I read that report earlier today and I just can't get my head around what it's reporting. Maybe it's right - but it just doesn't make much sense. As one commentator on this piece remarked, if the Taleban in eastern Afghanistan aren't quite coming out to fight like they might, it's more likely because they don't have to, rather than that they can't.
Paddy Ashdown is supposed to touch-down in Afghanistan today, and hopefully he may be able to take advantage of some fault lines and especially the recent split between the Taleban leadership and one of its senior commanders over operations in Pakistan. Or at the very least, be able to go to work on making deals with certain tribes and leaders of the Pashtuns to be able to accomplish something akin to the "Anbar Awakening" in Iraq.
At least one of the Marine BLT's that's coming soon to Afghanistan is heading to Kandahar to join the NATO contingent there. That will go a long way to helping to shore up the resolve of at least one NATO-member Government to stay in the fight. Now if there happened to be a nice chunk of Marine Air coming along with them...
There's going to need it if they can get it. They'll be fighting not only the local Pashtuns and of course Chechens, Uzbeks, and Arabs, but these same guys using Soviet-style conventional war TTP's right down to the kinds of trench systems and layout of field fortifications they use. Cold War-type training is actually more useful in parts of Afghanistan than some might think.
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