Posted on 11/07/2001 8:03:19 AM PST by fearNlothin
INTERNATIONAL Taliban's Secret Weapon --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taliban's secret weapon: underground channels By LISA HOFFMAN Scripps Howard News Service November 06, 2001
- Since the time of Alexander the Great, Afghanistan's combatants have used a crisscross network of hidden irrigation channels as secret redoubts and routes for launching ambush attacks.
Unmarked on maps but known to locals like the palms of their hands, these "karez," as they're called in Afghanistan, are legendary for bedeviling outside armies.
They likely would pose a potential problem for any U.S. ground troops dispatched to battle the ruling Taliban army and terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda followers - all well acquainted with the ancient network.
"They have always proved a really good route for guerrillas," Charles Heymann, editor of the authoritative Jane's All the World's Armies publication, told reporters recently. "It's an issue that platoon commanders are going to have to be aware of."
Created around 300 B.C., the ingenious aqueducts were designed to carry water from mainly northern rivers and mountain streams to the often-parched fields in the country's valleys and southern plains. Three years of drought mean the channels are largely dry these days.
Stretching for hundreds of miles, the channels are essentially invisible from the ground, making them ideal for launching hit-and-run surprise raids on unsuspecting enemies or as unseen supply routes.
Some segments are as deep as 100 feet and spacious enough for storing quantities of ammunition, weapons, food and other war necessities. Others are far shallower, some only 3 feet deep; these are often used as shelter by civilians fleeing fighting in their towns. Still others connect to mountain caves and newer bunkers and tunnels.
Genghis Khan's invaders in 1224 found the tunnels formidable. So did the Soviets in their 1979-89 war in Afghanistan.
For most of that decade, Afghan rebels encamped in the karez besieged the Soviet invaders occupying the key town of Khost. The Soviets tried artillery, bombs, Scud missiles, helicopter assaults and fuel oil blazes to roust them from the channels, but never could.
Some analysts believe bin Laden also employed the network around Khost to evade U.S. missiles that pounded his nearby training camps in 1998 in retaliation for dual U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Reach Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com)
They also did not have sattelites with ground-penetrating radar.
how difficult could it be to get an old book on Alex the Great's battle plans?
It also means the crops have failed and with outside supply lines cut it's going to be a long, hungry winter in Afghanistan.
Fine, so let's irrigate them.
IF (big if) we do have ol' OBL narrowed down to three cavern areas in the east, then it is just a matter of time.
Wonder if we ever built and deployed them? Imagine how far those bad boys could tunnel coming down out of space. Just a thought.
The differences between our campaign and the one run by the Soviets are fundamental:
1. The Soviets intended to occupy the entire country, thus uniting all Afghan factions-- who generally prefer to fight each other-- against the invading force.
2. The reason why the Mujahedin beat the Russians was because they had a reliable source of supply, Pakistan-- and a superpower's support, the United States.
3. The Afghan population actively resisted the Soviet occupation, providing protection (cover), and moral support to the Mujahedin. The Taliban are largely despised by the Afghan people.
4. Unlike the Soviets, who (because of their rigid command structures and political commissars) were unable to adjust their warplans to deal with an insurgency, the United States is going in fully aware of the lessons of the past,a nd is designing the effort with full awareness of Taliban strategy.
5. Finally, the technology the US has is vastly superior to that of the Soviets.
Bottom line: the Afghans are not supermen. They bleed, and they die like anyone else. While this campaign will not be over soon-- and it will not be easy-- please, for crying out loud, will someone tell these turdhoppers in the media that we are not the Russians and this is not 1979.
Sorry about the tone of this post. I'm just a little frustrated with the media as of late.
Regards
I think you're on to something.
We could drop a few daisy cutters in the mountains on the snopack and WHOOOSH. The sound of rushing water coming downhill would be a warning that comes too late for anybody hiding in these irrigation canals.
Surfs up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.