AFGHANISTAN: Mazar-i-Sharif Falls to Northern Alliance

StrategyPage.Com ^ | November 10, 2001 | James Dunnigan

[No Truce With Kings]

Another excellent analysis of the situation on the ground. Pieces like this help you understand the why as well as the what.

[No Truce With Kings]

Pinging the hawks.

[No Truce With Kings]

Another ping

[beekeeper]

Good analysis.

[Diogenesis]

Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara Communities

===========================================

Tajik soldiers(mixed with Uzbek)and community

Uzbek soliders and community

Hazara refugees

[aristeides]

Tunnel from Mazar. Is there no way we can attack it from the air?

[B52Bomber]

Thanks for the good news. All glory to our Creator!!!

[F-117A]

Bumpski

[F-117A]

Osama bin Laden claimed, in an interview with the English language Pakistani newspaper "Dawn", said he had nuclear and chemical weapons.

The "nuclear" comments don't appear in the Pakistani Urdu (sp?) version per CNN.

[MissAmericanPie]

This may go down in history as the Smart War, a well executed blend of psycological and weapons warfare. On a side note, this picture of the old men eating, is that not adoreable? They look so happy for refugees, lol.

I have a soft spot for kids, and the elderly, so this picture is a treat thanks for posting it.

[summer]

Good post. Thanks.

[Boss_Jim_Gettys]

"These fellows are on a mission from God, not following some local chief."

[Illbay]

Very poorly written in some places. Makes it suspect. Who's responsible for this article?

[realpatriot]

Am I the only one that caught a tib-bit of information from a Fox reporter from one of the "Stans" this morning? It had me ROFLMAO.

It seems about 700 Pakistan jihad volunteers were approaching this town to join the Taliban at the same time (Unfortunately?) as the Northern Alliance approach. The Taliban troops apparently poked their heads up, saw these combined movements, AND BUGGED OUT!! The Paki's were taken captive by the Alliance!!!!

I know this isn't a Darwinian Award candidate, but man these guys are crying out for recognition.

[vrwinger]

Thanks for the *PING*... This whole switching of sides in the middle of battle is amazing... I guess it's all a product of civil war...

[John H K]

Jim Dunnigan designed wargames for the US Military, and also privately, and is the author of the "Quick and Dirty Guide to War" and "How to Make War" series of books. He was an analyst for NBC television during the Gulf War (but not during the Gulf War buildup).

His site, "strategypage.com" is run on a shoestring and does daily updates and obviously is not getting the best editing...it's also free and survives on ad revenue, and I'm sure they have no money for an editor on staff. Normally I'd agree about some of the grammatical and spelling errors making it suspect but in this case I happen to know the author..the worst is the egregious "apostrophe s" problem but that's rampant on the internet as a whole.

It's easily the best military analysis site on the internet even if it doesn't have the editing of other sites. The site was following Afghanistan on a regular basis with info about the Northern Alliance long BEFORE 9/11...none of the other sites can claim that.

I'll take one semi-ungrammatical article from strategypage over 100 Newsmax screeds about hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Sudan any day.

[Illbay]

I agree that you can't always judge a book by its cover--or even its editing. It's just that this stuff comes out of nowhere, and I'm simply wondering what's behind it. I really didn't have much problem with the analysis, but I'm not all that well acquainted with the minute details of the situation in Afghanistan.

Therefore I'm not well-equipped to detect someone pulling a fast one. Oh, and I agree with you about Newsmax: I used to enjoy reading it but it was somehow taken over by the Conspiracy Theory crowd.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

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[MissAmericanPie]

Noooooo, ROFL, I missed that. One of life's little giggles. Accident or God's design? I do know that God has a sense of humor that this is typical of.

[No Truce With Kings]

Tunnel from Mazar. Is there no way we can attack it from the air?

Sure we can, but why?

1. It channels Taliban traffic, and we control the air. That means keeping it open gives our Predator RVs a target-rich environment. We know where the fishing is good.

2. At present, it is only open to foot traffic. So it not only channels the fish, er Taliban, it slows them down, so we can spend more time targeting them.

3. It is not intended for storage, so it is a straight-through deal. You can literally smoke out anything hiding in it -- why flatten it, when you can burn and suffocate its contents.

4. If our team wins (and we will) we need the tunnel to run supplies from Tajikistan and Usbekistan.

So we leave it alone.