Posted on 07/26/2005 4:04:21 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2005 – Taliban members who face off against coalition forces or the Afghan National Army are facing heavy losses, so they've resorted to recruiting young teens to join the fight, the Joint Staff's operations director told Pentagon reporters today. Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway spoke following a July 25 incident that involved heavy fighting in a small village west of Deh Rawod in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province. The incident, which left one U.S. soldier and an Afghan National Army soldier dead, took a considerable toll on the enemy, the general said. Some press reports claim as many as 50 insurgents were killed, he said.
"My observation, tracking this day in and day out, is that virtually every time the Taliban come up against our regular forces or those of the Afghan National Army, they are losing pretty badly," Conway told reporters.
These continual losses are likely to affect the way these enemy forces operate, he said.
"What we suspect, over time, is that they are going to be driven to the standoff tactics that we see being employed in Iraq," Conway said, "because they can't sustain those kinds of losses and continue to remain viable."
The coalition has received reports that the Taliban is attempting to recruit 14- to 16-year-olds to their cause because "older and wiser" Afghans simply are "not buying into their rhetoric," Conway said.
Army Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling, deputy commanding general for Combined Joint Task force76, expressed condolences over the U.S. servicemember killed during the Deh Rawod incident in a July 25 Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news release.
"Our brave servicemember died while fighting alongside Afghan forces to eliminate the threat of terrorism to the world and to bring a brighter future of Afghanistan," Sterling said. "This tragic loss strengthens our resolve to further the advance of a democratic Afghanistan."
What else is new,.... Yet another violation of the rules of war.
Drafting teenagers into the Taliban.
Very good news
When will ABC/CBS/NBC report about the failure of Taliban recruiters to make their quotas this quarter?
I was about to say, this is hardly a new tactic among the Islamofascists.
When pigs fly;)
So they are destroying their own future by getting their young teens killed...
I am not surprised.
Sent all the MSM to Afghanistan to roam the countryside until they can get the quotas and performance to quotas for the Taliban. It would make for interesting reportage.
when you see the devil ice skating?
Sounds exactly like the last days of The 3RD Reich.
ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/Maher/John Stewart..etc..
..are the *ENEMY* trying their best to
make us lose, and to get our troops killed.
Our troops *should* shoot them when they see them
"in country"!!!
Yes, the Islamist hero Hitler did this too. Just before he put a bullet in his own head.
Dude, you are taking on the US Military. Winner of WWI, WWII.
You must be motivated by the 72 virgin story, you silly little 3rd world illiterate fool.
I wonder if Katie Couric will bemoan the loss of "the cream of Afghanistan's youth."
I can only guess the frustrations of trying to get suicide bombers to re-enlist.
What about the drugs. Taliban, especially in Afghanistan, must be hooking some of their stooges on drugs, yet no one wants to discuss it.
Nice to see Tailban reach out to young people NOTTT
Are they 'recruiting' like Hitler's Army did in WWII ie: Put a gun to their heads and say "You can die fighting Americans or you can die right here, right now".
"My observation, tracking this day in and day out, is that virtually every time the Taliban come up against our regular forces or those of the Afghan National Army, they are losing pretty badly," Conway told reporters.
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