The Taliban collection (2006 onwards)

[davidbfpo]

Worth checking the lengthy review of Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop by Antonio Giustiozzi on:http://zenpundit.com/?p=3471

The last sentence sums it up:

What the reader will get from Giustozzi is a grasp of who the Neo-Taliban are as a fighting force and the convoluted, granular, social complexity of Afghan political life in which the US is attempting to wage a COIN war.

I suppose I better read it now!

[40below]

Worth checking the lengthy review of Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop by Antonio Giustiozzi on:http://zenpundit.com/?p=3471

The last sentence sums it up:

I suppose I better read it now!

Well, it's not just you guys who are doing it.

[davidbfpo]

Not sure if previous papers in this series have been posted here.

The latest paper 'The Taliban Beyond the Pashtuns' by Antonio Giustozzi and the Abstract states:

Although the Taliban remain a largely Pashtun movement in terms of their composition, they have started making significant inroads among other ethnic groups. In many cases, the Taliban have co-opted, in addition to bandits, disgruntled militia commanders previously linked to other organizations, and the relationship between them is far from solid. There is also, however, emerging evidence of grassroots recruitment of small groups of ideologically committed Uzbek, Turkmen and Tajik Taliban. While even in northern Afghanistan the bulk of the insurgency is still Pashtun, the emerging trend should not be underestimated.

Link:http://www.cigionline.org/sites/defa...an_Paper_5.pdf

Previous papers are on:http://www.cigionline.org/publications/paper-series/234

[davidbfpo]

A UK Channel 4 TV commentary on a freelance reporter being embedded and later kidnapped by the Taliban:

Channel 4 News has obtained rare film of Taliban fighters on the Afghanistan frontline, including footage of their attacks on US forces. Channel 4 News Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson looks at what the film tells us about the insurgents and their tactics.

The video alas is not working at the moment and yes, often refuses to play abroad.

Link:http://www.channel4.com/news/article...ntline/3734447

[davidbfpo]

Ahmed Rashid, the respected journalist and author of:

Ahmed Rashid, whose book Descent into Chaos is the definitive work on the Afghan war

spoke at IISS (London) on 21st July 2010, on:

addressed the problems associated with talking to the Taliban, regional tensions, the roles played by Afghanistan and Pakistan, the capacity of the Karzai government to win over the non-Pashtun ethnic groups and the problems that can occur with power sharing agreements.

Link:http://www.iiss.org/programmes/afgha...-and-portents/

This is a video of the talk and Q&A.

In a follow-up in The Spectator under the headline 'Pakistan's double game in Afghanistan':

A few months ago Hamid Karzai would have been thrilled to have confirmation that American officers are speaking openly about how divisions of Pakistani intelligence are helping the Taleban. But after spending eight years criticising the ISI, he recently decided to cosy up to them. This change is crucial to understanding what is really happening in Afghanistan.

Karzai seems to have given up on the ability of the Americans, the Brits and Nato either to defeat the Taleban or even to talk to them. This is why he has turned to Pakistan and Iran: his own freelance attempt to try to broker a ceasefire with the Taleban which would involve a power-sharing deal.

I like the last sentence, yes pithy:

The mess in Afghanistan has just got messier.

Link to article:http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/al...pakistan.thtml

[davidbfpo]

Amidst a news round up are a couple of paragraphs (shortened), with links, on the state of the Taliban armoury in Helmand, after the Marja fighting:

Have you ever wondered what an insurgent’s gun locker looks like? The New York Times has for some while been looking at what weapons the Taliban and associated groups have at their disposal, how they equip themselves, and what each might tell us about their ability to function as a fighting force. The area of Marja, in Helmand Province...captured 26 firearms – of which twelve were variants of the Kalashnikov, eight were fifty-year-old bolt-action assault rifles, four were variants of the PK machine gun, and two were semi-automatic pistols...

According to the New York Times, the weapons collected – and in particular the presence of a growing number of ancient bolt-action rifles in the regions – fit a broader pattern which suggests arms supply issues may well be starting to affect militant groups’ attack capabilities – though at the same time, the report stresses that an apparent decline in the prevalence of assault rifles should not be taken to indicate a dramatic drop in the availability of all types weapons across Helmand.

The report’s author also draws attention to the repairs carried out on a number of the captured weapons – repairs that, while certainly hindering their overall accuracy, render them usable nevertheless. A testament to their owners resourcefulness or, again, to increasingly limited supplies? The answer, it is suggested, probably lies somewhere between the two...

..Old they may be, but together they have helped some of the poorest and least well-equipped forces in the world stand up to one of the biggest, best funded and most technologically sophisticated armies ever seen.

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...utm_campaign=0

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to Circling the Lion's Den:

The latest report from the Institute for the Study of War on the Haqqani network in Eastern Afghanistan is a tour de force by author Jeffrey Dressler. The Haqqani Network: From Pakistan to Afghanistan explains how this formidable fighting organisation, based on two generations of fighters, has become the most dangerous element of the Afghan Taliban.

Ends with:

Dressler's report is full of facts and details and essential reading for anyone who wants to follow the military campaign.

Link:http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot....i-network.html

Report, as yet un-read:http://www.understandingwar.org/file...ni_Network.pdf

[JMA]

Amidst a news round up are a couple of paragraphs (shortened), with links, on the state of the Taliban armoury in Helmand, after the Marja fighting:



Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...utm_campaign=0

Before we get shot away and turn the Taliban into some over hyped mythical super human force as a result of the above I suggest rather than read into that how well the Taliban are performing given poor weapons against best equipped forces in the world today (US and Brit) see it as an indication of how poorly the tactical approach from ISAF has been. The more I learn about the Taliban the more I agree with Fuchs that in this war soldiering standards among ISAF are dropping precipitously to the extent when they come against a competent enemy in the near future or in the next war they will be in for a nasty surprise.