Winning the War in Afghanistan

[davidbfpo]

A non-Western contact having visited Kabul recently observed that:

a) The war was increasingly difficult and the Taliban could just wait for the Western presence to end;
b) No-one in Kabul, especially Afghans, thought the West would stay and the latest adjustments were an exit strategy. The one exception a Russian whose views was a new US encirclement strategy.

davidbfpo

[slapout9]

Have know idea how accurate this is, but very disturbing if true.


http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?o...4&jumival=3511

[davidbfpo]

Amidst all the media reporting on USMC operations in South Helmand, the link is a BBC report, with five mins video, on the UK operation and note the Taliban are not retreating, whatever firepower is delivered: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8142229.stm

(Apologies if clip will not work).

davidbfpo

[Schmedlap]

The Long War Journal posted a video that was shot on a cell phone camera, showing the dead body of Pir Samiullah and the decapitated bodies + heads of two of his lieutenants (not recommended for viewing if you have kids around). The story explains that,

"Samiullah was the first tribal leader in Swat to raise a lashkar, or tribal army, to oppose the Taliban. Samiullah claimed to have organized more than 10,000 tribesmen to oppose the Taliban and protect 20 villages.

He did so when Swat was at its darkest and the Taliban seemed unstoppable. The military offensive was stalled and the government and military had lost the will to fight. Just three months after Samiullah was killed, the government ceded Swat and much of the northwest to the Taliban in the infamous Malakand Accord.

The Pakistani government touted Samiullah's resistance to the Taliban, but refused to provide meaningful support to keep the tribal leader and his followers alive."

The killing is old news - occurrred in Dec 2008 - the story was simply posted because the video apparently just surfaced. But what stuck out to me was the quote above, explaining that this guy stood up to the Taliban even though he got no outside support (as far as we know) and the Taliban seemed too powerful to resist. Do we know what prompted this guy to rally a bunch of tribesman (I don't know how accurate that 10K number is) to oppose the Taliban, in the absence of government support, in spite of the perceived strength of the Taliban, and in spite of overwhelming odds? This seems like it would be a very valuable lesson to learn. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive to our general assumptions that we need to provide security before people will rise up like this (or maybe it's just an exception to the rule).

[davidbfpo]

Col. Stuart Tootal, ex-3 Para, commenting on the war in Afghanistan, after a tour to Helmand in 2006, including media relations, ANA, ANP and more before he resigned from the UK Army in November 2007, in protest at what was happening: http://frontline.headshift.com/event...ghanistan.html

Hat tip to Kings of War website.

Having listened to the interview some of his comments are now dated and speaking officially optimistic on what the comprehensive approach was achieving. He has a book on his experience due out soon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Danger-Close.../dp/1848542569

davidbfpo

[davidbfpo]

A short interview by a Chinese journalist: http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/englis...07/444968.html

Interesting passage about relationships with non-Afghan jihadists.

davidbfpo

[Valin]

A short interview by a Chinese journalist: http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/englis...07/444968.html

Interesting passage about relationships with non-Afghan jihadists.

davidbfpo

Thanks

GT: Did you have anything to do with the attacks in Mumbai? What do you think about the Kashmir and Pakistan issues?

Nageer: My jihad brothers blasted Mumbai, but I can’t tell you who did it. We had cooperation with Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence but they sold us down the river. We are related to the Indian Muslim military, but we are more ambitious and brave than they are.

Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups
Pakistan's president has admitted his country created terrorist groups to help achieve its foreign policy goals.
08 Jul 2009