Posted on 12/15/2009 1:54:33 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
In Afghanistan, the Taliban are finding that their Medieval warrior mentality and physical hardiness are no match for smart bombs and even smarter intelligence work. The Taliban fighters are often described as clever and adaptive. They are. But the Taliban fighters, including many of the leaders, are illiterate and uncomfortable with new technology. They constantly get nailed using cell phones and walkie talkies (like the Motorola models available worldwide), even though it's common knowledge that the U.S. frequently eavesdrops. The Afghans believe the Americans are using some kind of pagan "magic", and if an Islamic warrior is pure-of-heart, the magic will not work. The better educated and more astute Taliban leaders (from wealthier families that send their sons to schools, sometimes even college) complain about this bitterly in captured communications. The Taliban spend a lot of their time staying hidden. There are Afghan police, and civilians willing to provide information. The Taliban have to hide weapons and ammo, as well as caches of food. The hiding places are visited periodically, to add or remove material, or just to make sure someone else hasn't found the stuff and made off with it. Finding and looting these caches has long been a popular outdoor sport. The movements of these Taliban, going to add to a cache, or just check up, are often noted by U.S. troops. U.S. troops can find the caches with UAVs and scouts on the ground, who observe the traffic pattern in the hills, and put pieces of data together to locate where the stuff is hidden. It's this kind of detective work that is being used to find and destroy the small groups that make and place roadside bombs, or recruit, equip and use suicide bombers.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
“...if an Islamic warrior is pure-of-heart, the magic will not work.”
Hopefully these scum of humankind will continue to believe that.
Like to know what kind of psych ops we are using. They are the perfect target for screwing with heads.
Well, seeing how we are flapping our mouths about it in publications anyone can get, I suspect their believe system will under go some change.
I would make a series of ‘underground’ videos, using the kind of makeup and special effects Hollywood is so good at, showing supposedly ghost images of suicide bombers telling there are no virgins, just hell for those who kill themselves and innocent civilians! They could turn out some killer videos that would scare them to death. Imagine a scene from hell where there’s nothing but pigs as far as the eye can see!
This could be fun.
You are BAD! I love it. Only problem is some liberal lawyer would decide we owed money to the idiot who died of a heart attack from watching the video.
“Like to know what kind of psych ops we are using. They are the perfect target for screwing with heads.”
Mr. Predator uses their heads for a perfect target... and volia! Their heads come unscrewed!
“)
“Well, seeing how we are flapping our mouths about it in publications anyone can get, I suspect their believe system will under go some change.”
Yes you are right... as soon as the bulk of them learn to read...
But then they would have to give up on that whole ‘magic’ thing.
I would not underestimate them.
That’s because the algore crowd aren’t betting their lives on it.
Yes, the taliban/mujahadeen are so backwards and stupid we haven’t beaten them in eight years.
Believe what you wish. I’m glad that you aren’t a decision maker in that conflict. If you were, we’d never change tactics regardless of the situation because in your opinion it would be “nonsense”.
Does Obama have a new cellphone by now? I mean: that 1933 model he used to sport has become a bit, um, unfashionable. Can’t we donate a mint Semtex 1100 to him?
I saw a film on the Taliban recently. A journalist did research on the Taliban ‘mindset’. For me it was an incredibly enlightening experience, but not a happy one. Taliban have ‘no identity’. What do I mean:
There are tribes in Afhanistan. They live by the codices of tribes, in ways that Westerners can barely understand (I can’t). Suppose a farmer with a family is in difficulties, economically. He can, overnight, change over to being a Talibaan-warrior (and let the warriors use his land). In turn, he gets a nice sum of money, and/or goods, to support his family.
Vice-versa: a Talibaan can be in need of some form of protection. He strikes a deal with a local chief, and become a ‘normal citizen’ in a couple of hours. He pays the chief, the chief protects him.
Identity is fluid there. That is one of the reasons they are so notoriously difficult to fight. Being illiterate is not an issue; everyone who fought them up until the present was someone from another world so to speak: a designated soldier, trained well, but with a solid identity of his own. It is a mark of the developed West that we all have a true and unchanging identity, it has solified from our upbringing onwards, with good, decent rules to live by.
It is not so with the Taliban.
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