Article

2019-09-10 Afghanistan

U.S. forces hit enemy harder over the last 4 days in Afghanistan than any time in last 10 years: Trump

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Posted by trailing wife 2019-09-10 06:43|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 Yeah, but until you turn, Pakland, their base of operation into a parking lot they'll just keep coming.

Posted by Procopius2k 2019-09-10 07:53|| 2019-09-10 07:53|| Front Page Top

#2 The deliberative, inward obsessed polity of India is to blame for that. If say, Trump were to pressure India to involve ourselves overtly, a nuke on Quetta would be the inevitable result. Naturally large parts of the Pakhtunkhwa would also have to be carpet bombed later. There would be collateral too. But Islamabad would be finished. Pakistan would divide without leadership, into four warring tribal nations. It's easy if a little courage is shown by India. This is the time for such a move.

He's right in saying that if the country to which Pak is the biggest nuisance doesn't bother fighting, why should American troops be killing themselves in the desert for a thankless job.

Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-10 08:12|| 2019-09-10 08:12|| Front Page Top

#3 Timing is everything Dron66046.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-09-10 08:14|| 2019-09-10 08:14|| Front Page Top

#4 the Taliban have lost huge numbers

any conventional army would have been destroyed by now

as procopius notes, the Taliban keep getting new recruits from Pakistan but the Taliban also keep getting new recruits from inside Afghanistan itself -- the recruiting is done by religious schools and religious institutions using the Koran and Haditha and various other parts of the Takfiri indoctrination system

Posted by lord garth 2019-09-10 08:38|| 2019-09-10 08:38|| Front Page Top

#5 You cannot defeat a transnational, fanatically idealogical enemy with traditional, nation state strategies. You cannot succeed by killing in numbers that would render traditional units destroyed or incapacitated. You have to kill in such numbers and remorselessly so until even they begin to grasp that route will never work for them or you have simply weeded out the most aggressive.

Posted by Cesare 2019-09-10 09:00|| 2019-09-10 09:00|| Front Page Top

#6 I agree, Lord Garth. About the recruitment from with the Afghan tribes. The numbers ... iffy. I would just say you're not getting enough bang for the buck.

Interestingly, the term 'takfiri indoctrination' is an entry from the legal islamist dictionary. I just thought to share the following for everyone's benefit.

The word takfiri means 'denouncer'. One who accuses others of being takfir (apostate). Conversely, it has now come to be used to describe hypocrites within the 'religion of peace' that veer to extremist practices.

Rooted in the islamic ideology of Takfir wal Hijra, preached by Sayyid Qutb Ibrahim Husayn Shadhil in Egypt, takfiris instigated mass killings of muslims by muslims in the early 60s. One of the adherents was Shukri Mustafa, a mohammed wannabe who first began to declare fatwas against 'muslims who were technically apostates' because they sided with the kafirs, or lived like them. You can guess how valuable it was to demagogues during the Arab spring.

It became a kind of theo-fascism within the islamic world, rallying the violent and the unruly to prey upon their fellow muslims who had too much money, wore western dresses, learnt english, danced or flossed. Religious warlords and hoodlums everywhere adopted the self-assumed authority to declare people as takfirs (apostates). Also, back then it was easy only to kill muslims, and maybe the occasional jewish tourist.

As a result they came to be known as takfiris.

Mind you, it is probable for a takfiri to be a wahabi. But every wahabi may not be a takfiri. There are wahabis who do not take up weapons, meaning not takfiris, but use Lawfare instead. They claim to be moderates and will call terrorists takfiris.

Among the 'Moderate Muslims', a takfiri is the equivalent of a school shooter. At least that is the claim. And this is where the islamists try to replace every term like 'islamic extremism' with what's palatable to muslims and those who believe there is a 'good islam' and 'bad islam' with words like 'Takfiri Indoctrination'.

It suggests that an otherwise good and kind fellow like Abu, falls in with the crazed crowd and becomes an extremist, because of a splinter faction of islam, the religion of peace.

Introduced into newspeak and intelligence dossiers of western analysts by their 'muslim allies against terrorism', it is a term that muslims still use to describe 'the aberrant doctrines, not really islam, extremist teaching', distancing themselves from it as 'moderates.

Just thought I'd share.

Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-10 09:45|| 2019-09-10 09:45|| Front Page Top

#7 Man, I cam ramble about trifles !

Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-10 10:07|| 2019-09-10 10:07|| Front Page Top

#8 Dron, I really appreciate your insights.

I've long commented that the majority of victims of Islamic terrorism are other Muslims. You help explain why.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2019-09-10 10:10|| 2019-09-10 10:10|| Front Page Top

#9 Thanks, Rambler.

Before finding Rantburg, I worried I'll die with a lot of useful information no one wants. ☺

Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-10 10:17|| 2019-09-10 10:17|| Front Page Top

#10 Dronn,

Your thoughts travel far here. CIA in Virginia lurks here. I also understand there are retired mil and intel people posting and commenting here.

Posted by Varmint Splat1454 2019-09-10 11:57|| 2019-09-10 11:57|| Front Page Top

#11 At one point we had a poster from the State Department, and yes, the CIA does appear to look in on us from time to time. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld had been told about us (that was True German Ally’s doing before the dear man died), though there is no way of knowing whether he took an interest. But then the site owner, Fred Pruitt, comes out of military intelligence, so the connections are natural.

Before finding Rantburg, I worried I'll die with a lot of useful information no one wants. ☺

Rantburg is definitely where you belong, dear Dron66046.

A good many of the Pakistani madrassas feed their less illustrious graduates straight into the warring parties in Afghanistan — literally, according to some articles published here over the years, the lads are told to pack up their kit, loaded onto busses or trucks, and driven across the border to wherever the action is, at which point they are handed guns and pointed at the target. The parents are informed of their demise afterward, madrassah boys being scions of families who want their lads educated or at least fed, but lack the wherewithal to pay proper state or public (in the English sense) school fees.

The soft jihad of the law versus the hard jihad of the sword is how I’ve seen it described. We have also seen, particularly in Europe and Britain, Pakistan, ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and occasionally in Israel, the fun jihad of seduction and/or r4pe...

Posted by trailing wife 2019-09-10 13:43|| 2019-09-10 13:43|| Front Page Top

#12 I don't always agree with every opinion posted here but Rantburg definitely is a one stop site for everything WOT, islamism and general madness of the world.

And yes, it is a great forum for civil debate.

Posted by European Conservative 2019-09-10 13:57|| 2019-09-10 13:57|| Front Page Top

#13 Although everyone on Rantburg seems to be actively pro-American conservative, I don't think we have anything in common with the career alphabeteers as they are now. I think Langley would relegate Rantburg to the list of 'Neocon chat groups', just the usual NSA crawlers reporting blips of text here and there.

I imagine the most alarms go off on Skidmark's rad news posts.☺ And someone somewhere re-arrives at the conclusion that 'these neocons are crazy'.

Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-10 14:14|| 2019-09-10 14:14|| Front Page Top

#14 It's not called Rantburg everywhere...

Posted by 3dc 2019-09-10 15:09|| 2019-09-10 15:09|| Front Page Top

#15 about 50 million salafis world wide

about 5 million wahabis world wide

probably no more than 1,000,000 active Sunni military jihadis world wide but lots more who sympathize or admire them and are potential recruits

Posted by lord garth 2019-09-10 15:40|| 2019-09-10 15:40|| Front Page Top

#16 ^How many Americans are professional baseball players?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-09-10 15:51|| 2019-09-10 15:51|| Front Page Top

#17 I imagine the most alarms go off on Skidmark's rad news posts.☺ And someone somewhere re-arrives at the conclusion that 'these neocons are crazy'.

That's the Legend.

Posted by Skidmark 2019-09-10 18:40|| 2019-09-10 18:40|| Front Page Top

#18 re: #10 Never thought about that. I'm on a list for past comments more than likely.

Posted by chris 2019-09-10 20:04|| 2019-09-10 20:04|| Front Page Top

#19 I'm on a list for past comments more than likely.

That’s why we’re strict about certain kinds of language and statements. It is absolutely not ok to mess up Fred’s professional life just because someone has a whim to push the boundaries.

Posted by trailing wife 2019-09-10 22:38|| 2019-09-10 22:38|| Front Page Top

#20 Not so sure everyone here's a neocon. A lot of Jacksonian and a few (like yt) old-fashioned Kennedy-style tough-minded national security liberals.
And a ~~besoeker~~berserker or two.

Posted by Lex 2019-09-10 23:51|| 2019-09-10 23:51|| Front Page Top

23:51 Lex
23:44 Lex
23:43 Lex
22:52 JohnQC
22:48 JohnQC
22:46 JohnQC
22:38 trailing wife
22:36 JohnQC
22:33 JohnQC
22:31 JohnQC
22:29 JohnQC
22:01 Frank G
22:00 Frank G
21:56 Frank G
21:55 Capsu78
21:55 European Conservative
21:53 Capsu78
21:30 Lex
21:23 Skidmark
21:12 Lex
20:48 European Conservative
20:47 Rob Crawford
20:42 Bright Pebbles
20:40 Bright Pebbles