Taliban Foe Fiercer Than UK Expected: Commander

[sabra]

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1883608&C=asiapac

Taliban Foe Fiercer Than UK Expected: Commander

British forces moving into southern Afghanistan this year found a fiercer Taliban foe than they expected, but remain confident of victory, a senior British commander said on June 20.

British war planners had expected insurgents to dissipate over the winter as they have in years past, and were surprised instead by a new campaign of suicide bombings, the commander told reporters.

"The most serious difference has been the extent to which the Taliban have had successes this year and are probably in some greater numbers than we suspected," he said.

"We certainly thought in the winter they would have conformed more to their normal pattern of going to ground. What we saw in the winter was the beginning of a suicide campaign, which was a bit of a novelty in these parts."

[msongs]

1. read this quote from rudyard kipling re british in afghanistan--->

these british learned nothing from their own history there:


"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier." - Rudyard Kipling

the british were driven out of afghanistan.

the russians were driven out of afghanistan.

the US and british are going to be driven out again.

arrogance, incompetence, and stupidity will not prevail this time either.


Msongs

can you sing?
www.msongs.com/vocalistwanted.htm

[htuttle]

2. A "joke" from Pravda

I read this a few years ago, before the US invaded Afghanistan:

One day, a former Spetnaz soldier was getting his hair cut in Moscow.
Every few minutes, the barber would lean forward and whisper in his ear: 'Kandahar!'.
Finally, the former solider turned around and asked, "Why do you keep whispering 'Kandahar' in my ear?"
The barber replied, "Every time I say it, your hair stands up and it's easier to cut."

Okay, so it's not that 'funny'...but it's got that dark Russian humor thing going on.

[lumpy]

5. Kipling, how appropriate.

We should have taken a page from the Russian playbook. They had to skedaddle because the Russian people had a bellyfull.

[texanshatingbush]

9. Another quote I remember vaguely.....

perhaps also from Kipling, along the lines of "people who eat with knives and forks will never understand Afghanistan".

When this whole mess started, I re-read, out of curiosity, Michener's "Caravans". The storyline was a bit weak, but the picture he painted of tribes and the country was riveting, especially in the context of what we were getting ourselves into.

[StrafingMoose]

3. I'm very surprised that they name this force the "Taliban"

Since the "real" Talibans (1996-2002) were a very weak governement that barely controlled anything in Afghanistan. And as usual, the explanation for this exceptional surge is drug money, altough the "original" Talibans almost eradicated poppy crops by 2001.

[msongs]

4. yep. george w, drug dealer nt

[StrafingMoose]

7. I got a friend in the Canadian military

Who told me, and I think it is widely corroborated in the MSM, that the more the "Coalition" goes south/south-east, the "Talibans" become fiercer. Guess who's the neighbour down there? Yes, one of their old supporters, Pakistan/ISI.

Our 'CIA' (CSIS) believes the drugs indeed fuel the Afghan insurgency, but the original Talibans were opposed to drug trafficking. So, who are these?

[Igel]

12. The original Disciples

allowed poppy cultivation for a few years. They also profited from it for years before that.

It may be that one set of moralists in the group got the upper hand over the pragmatists. Whatever.

The ISI funding is likely; Chinese weapons, of recent manufacture, have been recovered. It's possible the Chinese are selling directly, but that's only possible: The Chinese don't like Islamists because of Uigur unrest, unless it's an attempt to buy them off. But since Pakistan has quite good relations with the Chinese, that's the most likely route.

The other problem is Pashtun ethnic ... what to call it? ... 'pride.' Which is as much xenophobic narrow-mindedness as anything. Until recently, even the Pakistani army didn't go into the rural ethnically Pakhtun areas because of it; when they did, it created a military and political firestorm. Think 'hill-billies' vs 'feds', and you get a whiff of the right kind of thinking (although beyond that the analogy collapses.)

[reprobate]

8. There is a reason they call his father "Poppy".

[Igel]

11. That's what they call themselves;

and many of the Disciples weren't caught. Talib is simply 'student' or 'disciple'.

The Disciple movement has the same roots and same motives as it always had. The eradication of the poppy crop plausibly had a few motives; people only saw the one(s) that they wanted to see.

Disciples as all-round good guys: it was the moral thing to do.
Disciples as restricted good guys: it reduced drug use among Muslims.
Disciples as totalitarians: it cut off funding for everybody else.
Disciples as politicians: it assisted in respectability and outside help.
(So they ditched poppies, and they got $43 million in food aid.)

There are probably more. There's also a tension between doing what is required, what is preferred, and what is necessary. Sometimes you do 'necessary' even though it's the opposite of what's 'required'.

[MrPrax]

6. He meant, 'another victory'

Presumeably we defeated them the first time around, so why the fierceness of the foe would be a problem speaks volumes about the degree of insanity and incompetency among these 'war criminals'.

These assholes are now reduced to blaming the 'winter' and how they thought the rebels would respond differently or that suicide bombing was a 'novelty', so they never expected?

Heck of a job, Commander

[saigon68]

10. Foe Fiercer Than Expected:

LOL

What did they expect

A Rose Petal Parade maybe?