Mullah Omar Leading Afghan Insurgency In Extraordinary Military Comeback

New York Times:

Eight years later, Mullah Omar leads an insurgency that has gained steady ground in much of Afghanistan against much better equipped American and NATO forces. Far from a historical footnote, he represents a vexing security challenge for the Obama administration, one that has consumed the president's advisers, divided Democrats and left many Americans frustrated.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Ergon]

No one asks the obvious question: WHY is he winning? If he's supported by the Afghan people, and we're not, then how can we ever hope to win?

[fijisailor]

What a dynamic leader. He and the Afghans can take on the world powers and win as they have previously.

[Ping]

He's probably in Pakistan, or Iran.

[robeson]

Mullah Omar is once again winning the hearts and minds of Afghans with charm and fanaticism.

[Obert Madondo]

The picture from Afghanistan is not good. The Taliban is taking new territory by the day, right in the face of American and NATO troops armed to the tooth with cutting-edge war gadgetry. More than 15 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this month. That's just about the same number of American deaths for all of last October.

Blame it all on one-eyed Mullah Muhammad Omar. Apparently, the leader of the Taliban has staged the "most remarkable military comebacks in modern history". Nonsense! Mullah Omar never left Afghanistan. He might be hiding somewhere in a cave but he lives everyday in the hearts of the majority of Afghans.

And the semi literate Mullah Omar cannot not be the brains behind the shrewd Taliban tactics and propaganda of the past couple of recent years. He offers little more than inspiration as a ferocious fighter against Soviet invaders in the 1980s. And Afghans do the rest. A recent MSNBC piece suggested that while "only one out of 10 militant fighters is a true "Taliban.", the rest are ordinary Afghans". Through into the mix: non-Taliban groups, warlords and members of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

American and NATO forces aren't winning the most important thing to win in this war - Afghan people's hearts. The Taliban’s total defeat is impossible. It's time to rethink Afghanistan.

[Balzac]

You're right man. Keep lending your ideas on that topic because they're needed.

[outnow]

So let's all chip in for a kidney for bin Laden and a glass eye for Mullah Omar. Not!

Omar just popped out the eye and kept fighting. This is mythical. He lost the eye as he fought the Soviets.

Hannibal crossed the Alps and attacked Rome though the city of Rome itself never fell. He lost an eye to an insect bite up in the Alps. He won every battle in Italy but lost the war. On one particular day, his forces killed 80,000 Roman troops. But the wise Roman commander, Fabianus, would not attack Hannibal directly.
Hannibal could not win.

We are likewise winning every battle but will probably lose the war. The Romans made even mentioning the word "peace" punishable by death. Hannibal finally left Italy on ships. The Carthaginian empire soon collapsed.

We are more like Hannibal in that we, too, have won the battles - but it is their lands, and a policy of not directly confronting NATO troops will enable the Taliban to hide out for a decades, and regroup as necessary. The intelligence from the ISI and the Pakistani military assits greatly, no doubt.

Time to co-opt by bribes? We already tried this with the Taliban.

[WorkingClass]

If you want to try for the reward here is a tip. Sneak up on his right side.

[Paulo1]

Bah and double bah.

Omar and Bin Laden are free to cross back and forth into Pakistan at will. Partially because the Pakistani's have their own reasons for allowing it and partially because we are bogged down in a defensive war that allows the enemy to roam the countryside at will.

You have only one way to win a war like this. You take a lesson from the last guy who won in the area. Ghenghis Khan depopulated the whole area and built pyramids out of heads every time a city refused to do exactly as it was told.

We are of course much too civilized for that approach so we should therefore take the lessons of the people who lost, Britain and Russia, and get out NOW. There is nothing of worth and no strategic value to the country. And as far as terrorists are concerned, well thats why God made cruise missiles. You may raise my taxes for the one for Mullah Omar, I will gladly pay.

[hyjanks]

Well, I just had a one of those flash-of-brilliance moments that would insure that we are never bothered by Omar again! Here's the plan: Get Playgirl magazine to name Omar the sexiest man alive (they may want to doctor the photo of him by Photoshopping an eye patch over that gruesome, missing eye of his). Have him come to an undisclosed and completely secure area on the globe to receive his award of a gold-encrusted crown presented by buxom, shapely lasses--you know, those who fit the image of the seventy virgins all good Muslim men will be guaranteed if and when they blow themselves up, taking hundreds of infidels with them.
What man on earth could resist such an honor?
Then . . . get him really drunk with several glasses of Champagne. After he's really groggy, send in the entire Pakistan army to arrest him. When he's in the slammer, send Dick Cheney over to water board him. Who knows, we may get him to confess the whereabouts of Bin Laden as Dicky-boy carries out his fantasy of anti-Constitutional wickedness.
I think it will work!

[RnR]

I see the Rendon Group is employed again.

[Ergon]

Do they set up websites or just spam them?

[blueskybigstar]

Andrea Castillo does not like gov.

blueskybigstar 146 fans permalink

Do you not like the police, the fire department, the people who keep up our roads, who bring us our water, make sure our food is clean, keep pollution down, and provide healthcare through medicare doing it more cheaply and with higher satisfaction rates by patients and by doctors than all other plans even though they provide healthcare to the costliest of patients?

Andrea Castillo I'm a Fan of Andrea Castillo 294 fans permalink

Here we go again.

Easy answer: I like the services they provide. I also think that the private market can do all of those things faster, better, and cheaper.

blueskybigstar 146 fans permalink

They don't do it cheaper or better. All the best health care systems around the world are single payer. If those other services were private the prices would go up as well. Do you have any research that proves your theory?

[tj101]

AC has one enemy - verifiable facts.

[Whinger]

The reason the insurgency is growing is that they sense victory!

More troops on the ground won't discourage them, 24/7 covert strikes will.

[Balzac]

What, killer drones? Those things are offensive to humanity. And the rules of engagement with which they've been used are outrageous. Lots of big, bloody, tragic mistakes have been made.

Imagine being in the aftermath of a missile strike and you were just traveling as a group because it's not safe to travel as an individual. Suddenly everyone's dying, bleeding, on fire.

And then you find out they didn't even have the decency to have a living person present inside the air-craft. It's some guy with a joy-stick and a low resolution, black and white video feed.

Next maybe they'll have robots killing people autonomously. The biggest possible insult to humanity since the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world needs to line up behind President Obama's moral authority to end this heinous era of mass death by techno-savagery. Start by ending the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[jws2346]

Hey, is this dude the infamous pirate Blackbeard's reincarnation. All he needs is the eye patch.

[ilse]

Funny how when president Obama is considering not sending more troops, all of this terrorism and terrorist talk is coming out of the woodwork. Another scare tactic by republicans? Notice how Condi Rice popped out of nowhere saying if we don't send 40,000 more troops, we are asking for terrorist attack in our country. 8 long years we have spent in Afghanistan and still no mission accomplished. What exactly have we accomplished? Nothing. So what have we been doing there all this time? What's the real reason we are there? Money is the root of most wars and that's why we are there. It has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. That's just the excuse they use for being there. Scare tactics by the republicans to increase troops and make more money for those privileged few that benefit.

[bby328]

Who's side is he on . . . ours or rush . . . first he was with us again the ruskies then he is 'again' us . . . or is there another way around the Kiber Pass, i'm confussed