Posted on 09/16/2007 9:07:57 AM PDT by knighthawk
The deaths this week of more than 70 Taliban in fighting in Afghanistan points out a truth often overlooked in coverage of the war there: For the past year, the Taliban have been unable to fight conventional military battles.
Whenever the Taliban send their fighters into combat with NATO or Afghan troops, they lose, their commanders are killed or captured and their forces suffer scores of casualties. These oppressive Muslim extremists have recently stepped up their suicide bombings, car bombings, targeted assassinations of Afghan government officials, school burnings and kidnappings because they know they cannot win the war militarily. Instead, they are hoping increased NATO casualties through random roadside attacks and reports of chaos in the streets will convince Western nations that Afghanistan is a lost cause.
A battle near the southern village of Aduzay this week perfectly illustrates the pattern. In one of their largest concentrations of troops this year, the Taliban ringed Aduzay, intent on driving out NATO soldiers. Instead, coalition aircraft destroyed the Taliban's firebases from the air, and NATO infantry then cleared the town's perimeter. In all, 45 Taliban were killed, with no reports of NATO or Afghan army losses.
It has been the same everywhere since last September's Operation Medusa. In that mission, Canadian and other NATO forces successfully cleared the provinces of southern and western Afghanistan of their Taliban cells. Hundreds of insurgents perished, while allied losses were minimal.
Last winter, NATO also killed or captured several prominent Taliban commanders, leaving many of their forces with no one in charge.
That is why the Taliban have increasingly resorted to terrorism: They have started going after civilians because they are less likely to fire back. They also hope media coverage of the violence will prod Western nations to beat a hasty retreat.
It is true civilian deaths are up this year by 50%, to well over 1,000. But ironically, this is because of NATO's military success, not because the Western alliance is failing. Our troops' success in infiltrating the Taliban and disrupting their chain of command has compelled the insurgency to scatter its troops all over Afghanistan just to survive. They have taken violence with them.
These same civilian deaths also reflect the growing capability of the Afghan army, which has suffered fewer casualties this year than in the past. The Taliban are often leaving national army brigades alone -- fearing they will come out the loser -- while they murder shoppers, storekeepers, school children and humanitarian workers. According to Canadian commanders, much of the improvement seen in the Afghan army can be directly linked to improved training.
Indeed, more and more, the Afghan army is taking the lead in patrols and offensive campaigns. Their skills have improved remarkably. (Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Afghan police: As in Iraq, the constabulary has made fewer strides towards impartiality and professionalism than its military cousins.)
Ottawa should respond to the Taliban's new pattern of attacks. Having mastered the Taliban in the field, our priority now should be to reduce our forces' casualties from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mines and mortar attacks -- weapons that often target our troops as they are moving from one fortified area to the next while on patrol or resupply missions. Our military is rushing bomb-detecting and detonating equipment to the front lines. But it also needs to send helicopters that can ferry our fighting men and women over IED trouble sports. If our soldiers' deaths from this insidious and murderous devices were to drop, then perhaps more Canadians would see our successes there more clearly.
Ping
Ping
Come mister Taliban tally up your casualties
(daylight come and he wanna go home)
come mister Taliban tally up your casualties
(daylight come and he wanna go home)
fire six foot seven foot eight foot gun!
(daylight come and he wanna go home)
six foot seven foot eight foot gun!
(daylight come and he wanna go home)
day me say day o
NATO shoot me and me wanna go home
We’ll keep stacking them up like cordwood, desperation or not.
I think the Taliban want the country there, as prior to 911. The tactics they use depends on what can be successful. They would use their “army” to drive out western forces if they could. Since they can’t, thay are turning to other tactics.
You are right, what got them on western radar was giving sanctuary to al Qaida. [I am really a terrible speller and one thing I like about Arabic is that there are multiple spellings for every word and name it seems.] It is really important that the Taliban continue to suffer the loss of their coutry to other Afghanis to show that haboring terrorists is not productive.
Via their allies in the Western media. Without the willful dissemination of terrorist acts by our media, terrorism would shrivel and die on the vine for the lack of a fertile medium.
The most refreshing and encouraging quote of the last 4 years...
“Now, I swear to God, if we will hear anyone is with al-Qaeda, even if he is still inside his mother’s womb, we will kill him.” --- - Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, a leader of the Dulaim confederation, the largest tribal organization in Iraq’s Anbar Province, 2007.
Don’t forget the Democrat Party, we need to beat them first, and only then we can go after the terrorists.
We are going to have to win this war IN SPITE of the Democrats active resistance.
The biggest threat to wining this war is the Democrat party.
Don’t worry, the politicians will snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.
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