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Taliban Repeating Pattern of Zarqawi's Al Q in Iraq?
I'd feel better about this if it was in something other than Newsweak.The Taliban has lost its swagger. Eighteen months ago they were stronger than ever in eastern Afghanistan and their home provinces in the south, and they were growing fast in the formerly secure north and west. But fighters on the front lines are far less cocky. The USMC can do that to you. They freely admit that defections, desertions, and battlefield losses are undermining their military effectiveness. Worse, the defectors have given valuable intelligence to the Americans. One of their biggest concerns is the lack of real leadership at the top. Opening for #3 - submit your application, hurry, hurry. The movement's founder, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has been unseen and silent since he fled Afghanistan in late 2001, and his right-hand man, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been held for the past year by Pakistani security forces. The two senior commanders who nominally run the war in the south now--Abdul Qayum Zakir and Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor--inspire little confidence in the ranks. Kidnappings, indiscriminate IED and suicide-bomb attacks, abuses of power, and outright banditry are alienating formerly sympathetic villagers. Cuz it worked so well for Zarqawi. Posted by: Glenmore 2011-02-27 |
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