Taliban's terror tactics reconquer Afghanistan

[IndianaGreen]

We lost Iraq, and now we on the verge of losing Afghanistan. I don't think the infusion of 11,000 British troops into this country can salvage the situation. Karzai's days are numbered!

Taliban's terror tactics reconquer Afghanistan
By Nelofer Pazira in Kandahar
Published: 20 August 2006

"If we die, we are martyrs - if we live, we are victors," say the Taliban in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province. They have taken control of the area in less than two weeks. For, with ever accelerating speed, the Taliban are reconquering south-west Afghanistan from the government, American and Nato forces sent to fight them.

It took Besmillah, a villager from Panjwai, three hours to get from his home to Kandahar, a journey that usually takes an hour. "There were bodies on the road," he says, "at least 40 bodies - of Afghan soldiers - lying in a place called Yakh Chah , halfway between Shykh Kalandar and the municipality of Panjwai. The Taliban have a madrasa in Shykh Kalandar and they were attacking the municipality from there at first. But now they have taken the whole district. I saw two cars on fire. I had to go through the fields and take side roads to make it to Kandahar."

Panjwai, 30km west of Kandahar, is one of the more prosperous districts in the province. It's been 12 days since the fighting began there. "At first, Canadians were there too," Besmillah says. "But I don't know what happened. They left, and now there is only the Afghan army."

The Taliban have told the district's mayor that he will be left untouched providing he and his men stay where they are and forbid Nato forces permission to enter the area, Besmillah says.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1220487.ece

[whistle]

1. Mission Accomplished???? Mission in the Toilet is more like it!!!

[Phredicles]

2. Yeah, but we sure got Saddam, didn't we?

I guess that's what was really important.

[whistle]

3. That and 10 billion barrels of oil

[acmavm]

4. I don't think we got the oil. The Iraqis blow up the pipelines constantly.

I wonder what's been happening in that area lately. There were plans for pipelines to Israel and through Afganistan I thought.

[whistle]

5. So then all we got was sand storms? $290 billion and still spending

[Phredicles]

6. I seem to recall hearing, before the war, that

considerations of morality and international law aside, taking over Iraq would at least assure us a substantial supply of oil and consequently plenty of cheap, cheap gas.

So what happened? I'm surprised no one's tried to convince us that, without this unprovoked invasion, we'd all be paying 8 bucks a gallon (or maybe I shouldn't give freepie lurkers any ideas).