Taliban have expanded their influence across Afghanistan: NATO official
Johnny Asia
official
Reuters
December 27, 2009
* Says Taliban have own governors in 33 out of the country�s 34
provinces
* US has only a year to turn the tide of Afghan war and make US
strategy work
KABUL: The Afghan Taliban have expanded their influence across
Afghanistan and are now running a 'full-fledged insurgency� with their
own 'governors� in all but one of the country�s provinces, a senior
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) intelligence official said
on Sunday.
"Time is running out. We�ve got about a year to prove that our
strategy can actually work. The Taliban has shadow governors in 33 out
of the 34 provinces," the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, told a small group of reporters. "So he (the Taliban) has
got a government-in-waiting. He has got ministers," he added. Violence
in Afghanistan has reached some of its highest levels in the
eight-year war and the United States President Barack Obama is sending
in 30,000 extra troops as part of his new war strategy, to try to turn
the tide. Other NATO countries are sending some 7,000 more. But
Washington�s plan also calls for US troop levels to be scaled down
from 2011 and the White House has said the United States will not be
in Afghanistan in eight or nine years� time. The Taliban are willing
to wait.
"The insurgency is confident and are looking towards a post-ISAF
Afghanistan," he said, referring to the NATO-led International
Security Assistance Force. "If we are going to be successful, this has
to be perceived as an international effort, almost a struggle, and it
is a struggle, to stop or deter this notion of Islamic extremism."
There are already around 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan but
despite the numbers, they are locked in a stalemate with the Taliban,
unable to stem the rising tide of suicide and roadside bomb attacks.
With the improvised explosive device (IED) or roadside bomb, the
Taliban have found their weapon of choice against the foreign troops,
the official said, adding 'kinetic� events had risen by 300 percent
since 2007. The official said in 2003, foreign forces dealt with 81
IEDs, that figure rose to over 7,200 for 2009. This figure includes
IEDs that had exploded and those that were found and cleared. "This is
not meant to be a joke, but whoever is their logistics chief, you
know, we ought to be taking lessons from them. Because that�s pretty
good ... for an enemy insurgent force to generate that kind of
capability," the official said.
Foreign troop casualties are at their highest since the war began and
public support is waning. More than 1,500 soldiers have died in
Afghanistan since the war started in late 2001 and twice as many
Americans have died so far this year compared to 2008. reuters
Link:
www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\\12\\28\\story_28-12-2009_pg7_37
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Pucker your lips for the Apocalypse!
Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future
liberal
> Taliban have expanded their influence across Afghanistan: NATO
> official
>
> Reuters
>
> December 27, 2009
>
> * Says Taliban have own governors in 33 out of the country’s 34
> provinces
> * US has only a year to turn the tide of Afghan war and make US
> strategy work
>
> KABUL: The Afghan Taliban have expanded their influence across
> Afghanistan and are now running a 'full-fledged insurgency’ with their
> own 'governors’ in all but one of the country’s provinces, a senior
> North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) intelligence official said
> on Sunday.
So much for the Bush/Cheney democratization theory of nation-building.
I suspect we'd be far better off had we left Afghanistan after
knocking out the Taliban and just providing aid to the leadership that
arose afterwards. When we aided the Afghans to push out the Soviets,
we just walked away, leaving the door open (extreme poverty) to the
Taliban.