Posted on 10/02/2006 2:28:44 PM PDT by jmc1969
BRITISH troops battling the Taliban are to withdraw from one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan after agreeing a secret deal with the local people. Over the past two months British soldiers have come under sustained attack defending a remote mud-walled government outpost in the town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Eight have been killed there.
It has now been agreed the troops will quietly pull out of Musa Qala in return for the Taliban doing the same. The compound is one of four district government offices in the Helmand province that are being guarded by British troops.
Although soldiers on the ground may welcome the agreement, it is likely to raise new questions about troop deployment. Last month Sir Richard Dannatt, the new head of the British Army, warned that soldiers in Afghanistan were fighting at the limit of their capacity and could only “just” cope with the demands.
When British troops were first sent to Afghanistan it was hoped they would help kick-start the country’s reconstruction. But under pressure from President Hamid Karzai they were forced to defend Afghan government “district centres” at Musa Qala, Sangin, Nowzad and Kajaki.
The move — opposed by Lieutenant-General David Richards, the Nato commander in Afghanistan — turned the four remote British bases into what Richards called “magnets” for the Taliban. All 16 of the British soldiers killed in action in southern Afghanistan have died at Musa Qala, Sangin or Nowzad.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
We don't know how to finish wars anymore. And this one needs to be significantly expanded in the Middle East if we want lasting peace in that region, IMO.
We meet again...
You put up some great threads.
The British soldiers don't like being fired on, I take it...yikes, no one wants to FIGHT wars anymore, do they??
This is alarming...wonder if it is any more "real" than the AP article about Frist??
The Taliban reached an agreement? And on what basis shall they be trusted?
The only thing that should ever be agreed upon regarding the Taliban is that we kill them in huge numbers on a daily basis. Death and violence are the only languages they speak and they are the only languages they understand.
I do not think there is a word that means the same thing as our word "truce" in Islam.
I do not think there is a word that means the same thing as our word "truce" in Islam.
So what's new? ...Montgomery, Roosevelt,...
Have you seen how much braces cost? I am being only a little bit facetious. We can't fight a war on the ground anymore. It's not a fair exchange. We need to fight from predator drones and bots. Nobody wants to lose a planned pregnancy with braces and 18 years of support and training. Meanwhile they drop kids like cantalopes. It's not a fair exchange. What's the solution?
I am glad our parents and grandparents didn't feel the way you do when Hitler was gassing all of the Jewish people in Germany....
I thought that was the idea - get the enemy to come out in the open and then apply copious amounts of firepower to them. Sure beats having to go out in the sticks looking for them.
Tony Blair put a high value on the Special Relationship with the US. It's not clear that his successor will do so. And if not for the importance of working with the US as reliable allies, why should the UK and Australia put more into Afghanistan than countries that are a lot closer to the action?
Get ready for it. We're going to 'appease' them just as OBL intended. The day is coming when American troops quit propping up favored Middle Eastern dictators (kings, what-have-you). This is precisely what OBL sought when he knocked down the Towers. A war in the Middle East that Americans would get tired of and eventually withdraw. The idea of civilizing the ME at the barrel of gun is going to die a hard death, counted in American lives.
It was a different world then. We are about 10,000% more narcisstic and self centered than then. You know it. I know it.
LOL--and the brits believed the lying scum of the earth?
Get ready for it. We're going to 'appease' them just as OBL intended. The day is coming when American troops quit propping up favored Middle Eastern dictators (kings, what-have-you). This is precisely what OBL sought when he knocked down the Towers. A war in the Middle East that Americans would get tired of and eventually withdraw. The idea of civilizing the ME at the barrel of gun is going to die a hard death, counted in American lives.
Damn, they've gone all wobbly. Looks like the spirit of Lady Thatcher has been replaced with the spirit of Lady Elton John.
Trust a snake before a harlot and a harlot before a Pathan.
Rudyard Kipling
Look up 'hudna' . It works both ways. Fight them on/within their own terms.
Unfortunatley we Brits do not have the necessary firepower any more. Socialist gubermint, kapich?
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