Taliban Has Returned To Most Of Afghanistan: Think Tank

KABUL — A London-based think tank says that nearly eight years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power, the Islamist militia has returned to most of Afghanistan.

The International Council on Security and Development reports that the Taliban have a permanent presence in about 80 percent of the country.

That's up from 72 percent in November 2008 and 54 percent of Afghanistan in November 2007, the group said Thursday.

The group reported a sharp rise in Taliban activity in recent months in the north, a formerly peaceful area.

U.S. forces and their allies drove the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Spokeswoman Jane Francis said the group's data is based on reports from a team in Afghanistan.

Comments

[lungfish]

Mission Accomplished!!!

[groosemoose]

That's depressing. The poor women of this country!

[Lutfi]

if we remember that the taliban used to be called mujahideen , we should have focused on Afghanistan after 9/11 instead of focusing on a doctrine that was written in 1993 to occupies Iraq , we would not be in this mess today. lost opportunity, lost lives, and lost treasure,same problem.

[lungfish]

We had other opportunities as well..... we promised the Mujahadeen that we would help to rebuild Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew as well... and we promised them a lot of rebuilding and money after the invasion in 2003... and didn't deliver on any of it....

[Durango]

It is the abandonment of the Afghan people after the Soviet withdrwl that galls me the most.

We used them for our own political purposes, tore their country to pieces and left them. Aid fatigue it was called.

I We have the opportunity to make up for that crime this time around. Or at least I hope we do.

[Durango]

The Taliban are not the Mujahadeen.

But I agree with the rest of what you say.

[Rope-A-Dope]

Russia pulling out of Afghanistan probably helped facilitate the rise of the Taliban in the first place. Of course, we (USA) armed them. Will we do the same to the people of that country?

[escribacat]

Bad news for the women and schoolgirls of Afghanistan.

[RogerHWerner]

Would some one please explain to me what this means. What exactly is a permanent presence? And is it meaningful in a political and military sense? I sure couldn't tell from reading this. Afghanistan has 17 million people. How many Taliban operatives are there? Does anyone have a count? Does a presence mean they have one person with a radio and an AK 47 in a district? I agree completely that the US needs to leave Afghanistan since we have no reason for being there any longer. If Afghanis want the Taliban back then let them retreat into the stone age. I do think we have a moral obligation to assist any Afghani female who wants out before we affects a full withdrawal.

[Deparis]

What are you talking 'bout? I thought we were winning in Talibanist­an... err, i mean in Afghanistan, no?

[NCAV2]

Wow, so what the hell have we been doing in Afghanistan for the past 8 years?

[Durango]

Good question.

Not hunting bin Ladin and his fellow criminals apparently.

This should have been ended 7 years ago.

Just another of the enormous crimes of the Bush Administration.

Paid for by the people of Afghanistan.

And our troops.

[Lutfi]

we create the problem and then we walk a way, does anyone remember the 1980's, and Karzai and family is taken it all the way to the bank .

[Moshe]

The Taliban has returned, Al Qaeda has been handed propoganda bonanzas again and again, and U.S. military action and associated abuse in the region are always the wind beneath their wings.

Trace back through history. We are sowing the seeds of our own disasters, again, and again, and again . . .

[OneTop]

The Taliban never left.

[dadw5boys]

This THINK TANK is trying to confuse people !!

The Taliban are only rebels fighting against the Afgan Government.

They are not the Terrorist the USA came to fight. But the USA is siding with the Afgan Government puts the U.S. in the middle of a Civil War !

Don't let these people fool you !!!!!!

[mabinog]

wha? The Taliban are extremist Muslims who supported and hid Osama bin Laden.

They may not all be terrorists, but they had a stronger connection to the attack on this country than Saddam.

[FogBelter]

They also started out as the Afghan Mujahideen ... Ronald Reagan's Anti-Soviet "Freedom Fighters".

[rigveda]

They're still the jerk*ffs that abuse women and deface priceless ancient works of art...for those two facts alone they should wiped off the face of the earth.

[RogerHWerner]

No argument the question is how does that happen. Clearly the present approach isn't working. We can't blow them into the stone age since they already live there. Wipe out the cities? Destroy every village? I can't support killing non-Taliban Afghanis just to keep the Taliban from controlling the country. Can you? This is an issue that only the Afghanis can resolve. It would be great to see them put every Taliban to the sword but I don't think that's going to be our roll.

[Durango]

The Taliban made a guest of Osam bin Ladin and he used their country as the staging and planning grounds for his attack on 9/11/01.

They also refused to hand over bin Ladin and the other criminals. And they continue to harbor those criminals.

Until bin Ladin is brought to justice I don't see an end to the conflict.

I also don't see the majority of Afghanis supporting the Taliban.

[research]

Mission Accomplished!

Time to go home.

We have no moral high ground.

[roberto8ag]

"Time to go home. We have no moral high ground."

Oh c'mon!

We liberals demand our 8 years of war, if the Republican had them why we shouldn't?

Btw, vote Obama 2012...

[research]

Kucinich/Dean 2012!

[Durango]

Man, that leaves a lot unsaid.

Who are the Taliban? Are they primarily a Pashtun nationalist organization as I have heard?

Do they have support from the Uzbeks and Tajiks of Afghanistan? Because, if that is the case it is a totally different proposition than if their support remains with Pashtuns.

I would be fairly certain they have no support among the Hazaras.

Do they have the support of the population? Or do they rule by fear?

Are they, like I heard, paying fighters? Which would not surprise me since when the Northern Alliance drove the Taliban out of Kunduz and Kabul it was with fighters who had been Taliban the day before.

Where are the Taliban getting their supplies and resupplies? Are they taxing the population? Modern warfare is very expensive in terms of arms and amunition. Where is it coming from? Has the pipeline from Pakistan been cut off?

What effect has the pakistani offensive had on Afghani Taliban?

The article only raises questions. It doesn't answer much.