Coalition Forces Routing Taliban in Key Afghan Region

NYT ^ | 10/20/2010 | Carlotta Gall

[mojito]

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — American and Afghan forces have been routing the Taliban in much of Kandahar Province in recent weeks, forcing many hardened fighters, faced with the buildup of American forces, to flee strongholds they have held for years, NATO commanders, local Afghan officials and residents of the region said.

A series of civilian and military operations around the strategic southern province, made possible after a force of 12,000 American and NATO troops reached full strength here in the late summer, has persuaded Afghan and Western officials that the Taliban will have a hard time returning to areas they had controlled in the province that was their base.

Some of the gains seem to have come from a new mobile rocket that has pinpoint accuracy — like a small cruise missile — and has been used against the hideouts of insurgent commanders around Kandahar. That has forced many of them to retreat across the border into Pakistan.

[mojito]

OK, I've seen a pig fly. This is the New York Times, Front Page, extolling the effectiveness of US combat forces.

I never thought I'd see the day.

[luvbach1]

OK, I've seen a pig fly. This is the New York Times, Front Page, extolling the effectiveness of US combat forces.

This just might have a connection to who is, excuse the expression, Commander in Chief.

[Westbrook]

> OK, I’ve seen a pig fly. This is the New York Times,
> Front Page, extolling the effectiveness of US combat
> forces.

Well, you gotta remember who is the ostensible Commander-in-Chief.

Can’t make the Chief 0bamunist look bad, now, can we?

[ScottinVA]

forcing many hardened fighters, faced with the buildup of American forces, to flee strongholds they have held for years,

Tactical retreat, folks. They're marshalling their forces for when we leave in July. They've done this before, only to return.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Yesterday we were in secret talks with the Taliban because the country was deteriorating and the Taliban was rising up and today we are routing them?

I call BS

[AngryJawa]

I have no doubt that we’ve been kicking their asses for quite some time. I DO, however, question the timing of the downcast reporting of a few months ago and then THIS just a couple weeks before the election.

[Venturer]

They will be back next week.

[SunkenCiv]

October Surprise, courtesy the partisan media shills at the New York Slimes. Thanks mojito.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Makes your head spin.

Guess I should see what LWJ is saying.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From LWJ Threat Matrix:

Taliban want US withdrawal deadline in writing

[Marine_Uncle]

The Taliban are not going to just fade away. We have to remember why they where created in the first place. To take over Afghanistan and create a Caliph with strict Shara law.
The Slimes is just trying to make it look like the Kenyan has things under control. Of course no one can deny what the US and NATO forces are doing in that region as being fake. They are trying to rid the place of those goons, and turn around the local mind set to not want them to slide back in after all our forces leave. Perhaps eventually we shall see an effective equivalent of what we saw in the Al Anbar awakening where the tribal chiefs signed on to the eradication of AQI.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that’s gonna happen. /sarc

Tell them the deadline is one day after the Taliban finally blows up its last suicide bomb and goes extinct.