war with justice. Dropping bombs on the enemy is not justice. It's self-defense.

He's talking about the "new" Afghan Army. The one which is outnumbered by the private Army of the minister of defense. There are two wars. One in his head, one on the ground. He talks about Al Qaeda in the same deluded way Westmorland talked about COSVN, the mythical headquarters of the North Vietnamese. AQ is not a fixed organization, but a dynamic one. Kill one leader, another pops up. It's not even known how many groups AQ controls directly. They fund a lot more than they run.

Now he's dragging out the poor, dead Shia as his justification for the Iraq war.

We're beating AQ, but they're flocking to Iraq. Insane, insane, insane.

"The more freedom we gain in Iraq, the more desperate they become"

LOL. Right. The freedom to be kidnapped and raped on the streets. The freedom to steal munitions and blow things up. You don't import 500lbs Soviet bombs. Desperate, how about effective.

"....seizing thousands of AK 47's" to be used by our rifle short troops.

"We captured the man named Chemical Ali" who we said was dead three times during the war.

Bush is lying before the American Legion. If they believe him, that would be sad.

posted by Steve @ 4:36:00 PM