The Year of the Taliban

Just recently, Taliban fighters drove a car filled with explosives up to Sarposa prison, the largest detention facility in Kandahar. They were able to free hundreds of their prisoners who can now return to fighting Afghan and NATO troops.

In April, during the Mujahedin Day military parade, a celebration of the expulsion of Soviet forces in 1989, Taliban fighters penetrated a heavy security area and attacked with machine guns and heavy weapons. The bullets hit Afghan parliamentarians within 30 yards of President Hamid Karzai.

There is no question that more than six years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban have been getting stronger day by day. Now midway into 2008, all indications lead us to believe that the balance seems to be tilting in their favor. It all started on January 14 of this year, when the Taliban conducted a daring attack on one of Kabul's best-protected landmarks in the Afghan capital, the Serena Hotel, a luxury hotel frequented by Westerners. At the time, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said that they decided to attack the high security 5-star hotel to show "foreigners that the Taliban hand and might can reach anywhere."

Despite the presence of more than 50,000 troops of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the Taliban has taken back control of vast rural areas since the beginning of 2008 and now has a foothold just outside Kabul. Their recent brazen attacks have raised questions about the effectiveness of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and whether any place in the country is safe from the Islamist movement that the war was originally intended to eradicate.

For the past several weeks, I've been monitoring (mostly on foreign media) a number of ground assaults and rocket attacks by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. About 100 Taliban insurgents attacked the towns of Gomal and Sarobi in Paktika province. They were able to capture entire districts and in Wardak province have even taken Afghan soldiers captive. Just a couple of days ago, the Taliban attacked a convoy of about 40 trucks on the main highway southwest of the capital Kabul in order to disrupt supplies for foreign troops. Despite counter attacks by ISAF, it seems that the Taliban can operate freely in most of the Helmand province and have acquired strategic depth in the provinces of Kunar, Nooristan and Khost.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government blames neighboring Pakistan for failing to prevent insurgents active in the tribal areas there from entering into Afghanistan. These charges have been totally rejected by Islamabad. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also blasted the British, saying that their efforts in southern Afghanistan's lawless Helmand province have made things worse. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has criticized the NATO troops as well, saying they don't know how to fight insurgents. However, most Afghans put the blame on Karzai's government for widespread corruption and incompetency.

The truth of the matter is, everyone is correct in this blame game; add to it, the allies' failure to control the thriving opium trade which has been used to finance the Taliban, the ISAF's lack of clear strategy for defeating the Taliban, and most importantly the ineptitude of Hamid Karzai.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV.

Comments

[iratior]

It doesn't surprise me to hear that the Taliban are getting stronger in Afghanistan. As in Iraq, Bush's policies in the country are loaded down with mistakes. The latest, for example, is not doing enough (if anything) to stop the wave of starvation. It hands the Taliban an easy propaganda victory. "See," they can say, "you're starving and the Americans don't care". What would be so hard about dropping boxes of crackers onto every village, or would that be welfare socialist evil as far as the administration is concerned? Destroying the poppy fields just makes Afghan farmers mad as hell and inclined to help the Taliban. And of course, there's always the greatest mistake, which was to divert military force to Iraq. That ought to call the legitimacy of any NATO presence in Afghanistan into question, because Bush is, indirectly, using NATO to facilitate a conquest in Iraq. NATO was supposed to provide aid only for defense, not conquests.

[heavyrunner]

". . .the neighboring countries facilitate the transfer of opuim through their borders. . ."

That is a western slanted simplistic view of a complex place. If you knew how primitive and rugged the land of the Pashtuns is you would not talk about "facilitating" anything through "borders." Borders there are only a line on the map. The Pashtun don't care about them.

The place is wild beyond the imagination if you have not been there. I rode through the Pashtun area last summer. The truck and bus and mini van drivers smoke hashish to stay sharp like we drink coffee in the west. There is a lot of laughter when you come to a wooden barricade across the road with the tribesmen all lounging around with their AK-47s slung over their shoulders. We were with Balti tribesmen, and the Pashtuns and our Balti all seemed to know each other and were friends, and they just laughed and waved us through.

The predominant plant for hundreds of kilometers along the Indus is cannabis.

The nincompoops in Washington and Houston who think they can dominate the Pashtuns and force an oil pipeline through their territory are ignoramuses. It will never, ever happen.

The Bin Laden 9/11 rubbish was just a ruse so they could go on a wild imperialist ranting aggression. Who knows who really blew up those buildings on 9/11? Trying to control Afghanistan is the stupidest idiocy, by far, ever exhibited in American foreign policy.

[Robert59]

The Taliban are even stronger in Pakistan. They are on the outskirts of Peshawar making it for all intents and purposes a city under siege. I blame Bush for this turn of events. For 7 years we coddled the Pakistani government knowing parts of it are joined at the hip with the Islamists. We've known Pakistan is nothing but a sanctuary for the Taliban.

The time for action is now, before the radicals overthrow the government and get their hands on the nuclear arsenal.

Funny how several years we prevented India from going to war with Pakistan. That was the epitome of stupidity and shortsightedness.

As for the opium, you don't win hearts and minds by destroying the crop. What you do is outbid the other buyer. We should buy all the opium we can, but make our payments direct to the farmer, cutting out the middleman (the Taliban). Make the farmers owe their prosperity to us, not the Islamists.

Another Bush disaster.

[leonardox1]

Parvez Musharaf is playing all sides well. He is receiving all the aid he needs from the US and allows the Taliban to infiltrate into Afghanistan to wreak havoc. He knows that sooner or later ISAF will depart and he would have to deal with the Taliban.

[zippywpinhead]

that's what happens when you take your eye off the ball- way to go Bush...

[MagisterLudi]

Blogger posed: "The Afghan government blames neighboring Pakistan for failing to prevent insurgents active in the tribal areas there from entering into Afghanistan. These charges have been totally rejected by Islamabad."

WOW! Islamabad rejects the charges.... it MUST be true, then! Nice reasoning, blogger.

[justice2008]

If you read his last paragraph he says, "everyone is correct in this blame game". In other words, Pakistan is to blame as well!!!

[justice2008]

50,000 ISAF troops are not enough! Russia (USSR) had double this amount and had their behind kicked. No one can was able to control Afghanistan throughout history¦can"t we get a hint?

[MagisterLudi]

The idea is not to "control" A-stan but to control Al Qaeda and assorted. We the West despised Taliban before 9/11 and did nothing about. Taliban chose to align with foreign Jihadists and lost control of A-stan. Regardless of how the battle waxes and wanes, Taliban and their Jihadist pals will never again be the government of A-stan. Not unless the West needs them against a stronger enemies someday :-)
Karzai represents a corrupt government?! And... find me a third world government that isn't corrupt and addicted to bakshish.
What the blogger is saying really, that he would like a stronger hand in A-stan, along the likes of S. Hussein to "control" A-stan. And he doesn't even realize he's saying it.

[newsjunkie5]

I think your mistaken MagisterLudi if you think that the US and its allies will ever be able to control Al Qaeda. This so-called war on terror that we've been fighting for 7 years is an absolute joke! We've become the terrorists and we've made Al Qaeda look like a Disney character. They will continue to hold Afghanistan hostage and we will continue to fund their cause by 'covertly' buying up their opium and perpetuating a drug-happy pill-popping good ole' US of A!

[MagisterLudi]

We get it, we get... Taliban is winning and Pakistan is blameless... right.

[jad114]

Think about it this way: we initially attacked Afghanistan to go after Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, then made a B-line into Iraq. Now this Adminstration wants to attack Iran...perhaps the've been smoking some of the Afghani opuim! God Help us...

[newsjunkie5]

Let's talk about opium trade in Afghanistan. Last I checked, Afghanistan is the world's number one supplier of opium and the opium trade maintains the Taliban's financial independence. I think if you want to weaken the Taliban then you must destroy their opium fields.

I also agree with the author that Karzai has to take some of the blame too. Karzai and his friend Bush have been unsuccessful in boosting the countries economy and creating work for Afghans. Therefore, many find work on the opium fields, directly benefiting the Taliban and continuing to fill their deep pockets.

[jad114]

Don't forget also the neighboring countries that facilitate the transfer of opuim through their borders like Pakistan, Iran and others.

[leonardox1]

While this Adminstration is drowning in the Iraqi quagmire the Taliban have made a come back. Meanwhile Bin Laden is laughing in his cave!

[MagisterLudi]

As long as he's in a cave, everythings fine.
I doubt this was his life's goal: to end up like a hunted animal living in a cage surrounded by semi-literate Jihadists. Enjoy, dude.