Something to ponder

[pecunium]

When some member of this administration goes someplace like Iraq, or Afghanistan, it's a secret.

Not just the President leaving his guests to go have turkey in Baghdad, but Rumsfeld, Rice, etc.

So how did the Taliban know Cheney was going to be there?

Comments

[blackbirdcd.livejournal.com]

As if it matters, the Taliban are virtually useless.

Take this attack as an example. Perfect opportunity to blow up the VP of the country they despise, and they completely blow it (so to speak). They could've attacked with rakes and shovels and been more effective.

[cactusthesaint.livejournal.com]

That perfectly explains the growing numbers of dead Coalition soldiers.

[blackbirdcd.livejournal.com]

I forgot to insert my [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] tags in that post.

[cactusthesaint.livejournal.com]

Right. Nice save.

[blackbirdcd.livejournal.com]

It kills me that the Taliban resurgence is such a "surprise". We're talking about a sub-group who has thrived on escaping into the hills to regroup and come back later. And now we've marginalized our presence and influence there for a few years and look who's back. Astounding.

[cactusthesaint.livejournal.com]

Well, it kind of was a surprise. OEF 6 (roughly March 2005-March 2006) saw more action than OEF 2-5 combined. I'm not sure how Spring 2006 turned out for the people who replaced OEF 6, but I'm sure it wasn't pretty, and I doubt it's going to be much better this spring, either.

The Taliban won't win (m)any direct engagements, but they have gotten pretty ballsy - there were several times when OEF 6 got into firefights with 100+ Taliban.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

None of this surprises me... why?

I read Kipling, and the various accounts of the British attempts to take control of Afghanistan.

I recall what happened to the Russians.

I don't think we are fundamentally better than either of those were at this sort of thing, and we committed far fewer resources to it.

In short, we bought Afghanistan on margin.

TK

[cactusthesaint.livejournal.com]

In short, we bought Afghanistan on margin.

You're exactly right. Didn't someone or other say we weren't sending enough troops into Afghanistan? And didn't someone else say we were doing the same thing when we invaded Iraq?

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Possibly also relevant: the US military record in the Americas. If US intervention in less-develiped countries was likely to accomplish anything: Haiti would be prosperous, and Cuba would be solidly pro-US.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

There seems to have been a real attempt by the Taliban to hit the lesser members of NATO in an effort to inflict enough casualties to force them to go home.

Made easier by the Pakistani truce.

ballsy = bad, although traditional, tactics

[cactusthesaint.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's necessarily true that the Taliban have been specifically targeting non-U.S. NATO targets. I think they're just attacking any targets of opportunity.

During OEF 6, the U.S. Army were deployed (among other places) all up and down the Eastern border of Afghanistan, mostly along Highway 1 (plus or minus a hundred klicks or so), and they were attacked quite regularly. If there were more attacks targeted at other NATO members from Spring 2006 onwards, that's probably because the U.S. Army had handed over responsibilities for a large chunk of the aforementioned territory to the Canadians. Aside from sounding funny when they talked on the radio, the Canadians were pretty competent and if I were a terrorist, I wouldn't think it was any more likely I would survive if I mounted a direct attack on the Canadians rather than U.S. forces. I don't know what happened after that first hand, as I left in March 2006.