This seems to me to be a self-solving problem. When the Taliban starts butchering the leaders of your village, it seems likely to provoke resistance. The tribesmen of Waziristan have a finely-honed sense of vengeance. Such gratuitous killing smacks of desperation and bodes ill for the Taliban. . . .
Tantor on June 25, 2008 at 12:43 PM

The question is, who are the Taliban? If they are mostly foreigners (Arabs, Checheyns [sp?], Uzbeks, etc.), then yes, the relatives of the victims will look for vengeance. If they are local tribesmen, then it becomes a more complex story, depending on who is related to whom.

Seems to me we are taking the only possible approach: identify and destroy the leadership, especially the foreigners. And especially al Qaeda training camps.

Beyond that, we need to take a fresh approach to Afghanistan as a whole. For one thing, we ought to take co-opt for poppy crop, by paying more than the Taliban or al Qaeda do.

When can we learn to accept reality. It appears to me that they are not smart people. Show me some evidence to the contrary.

However, isn’t it funny how the context of such stories determine its spin? When the US fights in a foreign country, indigineous resistance is assumed to be unbeatable. However, when our enemies, like the Taliban, fights in a foreign country, it is assumed that they are unbeatable, not the indigineous resistance. The meta-assumption here is that America’s enemies are inherently invincible while America is always the weaker party facing an unwinnable war.

Sooner or later, the Taliban and radical Islamists go too far. The same thing happened in Iraq when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi turned Sunnis against the radicals with brutal and outright lunatic violence. Iraqis predisposed to support Muslims over the American occupiers got so sick of the terrorists that they sided with the infidels for their own protection.

Exactly. I would guess this is it. If it’s not these folks are the heathens in Gunga Din….

Yep. You know what they call the first side in a war who quits fighting?

The loser.

If by pay better you mean we won’t chop your head off, or force your kid to go blow himself up, or bust your chops because you want a smoke, or chase willing women, and eventually we’re going to go home, so you better start picking up the slack, then yeah, we pay better.

You surmise that the Pakistani government, regardless of who is elected, is playing fatalism? Probably that’s the fabric upon which the reality paints the sour grapes excuse–who wants that barbaric region can have it since it’s not worth the effort–clearing it out is impossible. There are some regions that either require absolute destruction or absolute apathy. Anything in-between is wasted. But the USA is at the point with the Taliban that it must go all the way. So drop the leaflets and warn everyone to clear out to refugee camps because the destroying angel will fly by soon.

All of the things they hated about him, they would have made excuses for, if he went to U.N. events and said “f-ck Bush.” If he was another Hugo Chavez, and we criticized him for it, they would have accused us of “saber rattling”

The left really does hate America. You can see it by how they hate America’s friends and make excuses for her enemies.

And bobama’s cosmopolitan rearing went through Muslim Indonesia in a Jakarta madrassa. His vocal coach not only taught him enunciation but reading the teleprompter like the back of his hand/head.

Now here’s lunacy. PC supposedly accepts everyone “as they are”–I’m OK, You’re OK syndrome. That they instead chant “Obama or Die” proves the ubertard illegitimate whoring of the classical term liberal. According to bobama who wants to unite the world under his AT&T-knock-off pastel blue&white bubble his Muslim madrassa was/is NOT Islamic and he is not directly related to either his Muslim father and stepfather. The fact is, Obama is an illegitimate bastard if he denies his father, his father’s father, his half-relations, his stepfather, his mother, and his mother’s parents who finished raising him with a great education, and his politico-spiritual advisor of 20 years. Obama is not his own man. Obama belongs to Soros and Marx. I refuse to play either Eloy or Morlock to their tune and advise everyone to look sharp.

Pervez Musharraf could be excused an I-told-you-so smile when that happens.

Again, I still don’t understand why you give this FAILED leader credit for anything. Musharraf was the one who STARTED the whole ‘peace deal’ process.

They won’t ‘turn on’ the Taliban either. They are AFRAID of the Taliban. If the Pakistani government doesn’t use their military as an iron fist against the Taliban (many in the military are sympathetic to the Taliban anyway), then the Taliban will have their own state.

Musharraf won’t have an ‘I told you so’ smile because he was the one who initiated the ‘if we talk to them with peace then we won’t have to fight them’ mentality. I don’t understand why you can’t see that other than you want one guy to be helpful. The ‘go to them in peace’ strategy WAS MUSHARRAF’s

We didn’t like a supreme court ruling about Guantanamo, but we had to accept it. Maybe we’ll excuse an ‘I told you so’ smile for Musharraf concerning his actions with his supreme court when they made a ruling he did not like. Maybe he was right and we should just dismantle the entire supreme court on executive order like your buddy.

The problems in Pakistan started with the partition from India by the UK that should not have happened. After 9/11, we should have treated Pakistan like Afghanistan. We didn’t because we must have had some covert activities there and we wanted to protect some intelligence somehow.

But to treat Pakistan as a friend who would be helpful was probably the biggest strategic blunder the US military has seen since Pickets charge in Gettysburg. Musharraf should be in jail as the commander of the enemy Pakistani troops. . . and you still think he is a great guy who needs to say ‘I told you so’. . . boy does he have you fooled.

He is the one who made this possible by not going after them with his military because the people didn’t want him to.

And all this time I thought Obama’s accent was fake southern black. I didn’t know he was Austrian. Sorry.

JiangxiDad on June 25, 2008 at 8:37 AM

It’s fake whatever-I-need-to-sound-like-today. He doesn’t have a culture, having been raised by white Kansans in Hawaii, and then going through the Columbia University “wait a minute…you’re black!” culture revision program. Mix in a little work in Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens and you have the Obama dialect.

I think it unlikely we can do much more on the Afghan side. The best we can do is keep the Taliban confined to the more remote regions. Of course, most of that miserable country is ‘remote’.

MrLynn on June 25, 2008 at 8:25 AM

Won’t work. The Taliban wants it all,….control of the Pakistani government and the nukes. Remember what started the Red Mosque confrontation? Taliban defiance of the government outside the hill country started it. We need access through Pakistan to supply troops in Afghanistan. It has to be dealt with.

Ed, you’re wrong about the tribes in Anbar. I have it on good authority from the moonbat left that the Anbaris turned because we pay better.

No but they can block the backdoor while we come through the front.

Limerick on June 25, 2008 at 8:17 AM

I’d hate to have to rely on these 7th century tribal schmucks for military support of any kind. But it’s a puzzle why they are so stupid about the threat that faces their country, such as it is.

Fire up the B-2s!

beheaded…Muslim on Muslim violence

The religion of peace pieces.

Like this:
23 June 2008 11 beheaded in sectarian violence in Pakistan

I meant Obama, not Schwarzenegger.

And all this time I thought Obama’s accent was fake southern black. I didn’t know he was Austrian. Sorry.