Posted on 03/05/2006 2:55:28 PM PST by pyx
I'm surprised the soldiers weren't give a lecture on tolerance and the axeman wasn't invited to immigrate to Canada.
I thought it might be good for folks to understand what the Kandahar area is really about.
It is a very dfangerous area because there is support from Pakistan.
This is the traffic that CFOR is in the middle of, and the peace corps approach just won't work.
CFOR must interdict and destroy the traffic in terrorists from Quetta Pakistan
Please read on:
IWPR ^ | March 3, 2006 | Abdullah Shahin
Posted on 03/06/2006 12:53:59 AM EST by Saberwielder
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1590727/posts
Where the Taleban Train
Quetta serves as training ground and staging post for insurgents on their way to Afghanistan.
By Abdullah Shahin in Quetta (ARR No. 205, 3-Mar-06)
The turbans in black or white, the long beards and the omnipresent "pirhan-tunbon", the baggy trousers and long shirts that are the traditional Afghan dress, tell me I'm in Afghanistan in the late Nineties, during the Taleban regime.
But this is 2006, and I am in Quetta in Pakistan.
Quetta, the capital of the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, lies about 200 kilometres southeast of Kandahar, across a porous border. Many of my fellow countrymen have made the journey here. In fact, some sections of the city seem to be populated almost entirely by Taleban who fled after the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
Now they lie in wait in Quetta, plotting their return.
Over the last year, Kandahar has seen an alarming rise in suicide bombings and attacks on troops and government installations. In the past three months alone, there have been more than 20 acts of violence, leaving dozens dead, hundreds wounded, and an entire province terrorised.
Quetta provides a ready supply of young men prepared to wreak havoc in Afghanistan, local observers tell me. There are eight major madrassas or Muslim religious schools in Quetta, each with over 1,000 students or "taleban" in the original sense of the word. In addition, there are hundreds of private madrassas, some with just 100 students, often occupying unmarked, rented houses.
It is these private schools that are a major source of the fighters who are now carrying out insurgent operations inside Kandahar, according to these observers.
One 23-year-old madrassa student, wearing the characteristic black turban of the "taleb", spoke to me on condition of anonymity.
“I am preparing for jihad here, until I am sent to Afghanistan,” he said. “Jihad is my duty and martyrdom my hope.”
Another Taleb, 25-year-old Saadullah, explained why he had decided to wage jihad in his homeland.
“I was recruited by one of my friends who told me terrible things about the Afghan government,” he said. “I was also told that the Americans were always abusing people, killing them, going into their homes and insulting their religion.”
Mullahs did their part, too, he added, preaching fiery sermons against the Afghan government and the American occupiers during Friday prayers.
Saadullah said he was dispatched on a mission to Kandahar to fight both Afghan and foreign troops.
“I was to carry out a suicide attack on an Afghan National Army base in Kandahar,” he said.
But at the border, the friend who was supposed to be accompanying him on the mission gave him 30 US dollars, wished him luck, and headed back to Quetta.
“I thought, ‘Why am I to die while you go back to Quetta?’” Saadullah recalled. “Why are these people not doing jihad themselves? They're just taking advantage of the emotions of young people. They are liars.
"I came back and I will never have anything to do with them again.”
With Pakistani police a rare sight in much of this city, Quetta residents say that the Taleban operate with impunity. They run offices and openly recruit candidates for insurgent operations in Kandahar.
One resident called Abdullah, 40, said the city contains a number of prominent Taleban leaders such as military commanders Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Abdul Ali Dubandi.
“The whole world knows that the Taleban are trained in Pakistan but they ignore it. The Taleban are all over Quetta,” he said.
When you walk through the streets of Quetta, you hear Taleban religious songs blaring out of music stores. These incendiary chants, called "tarana", call on youths to join the jihad, kill infidels and repel the occupiers. Such recordings were banned a few years ago, but now they are back.
“Pakistani police used to close down shops that played Taleban songs, but now no one is afraid. The mullahs are very strong,” said one shop owner.
A bookseller who did not want to be named said, “The Taleban are putting out magazines. These publications used to be banned, but now they're published openly and we sell them in our stores.” “When you read them, you just want to grab a gun and go to jihad,” said the bookseller.
Mullahs here openly incite their followers to attack the current Afghan government. In Friday sermons, they encourage the congregation to join the struggle.
“These attacks should continue. Our struggle is legal. We want to install an Islamic regime in Afghanistan,” said one mullah in the Chawlo Bawlo area of the city.
Some city residents claim that the Pakistani military is playing a role in training the would-be insurgents.
“The Pakistani military headquarters in Quetta is the main Taleban training base,” said Tariq, 31, a resident of the Askari Park area. “I've seen with my own eyes that Taleban were taken there for training. One of my relatives was among them.”
Military officials refused to comment on the allegation. Governor Owai Ahmad Ghani, speaking on Pakistani television, flatly denied that the Taleban were operating in Quetta and rejected claims that Pakistan was interfering in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan government is weak. It can't control the remote areas of its country, so it accuses Pakistan of meddling in its affairs,” he said.
Taleban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, in an exclusive interview with IWPR, said the stories of Taleban bases inside Pakistan were just propaganda.
“People think Pakistan is our friend, but it is not true,” he said. “Pakistan is an ally of America, not of the Taleban.”
The Taleban had no need of foreign bases, he insisted, adding, “The Taleban are sons of Afghanistan. They are in Afghanistan and they will fight in Afghanistan.”
But Afghan officials remain convinced that Pakistan is serving as a major operations base for the increasingly frequent insurgent attacks that threaten to destabilise the southern part of their country.
In mid-February, Afghan president Hamed Karzai led a high-ranking delegation to Pakistan, telling officials there that Afghanistan would no longer tolerate support for terrorists from across the border. While he stopped short of outright accusations, Karzai made it clear that he expected Pakistan to make serious efforts to halt the flow of personnel and weapons across the border.
“If [the attacks] don’t stop, the consequences… will be that this region will suffer with us, exactly as we suffer. In the past we suffered alone. This time everybody will suffer with us,” Karzai told reporters.
Assadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province, has repeatedly alleged that Pakistan is behind the recent wave of attacks. In particular, he blamed Pakistan for a suicide bombing that killed 27 and wounded 40 in Spin Boldak in January.
“Pakistan is responsible for the past two decades of war,” he said. “Pakistani police are guarding the houses of the Taleban. We have evidence indicating that memorial services for the suicide bombers are being held in Pakistan.”
Even some Pakistani politicians and analysts agree that their country is heavily involved in creating mayhem on its neighbour’s territory.
“Pakistan does not want stability in Afghanistan,” said Hasel Bizenjo, leader of the Baluch National Party, which represents ethnic Baluchis. “Pakistan wants Afghanistan under its influence.”
Awrangzeb Kasi, a Pakistani political analyst in Quetta, said he believes that there are special terrorist training camps in Pakistan.
“There have been terrorist camps in Pakistan for 26 years, where Inter Services Intelligence [ISI] provides training” he said. “The Pakistani government is always saying that it supports peace in the region, and that it will arrest al-Qaeda leaders, but it is really not doing anything.”
Abdul Rahim Mandokhel, the Quetta-based deputy leader of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami, an ethnic Pashtun party in Pakistan, agrees.
“It is clear that these terrorists are trained and supported by Islamabad,” he said. “Pakistan can stop these terrorists, but it doesn’t want to.”
Abdullah Shahin is a freelance reporter in Kandahar.
"Until very recently that was my tagline."
That would be a good tagline to have.
(the one you have now is funny);)
IMHO, the successful warrior in this region will first attend a Bible Bootcamp and hone his spiritual skills.
In this very different region from the US, one should have been in a position to perceive a vile nature in the populous when such behavior is exhibited. Even prior to its soulish manifestation, a well disciplined believer will percieve more than an unbelieving peer.
My prayers are out to the officer corps, that as they have inherited more spiritual responsibilites for their juniors in their chain of command, that they followup to make sure their chaplains are fully training their personnel in spiritual warfare and basics of Bible doctrine.
One doesn't have to be a believer to be a successful member in the military, where the military defends a nation and a nation is a divinely established institution. In this war, though, a believer is likely to not only encounter unbelievers, but might also encounter demonic possession of those adversaries.
This recorded incident is only an obvious case of such an adversarial spirit, perhaps that of the man, or another. The larger threat looms from more deceptive adversarial spirits. They don't always manifest themselves so early in one's exposure to their presence. The only true defense is by remaining faith to God through faith in Christ and where appropriate advancing ever onward in Him, regardless the adversarial spirit.
The report indicates children were removed from the area just immediately preceding the attack.
In assymetric warfare, never confuse an unarmed populous as being impotent, neutral, or naturally friendly.
Throughout recorded history in warfare, adversaries who refuse to submit to their victors are crushed.
One reason why disarmed and overcome enemy civilian populations have always sustained the highest casualty rates in warfare, is that when 'assymetric' warfare is practiced by such an adversary, they are summarily slaughtered.
This is also a very fundamental reason why warzones have always been accompanied by refugees and displaced populations seeking to move out of harm's way. They don't leave everything they own and their land because it's just a little incovenient. They leave because the will probably die otherwise, regardless of who might be involved in the tactical cause.
Meanwhile, displaced populations have always harbored a great percentage of future adversaries. The only victory in warfare is when the enemy changes his thinking and his actions. If the absence of that adversary is only by actions that remove their souls from their bodies, i.e if they don't change their thinking, then simply slaughter them.
IMHO, the article has insufficient info as to whether the killed officer was foolish or martyred. If he was a believer in Christ and the Lord led him to provide an example of faith and he responded through faith in Christ, then he died the most glorious death any believer might experience, namely at the time and place God planned for him to die. On the other hand, if he was an unbeliever, then he foolishly exercised a misplaced faith and perhaps another legalistic unbeliever slaughtered him. If such is the case, then both will be classified as good for nothing and were already condemned and dead in spirit regardless. let the dead bury the dead. The living need to focus on establishing legitimate authority in the region while advancing in their relationship with God through continuous fellowship with Him.
Another possibility is that the officer was a believer who had drifted away from Christ, perhaps believing he could advance good works by a brotherhood of man independent of faith through Christ. Again, such an endeavor might be worldly successful when employed within the framework of divinely established institutions such as national governance, but might have also resulted in the sin unto death, whereby the particular backslidden believer no longer is good for anything in this world by divine planning.
A more likely scenerio is that the adversary was simply a murderer, acting on his own soulish behavior without any fellowship with God through Christ, committed a criminal act and killed accordingly. His victim, righteous or not, had exposed himself to deceptive murderers. Had the situation been platoon on company, the foolish officer's decisions might have resulted in many more friendlies being needlessly slaughtered.
This incident is similar to different film versions of Mutiny on the Bounty, in that one could present seveeral different versions of events using the exact same soulish behavior depending on differing spiritual conditions.
come on soldier stop listening to the Sean Penn psyops, this was a close cal don't let your guard down with these people.
"IMHO, the article has insufficient info as to whether the killed officer was foolish or martyred. If he was a believer in Christ and the Lord led him to provide"
Officer Greene was not killed. Was removed by helicopter to Germany........ Feel your judgment is harsh for non-christians, or non-believers in christ. If officer Greene is conscious, he still has a chance for salvation. You sound "too eager" to punish this brave soldier.
I don't judge him. Man is condemned already before one has faith in Christ. Even if a man dies in sin, doesn't mean God hadn't previously regenerated his spirit. Nobody can remove salvation, but anybody with volition may act in faith through Christ.
Carolyn
Why are well tarined soldiers acting so stupid?
They are under orders to .
Those orders have to change. Maybe Christ can get that done.
Or a lot of Canadian soldiers will face matyrdom, just like their totalitarian enemies.
And for a free democracy such as Canada, matyrdom will not be enough
Forbit will insist on the eventual martyrdom of Steven Harper and a recontrol of Canada by gurly froggy men federal politicos, a disaster.
I agree
thanks!
I have no burning desire to be right and this is not an,'I told you so.'
My goal is to get Canadians to call or Freep e-mail Harper's Office and tell him to make sure the Rules of Engagement ( ROE) for the Princess Pats reflect an anti-guerilla interdiction operation, with General Fraser calling the shots ( now being called by Ottawa MoD) on the ground.
The politics in Canada's Ministry of Defence ( MoD) are to have CFOR create an image. They have no intention of even letting the Princess Patricia Rifles get the job done.
The ROE for CFOR appear to be really not risk effective.
I believe the ROE for CFOR should be changed to an anti-guerilla interdiction operation. The Talibanis are infiltrating Kandahar from Quetta. This traffic needs to be stopped before the reconstruction work can begin the way it should.
Would you go into an unsecured zone, put down your weapon and take off your helmet, and then sit on the ground??
These troops are well trained, and I can assure you they have ROE that are too unrealistic, micromanaged from Ottawa. The liberals in MoD Canada want this force to fail, and to embarass the newly elected conservative government in Canada, and have the public demand a troop recall. Politics are being played with the lives of young Canadian soldiers.
I mean, whats a sea change in Canadian politics worth,to get back to the liberals ? Couple hundred of English speaking Canadians die so we can get back to francophone federal politicians controlling Ottawa? Someone in MoD has decided our young Canadians in an English speaking Scots Canadian regiment are quite expendable.
If it was the Royal 22nd Regiment in Kandahar, staffed mostly by French Canadians, I can assure you that the ROE would be much more vigorous and aggressive.
Turn General Fraser loose, and let him command in the field to do what is necessary to help interdict the Quetta/ Kandahar Talibabi traffic.Change the ROE for the Princess Pats!!!!!!
This is Prime Minister Harper's first significant challange from a fedreal bureaucracy still dedicated to liberalism, and how it goes, so shall the national body politic go. I hope Harper is on a back channel to MoD making sure this Peace Corps shite ROE stops NOW!!!!
Help harper along by giving his office and email his staff. Freep him now!!
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
I CC'd this post to Mr. Harpers Office.
Please Freep Him at E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
***************************************************** Dear Prime Minister Harper:
I am a Canadian Citizen living in the United States.
I am writing you about the rules of Engagement for the Princes Patricia Rifles currently stationed in, Kandahar, Afghanistan.
I copy hereunder, a post to the Free Republic discussion list to which many Canadians belong. We see a vulnerability in the Canadian Forces that can lead to very serious problems for the Conservative party and your government.
I simply request you to review the MoD Rules of Engagement for CFOR in Kandahar, so that General Fraser has the ability to mount an anti-Guerrilla interdiction operation if necessary. Reconstruction cannot begin before security is achieved in the area of operations.
God Bless you Mr. Prime Minister, keep the Princess Patricia Soldiers as safe as possible in this difficult work.
Yours,
( Sign'd True name)
*********************************************************************************
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1590566/posts?page=93
************************************************************************************
The politics in Canada's Ministry of Defence ( MoD) are to have CFOR create an image. They have no intention of even letting the Princess Patricia Rifles get the job done.
The Rules of Engagement (ROE) for CFOR appear to be really not risk effective.
I believe the ROE for CFOR should be changed to an anti-guerilla interdiction operation. The Talibanis are infiltrating Kandahar from Quetta. This traffic needs to be stopped before the reconstruction work can begin the way it should.
Would you go into an unsecured zone, put down your weapon and take off your helmet, and then sit on the ground??
These troops are well trained, and I can assure you they have ROE that are too unrealistic, micromanaged from Ottawa. The liberals in MoD Canada want this force to fail, and to embarass the newly elected conservative government in Canada, and have the public demand a troop recall. Politics are being played with the lives of young Canadian soldiers.
I mean, whats a sea change in Canadian politics worth,to get back to the liberals ? Couple hundred of English speaking Canadians die so we can get back to francophone federal politicians controlling Ottawa? Someone in MoD has decided our young Canadians in an English speaking Scots Canadian regiment are quite expendable.
If it was the Royal 22nd Regiment in Kandahar, staffed mostly by French Canadians, I can assure you that the ROE would be much more vigorous and aggressive.
Turn General Fraser loose, and let him command in the field to do what is necessary to help interdict the Quetta/ Kandahar Talibabi traffic.Change the ROE for the Princess Pats!!!!!!
This is Prime Minister Harper's first significant challange from a fedreal bureaucracy still dedicated to liberalism, and how it goes, so shall the national body politic go. I hope Harper is on a back channel to MoD making sure this Peace Corps shite ROE stops NOW!!!!
My prayers are with this brave man this evening, that the Lord will watch over him, heal his wounds, and restore him back to good health.
What the hell do you mean by that?
Any word on the condition of Captain Greene?
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