Recruits giving Taliban muscle for comeback

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0308240422aug24,1,7746940.story?coll=chi-news-hed

For Rahmatullah, 18, an impoverished Afghan student enrolled at a small religious school in the Pakistani border town of Chaman, the offer made by the Taliban mullah who visited in June was too good to refuse.

In return for 3,700 rupees--about $60--the mullah promised, he would be given a gun and the chance to wage holy war against the infidels occupying his country.

So Rahmatullah, who uses only one name, took the money, said goodbye to his classmates and joined the swelling ranks of a revived Taliban rebellion against U.S. forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai.

He didn't fight for long. A week after he crossed into Afghanistan and linked up with a unit of 20 Taliban fighters, the group was betrayed by a local villager and attacked by Afghan forces. Rahmatullah was captured, his money was confiscated, and now he says he regrets his decision.

--snip--

But his account, and that of another captive, Mohammed Ramazan, illustrate something that the Afghan government has been complaining about for some time: Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime are aggressively recruiting and reorganizing in Pakistan in a revived effort to stage a comeback in Afghanistan.

[Spazito]

1. They already own most of Afghanistan...

all the US/UN have is Kabul and have that only by their fingertips.

[Maple]

2. They've been back

for quite some time. Occupy whole areas. Girls schools burned down, poppies flourishing etc

[pw]

3. The poppies aren't the taliban

Those are being grown by the warlords -- you know, the ones who are supposedly our allies.

[Atlant]

4. This is the obvious result of Dubya's recruiting campaign in Iraq. (NT)