The War Continues

posted at 12:24 pm on September 11, 2006 by Bryan
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In Afghanistan, where NATO is still taking the fight to the Taliban:

NATO airstrikes and artillery have killed a further 92 suspected Taliban fighters, the alliance reported Monday, pushing its toll of militant dead in a 10-day offensive past 500.

Isn’t this a disproprotional response to the Taliban’s cross-border attacks and bombings? The Taliban doesn’t have an air force and hasn’t killed 500 NATO troops. Or is it only disproportional to fight terrorists when the Jews do it?

The fatalities reported Monday bring the toll so far to at least 510. NATO has said that 20 foreign soldiers have died, 14 of them in British reconnaissance plane crash. It says it has yet to confirm any of the several civilian casualties reported by Afghan government and hospital officials.

The operation has targeted hundreds of Taliban militants who had gathered near the main southern city of Kandahar. It has prompted some of the heaviest fighting since the U.S.-led ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden.

“Estimating enemy casualties is not a precise science,” the statement quoted Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff for the NATO force in the south.

“With our considerable technical intelligence, human intelligence and surveillance onto the battle area, we are able to establish figures to a reasonable level of accuracy,” said Vernon. “The Taliban in the Panjwayi-Zhari area have suffered significant attrition.”

On the negative side, the world would be a far better place if the Taliban had ceased to exist a long time ago. But on the positive side, if they’re fighting to reclaim what we took from them nearly 5 years ago, they’re not hosting al Qaeda camps on the scale they once did and they’re certainly not advancing to any great extent. We usually overlook the fact that without secure bases it’s difficult to train operatives to the level al Qaeda once did, and al Qaeda just doesn’t have the network of bases it once had. The loss of those bases has had a great deal to do with the lack of major attacks on us since 9-11.

On another front, the North Koreans may act up again soon.

A British newspaper reported Sunday that Russian diplomats believe it is now highly probable that North Korea will carry out its first underground test of an atomic device.

The Sunday Telegraph said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had made his intentions clear during recent talks with Russian and Chinese officials in Pyongyang.

Although he was pressed to resume six-party talks over his nuclear program, the Russians concluded that he was serious about showing that his scientists have successfully built a nuclear weapon, the newspaper said.

“Their fears appear to bolster American suspicions that a test is being prepared, after intelligence reports last month of unusual vehicle movements in the area believed to be the test site,” the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The newspaper said Russia and China, who are North Korea’s closest friends, have warned Kim that detonating an atomic device would alienate them.

I doubt he takes them very seriously, given China’s and Russia’s record of enabling him and Iran. And the bottom line is, Kim already rules the most reclusive state on earth. Unless Russia and particularly China are ready to cut him off entirely and back action against him if it comes to that, Kim’s behavior won’t change.

One reason that we’re still fighting this war against the axis of evil 5 years after 9-11 is the fickle and unreliable behavior of Russia and China. They could have played constructive roles but instead have run interference for the terror masters for years, even after Beslan should have proved to Russia that it is as much under threat as we are, if not more.

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