Mullah Omar's Eid al Fitr Message

[MSG Proctor]

Well, it may not be as the Taliban (very credibly) framed the story. This incident is not isolated. Support for the Taliban by the population is very, very low. It reminds me of the way AQ was operating in Anbar in 2006 - they simply went way, way too far with the violence, terror, tyranny, manipulation of Islam and the mosque leaders. This made cooperation with CF and the Baghdad government look attractive in comparison.

I've only been here a couple of weeks, but the feel is very similar.

Perhaps I am too optimistic or conflating insurgencies.

[Fuchs]

I get a feeling that the new American Way of War is to stay involved till OPFOR defeats itself.

[carl]

I get a feeling that the new American Way of War is to stay involved till OPFOR defeats itself.

That made me laugh.

Americans are nothing if not practical (used to be anyway). "We may be miserable SOBs at times but they're worse." Not such a stirring call to action but whatever works.

[carl]

Here is a link to an AP story that says the beheadings resulted from a fight between two Taliban commanders over some women.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...?ESRC=dod_B.nl

Who knows if it is true but if it is, welcome to back to the 90s. Which is may be good in a way. Taliban & Co rose because the Afghans were sick of that stuff. Now this (if true) and MSG Proctor reports that the Afghans are sick of Taliban & Co. Maybe something else can rise up not so malign.

[MSG Proctor]

Carl, that dynamic is at work now, however hampered by two massive obstacles: lack of mass communication apparatus and 80% illiteracy rate here.

Our operators have to adjust to IO in a theater where print/broadcast media is not the main IO transmitter to the more realistic appraisal that Mosques are the real means of 'mass communication' here. Of course the Taliban knows this and leverages it deftly in the face of our sometimes clumsy and overly-secular approaches. Hence Mullah Omar's theologically appealing call to join the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" as the "real" government of this country.

The real difficulty here is our proclivity to hamstringing ourselves with arrogant insistence on framing all things in Western paradigms (religion and political life should be kept apart). Acknowledging the primacy of the Ulema councils, Mulawis, Mullahs, Mosques and Madrassas just wrankles the sensibility of some of our operators in palpable ways.

You would think such thinking would be obvious in a COIN operation in a country that self-identifies as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

[carl]

Carl, that dynamic is at work now, however hampered by two massive obstacles: lack of mass communication apparatus and 80% illiteracy rate here.

If anything comes of that or seems to be coming of that, could you let us know? It would be very interesting to see who what and how as it is happening, if it happens.