Afghanistan: Lies To Die For

Strategypage ^ | 7/12/07

[Valin]

June was the bloodiest month in a long time, with about a thousand dead (700 Taliban, a hundred government and foreign troops and 200 civilians). For the first six months of the year, about 3,200 were killed, compared to about 4,000 for all of last year. About 70 percent of the dead are Taliban. The high Taliban casualty rate is the result of high losses among Taliban leaders, and recruiting many younger, inexperienced Pushtun tribesmen.

The more experienced Pushtun gunmen noted the losses from last year, and took a pass on a Taliban paycheck this time around. Their misgivings were well founded, with most Taliban war bands getting chewed up pretty bad. A few survivors, some of them wounded, eventually straggle back, to tell of being caught by American aircraft and Afghan soldiers, and even being picked off at night. These guys have only a vague knowledge of UAVs and night-vision goggles. All they know is they went into battle as warriors of Islam, and quickly became fleeing survivors. More than half of these holy warriors were recruited from Pakistan Pushtun tribes. The money was good, more than local cops made, and there were prospects for loot. But it was all a lie. No one is coming back with loot, and many aren't coming back at all. But the money is still there to hire holy warriors for operations in Afghanistan. The drug gangs, and the couriers from wealthy Islamic conservatives in the Persian Gulf, see the holy warriors as a useful way to keep the Afghan government busy.

Despite all the defeats, the Taliban still have believers on both sides of the border, and always have. Calling these religious fanatics "Taliban" is relatively new, but this kind of bullying bigotry is nothing new. The fact that the religious zealots actually ran Afghanistan for most of the 1990s is an inspiration to Islamic fanatics throughout the region. It's going to take a lot of defeat to put out this fire.

(snip)

[Red_Devil 232]

Don’t believe the 200 civilian body count. Reports from Afghanistan indicate that civilian deaths are routinely over stated by the locals and dictated by the Taliban on threats of death if civilians don’t!