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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Al-Qaeda aiding Taliban resurgence |
| 2005-08-20 |
| Nearly four years after a U.S.-led military intervention toppled it from power, the Taliban has reemerged as a potent threat to stability in Afghanistan. Though it's a far cry from the mass movement that overran most of the country in the 1990s, today's Taliban is fighting a guerrilla war with new weapons, including portable anti-aircraft missiles, and equipment bought with cash sent through Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, according to Afghan and Western officials. While it was in power, the Taliban provided safe haven to bin Laden and Al Qaeda. The violence continued Thursday. A homemade bomb hit a U.S. convoy, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding two others, near the southern city of Kandahar. A surge of violence since winter has killed about 1,000 people in Afghanistan -- 59 U.S. soldiers among them. Al Qaeda's monetary support is crucial, officials say. The money is coming from "rogue elements and factional elements living in the Middle East," Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said in an interview. Lt. George Hughbanks, an Army intelligence officer in Zabul province -- one of the worst hit by the Taliban insurgency, said: "Al Qaeda is channeling money and equipment." The Taliban is now a disparate assemblage of radical groups estimated to number several thousand, far fewer than when it was in power before November 2001. The groups are linked by a loose command structure and a desire to drive out U.S.-led coalition and NATO troops, topple U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai and reimpose hard-line Islamic rule in Afghanistan, according to Afghan and Western officials and experts. The new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald E. Neumann, said Thursday that the Taliban had "absolutely no chance" of derailing the Sept. 18 legislative elections because security would be too tight. Some experts fear the Taliban's resurgence may be part of an Al Qaeda strategy aimed at keeping the U.S. military stressed and bleeding in Iraq and in Afghanistan. "I think" Al Qaeda is "opening a second front," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence analyst who's now at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "I don't think the elections are really the focus." U.S. officials said they had no proof of such an Al Qaeda-coordinated strategy. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #9 I concur with LHR's sentiment. The situation is maddening. One wonders if we will EVER kick the door down. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-20 13:49 |
| #8 now that was a rant LHR welldone |
| Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864 2005-08-20 12:16 |
| #7 LHR, I don't know how to put this, but that strategy didn't work too well against the Chechnyans up in Chechnya... |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-08-20 11:40 |
| #6 Not just weaklings Dave, there is a distinct group of people out there that want very badly to hear this kind of news. For if it told of victory and progress, all would be lost to them. They still hope and pray the war effort will backfire and spiral down into complete chaos, so that it can be used against GW Bush. Their blind hatred for the man (kind of an icon at this point, eh?) and their belief that there is never a reason to go to war have turned them against the best interests of their country. They are traitors and losers, angry, depressed , feeling inadequate, impotent and out of control of the country. Yehaw!!!! |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-08-20 10:38 |
| #5 "[Thursday] a homemade bomb hit a U.S. convoy, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding two others, near the southern city of Kandahar." That sentence, right there, is the only item of actual news in this article. All the rest of it is opinion disguised as context, and cherry-picked quotes from various "officials" and "experts", many of them anonymous. In other words, it's the usual MSM bullshit concocted to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt-- and make weaklings fly into a panic. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-08-20 10:04 |
| #4 Chill, LHR. Take a deep breath, bro (or sis as the case may be). Easy ... that's right ... now let it out slowly .... feel the relaxation begin ... and in again slowly .... |
| Posted by: lotp 2005-08-20 09:14 |
| #3 Deep. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-08-20 07:58 |
| #2 We are to weak. This story has me running to the toilet to hurl. How pathetic. How can this be happening? Is the WOT becoming the WOD? Billions spent to keep the crops, but just enough progress to make us think that the lives lost are making a difference of the dope being caught? I don't care anymore about the burning cinders of humane flesh of the innocent. I want the bad guys dead!!! If 2 million of the oppressed idiot MOOOOSLIMS die in the proses well so be it. The men have their 72 virgins and the women have...what? What do the women get out of all this? Oppressed heaven? I just don't get this. None of you seem angry enough. My party is being out flanked. South Americans are over running my state. The war in the middle east is being fought like pussy's. If we do not act my family will be the burning flesh of innocent. Kill them now!~!! Long live Peter Jennings!! Pussy's!!! |
| Posted by: Long Hair Republican 2005-08-20 03:14 |
| #1 I hear the poppy trade is blooming. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-20 02:48 |