Article

2009-11-21 Afghanistan

80 Taliban lay down weapons, join Afghan police

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Posted by tipper 2009-11-21 14:55|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 Yeah. That's who I want checking my six.

Posted by anymouse">anymouse 2009-11-21 15:02|| http://theworldsworstblog-really.blogspot.com/]">[http://theworldsworstblog-really.blogspot.com/] 2009-11-21 15:02|| Front Page Top

#2 80 Taliban lay down their ~~old, crappy~~ weapons ~~and get brand new ones~~

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-11-21 15:31|| 2009-11-21 15:31|| Front Page Top

#3 It's seasonal thing---Taliban in summer, police in winter.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2009-11-21 16:18|| 2009-11-21 16:18|| Front Page Top

#4 I'd be giving them airsoft rifles for awhile....

Posted by Uncle Phester 2009-11-21 16:27|| 2009-11-21 16:27|| Front Page Top

#5 Sunni tribals have been doing this kind of thing for 1-1/2 years now. I think the surge in Iraq worked because the tribes were exhausted. The reason we were able to work on protecting the population was because the population wanted to be protected - the alpha males among them who were interested in holy war had been mostly killed off, and al Qaeda was pushing on a string in trying to get the remaining zero-testosterone non-warrior types to fight Uncle Sam.

We will eventually get to that point with the Taliban. In fact, I suspect that we will get to that point (in terms of dead Taliban) relatively soon. Fighting on Afghanistan's rugged terrain is hard for our troops. It's way harder for the Taliban, since they can't get air-dropped supplies, and their supply convoys are subject to continual air attack. A huge number of A-type Afghan personalities were wiped out during the Soviet occupation. We are fighting the dregs.

I think this kind of thing is largely hard-wired. It may be why the postwar-peace with Germany, Italy and Japan was relatively calm (and why the defeated WWII nations are pacifist to a fault). Literally millions of high-testosterone fighting men had been wiped out.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2009-11-21 19:09|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2009-11-21 19:09|| Front Page Top

#6 I think this kind of thing is largely hard-wired. It may be why the postwar-peace with Germany, Italy and Japan was relatively calm (and why the defeated WWII nations are pacifist to a fault). Literally millions of high-testosterone fighting men had been wiped out.

I have often thought there were parallels to Larry Niven's "Known Space" novels with regards to the Puppeters' strategy to create a more reasonable Kzinti species. Hard on humans though.

Posted by Cromert 2009-11-21 19:32|| 2009-11-21 19:32|| Front Page Top

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