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| Afghanistan |
| The New-Taliban Is Qualitatively Different |
| 2006-10-06 |
| From the South Asia Analysis Group, an article by B. Raman, Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India in New Delhi, and Director, Institute For Topical Studies in Chennai. .... The figures of the large number of fatal casualties (about 2,500), which the NATO forces have claimed to have inflicted on the Neo Taliban during the last two months or so have been questioned by the Neo Taliban. It admits that about 2,500 persons have been killed by the NATO forces, but asserts that only about 20 per cent of them are its cadres. According to it, the remaining fatalities were of innocent civilians killed due to the indiscriminate use of air strikes and the heavy artillery by the NATO forces. The NATO forces, while denying the Neo Taliban figures of civilian casualties, do admit that civilian casualties have taken place, but in much smaller number. They attribute this to the Neo Taliban's practice of taking shelter in the midst of civilian population when chased by the NATO forces. The Neo Taliban is qualitatively different from the pre--October 7, 2001 Taliban. The Taliban of the past was a ragtag militia of students recruited from the Deobandi madrasas of Pakistan. It was a force with considerable religious fervour, but with very little professional fighting capability. It dispersed and vanished into the villages on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at the first sign of confrontation with the US-led forces. Even the religious fervour of its cadres was not strong enough to induce them to take to suicide terrorism. |
| Posted by:Thrineque Glorong3348 |
| #3 This entire article requires a fisking. "cadres with a capability for conventional as well as unconventional operations against the NATO forces and the Afghan Security forces." See yesterday's post about 40 Gurkhas fighting against 1200 Taliban. Hint: the score was 100 Taliban KIA, 3 Gurkhas wounded. "Its conventional capability, remarkably acquired over a short period of three years, . . ." For comparison, the US Army went from 5 divisions in 1940 to 6 million troops in 1943. The Germans were taking draftees and turning them into panzer grenediers in less than a year. Do you think the Taliban is as good as American draftees? "is demonstrated by its knowledge of military craft and tactics and its ability to use them effectively against the NATO forces." Which is why the kill ratio is something like 70 to 1 against the Taliban. I don't know why this guy is spending so much effort praising the Taliban. Maybe it's because people are noticing how easily NATO is handling the supposedly elite Pashtuns |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2006-10-06 11:46 |
| #2 "The suicide attacks have killed more Afghans than members of the NATO forces." Seeing that US State Dept. won’t designate the Taliban as a Terrorist org. maybe they can designate the “Neo-Taliban” as such. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2006-10-06 09:32 |
| #1 Pashtos will never accept subordination to other Afghan ethnics. Their ancient Pashtun-Code is supremacist. They are the mirror image of Pakistan Punjabis, who are programed to dominate. As for our conduct of battle - which Karzai (Pashto) has condemned - I would advocate a scorched earth policy. Locals invite Baluchistan and Waziri exiles to restore Talibanism. That invites the type of destruction that Israel inflicted on Hizbollah-Lebanon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth |
| Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 2006-10-06 02:33 |