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]

09:59 AM on 10/13/2009

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]

09:45 AM on 10/13/2009

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

[Ping]

06:03 AM on 10/13/2009

He's probably in Pakistan, or Iran.

[robeson]

09:17 PM on 10/12/2009

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

[Obert Madondo]

05:52 PM on 10/12/2009

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]

05:41 AM on 10/13/2009

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

[outnow]

03:06 PM on 10/12/2009

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]

01:05 PM on 10/12/2009

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

[Paulo1]

09:54 AM on 10/12/2009

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]

09:46 AM on 10/12/2009

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]

09:18 AM on 10/12/2009

I see the Rendon Group is employed again.

[Ergon]

09:44 AM on 10/12/2009

Do they set up websites or just spam them?

[blueskybigstar]

07:14 AM on 10/12/2009

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]

12:11 PM on 10/12/2009

AC has one enemy - verifiable facts.

[Whinger]

04:41 AM on 10/12/2009

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]

05:52 AM on 10/13/2009

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]

04:41 AM on 10/12/2009

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

[ilse]

04:18 AM on 10/12/2009

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]

02:51 AM on 10/12/2009

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