Suicide bombers, gunmen storm governor's compound in Afghanistan

[laststeamtrain]

Source: LA TIMES

latimes.com
Suicide bombers, gunmen storm governor's compound in Afghanistan

Five attackers, two police officers and a provincial council member are killed in an hours-long battle. The Taliban claim responsibility.

By Laura King

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

2:44 AM PDT, May 5, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan

A squad of suicide bombers and gunmen stormed a provincial governor's compound in southwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday, but security forces managed to fight them off, Afghan officials said.

At least five of the assailants were killed, authorities said. Two police officers and a provincial council member also died in the hours-long assault, according to Gen. Jabar Purdili, the police chief of Nimroz province. About a dozen other people were reported to have been wounded.

Nimroz shares a border with Helmand, where some of the heaviest fighting of the nearly 9-year-old Afghan conflict has taken place in recent months.

<snip>

Wednesday's attack also pointed up what the military calls a "squirting" effect: When Taliban fighters are driven from one sanctuary, they seek another. Some of the militant factions operating in Nimroz are thought to have fled an offensive earlier this year by U.S. Marines and other coalition forces in the Helmand town of Marja.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fgw-afghanistan-governor-20100506,0,1533878.story

[Bragi]

1. Ah, the "squirting effect"

I guess it's very similar to the "disappearance-reappearance effect", wherein insurgents flee a particular area that has been targeted for much-publicized combat by foreign troops, only to reappear in that area once the foreign troops leave.

The reason for this tactic is that insurgents are too cowardly to stand like men and get vaporized by brave and courageous heroes operating drones from Tulsa, or aerial assaults from 70,000 feet above, or rounds from insanely-powerful weapons fired from miles away.

Odd those insurgents, eh?

[ShortnFiery]

2. I don't know about the label "cowardly?" ;) When you don't have a standing army or air force from

your big Sugar Daddy NATO, you fight with whatever you can get your hands on.

Further, not unlike the North Vietnamese, the native INSURGENTS can live in abject poverty for the duration. They hit hard and then meld into the population.

I hope it doesn't take 58,000 of our fellow service members to die before we realize that Occupations of diverse tribal areas ... simply don't work. :(

Sure we can "kick their asses" and blow up thousands of amorphous "insurgents" along with women, children and some goats. We can probably win almost every battle. But we will LOSE the war due to attrition.

Perhaps I'm wrong? Does anyone wish to migrate to Afghanistan or Iraq? Anyone?

To defeat the more powerful enemy, the guerrilla needs to dictate the terms of warfare.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNguerrilla.htm

[elias49]

3. I'm pretty sure Bragi was being sarcastic about 'cowardly' n/t

[rasputin1952]

4. I have a slightly different take on the "cowardly" aspect...

The Taliban is essentially a relatively loose knit group that has it's "power" from bastardizing religious tenets.While I will not disagree that this is guerrilla warfare, there are aspects where "cowardly" is an appropriate description of some of the behaviors involved.

A "for instance", many of the pictures that show captors/captives have individuals in ski masks or scarves hiding their identity...kind of cowardly if anyone asks me. If someone takes such an extreme POV that they think that killing hogtied individuals is somehow an "act of bravery", well, that's a serious flaw in the "hero" playbook. Another serious act of cowardice is that "leaders" talk others into becoming human bombs, killing and maiming many as they cease to exist, or be recognized after the event. If this is such a "great idea" that is being pushed by said "leaders", how come they don't blow themselves up? Cowardice in the extreme is when you get someone else to do what you yourself would never even contemplate doing, especially when it costs the individual their life.

Cowardice is one of the hallmarks of those that "paln and talk", whether it be the Taliban, al Qeda or Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity. I believe calling it what it is...pure unadulterated cowardice, the failure to act personally act upon what is being requested/demanded of others, is the very essence of cowardice.

[laststeamtrain]

5. Battle of Algiers: win the battle, lose the war,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers_(film)