Afghanistan: 'We Have Won the War, America Has Lost', Say Taliban

BBC ^ | 4/15 | Secunder Kermani and Mahfouz Zubaide

[nickcarraway]

Driving to Taliban-controlled territory doesn't take long. Around 30 minutes from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, passing large craters left by roadside bombs, we meet our host: Haji Hekmat, the Taliban's shadow mayor in Balkh district.

Perfumed and in a black turban, he's a veteran member of the group, having first joined the militants in the 1990s when they ruled over the majority of the country.

The Taliban have arranged a display of force for us. Lined up on either side of the street are heavily armed men, one carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher, another an M4 assault rifle captured from US forces. Balkh was once one of the more stable parts of the country; now it's become one of the most violent.

Baryalai, a local military commander with a ferocious reputation, points down the road, "the government forces are just there by the main market, but they can't leave their bases. This territory belongs to the mujahideen".

It's a similar picture across much of Afghanistan: the government controls the cities and bigger towns, but the Taliban are encircling them, with a presence in large parts of the countryside.

The militants assert their authority through sporadic checkpoints along key roads. As Taliban members stop and question passing cars, Aamir Sahib Ajmal, the local head of the Taliban's intelligence service, tells us they're searching for people linked to the government.

[Pining_4_TX]

The US lost when it first invaded. Should have bombed those mountains flat and not sent a single soldier there. Thanks to Bush and Cheney’s wars, many good Americans have died for nothing or come home maimed, we’ve wasted an incredible amount of money, and there are thousands more Muslims in the US.

[jdsteel]

You are correct that officially Afghanistan is not considered the ME...but you get my drift.

We had to respond to 9/11. As much as I disagree with Bush the elder, perhaps the only thing I agree with was him being it after 100 days. Not 20 years.

[GOPJ]

Also to be honest our mission was to kill UBL and AQ and we have already accomplished that, the taliban was in the way and push them out of the way we did so there is nothing to brag about, considering they want to be a poor, low intellectual nation.

Bingo... you cut to the chase.

[Thunder 6]

Painful sometimes, to read the truth. Painful but necessary.