Afghanistan, Talibanistan ,Waziristan and Kill Ratios
BY Herschel Smith
18 years, 3 months ago
There is good news and bad news in Afghanistan. As you know, there are ongoing operations in Afghanistan, and the coalition forces are becoming very good at killing Taliban fighters. Operation Medusa, as of September 3, 2006, had netted 200 Taliban killed and 80 captured, as compared to 4 NATO casualties. In case you’re not counting (or dividing), this is a kill ratio of 50:1.
From the Washington Times:
An Army commander just back from Afghanistan had some good news and bad news. The good: The coalition is good at finding and killing Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. The bad: Nearly as fast as the terrorists are killed, they are replaced by new recruits from camps in Pakistan.
I have mixed feelings about calling this “bad” news. On the one hand, I hate to see that there are so many in the world who hate us and want to kill us. On the other hand, the good news part of the story is that if there are those who do indeed want to kill us, we are fighting them over there instead of on U.S. soil. The effects of fighting them on U.S. soil would be many more U.S. deaths and the complete destruction of the U.S. economy (and certainly the destruction of our way of life).
Now for the really bad news. Bill Roggio (h/t Michelle Malkin) has a must read piece on the surrender of the Pakistani army to the Taliban in the region of Waziristan. His opening volley in the piece is this:
Pakistan’s “truce with the Taliban is an abject surrender, and al-Qaeda has an untouchable base of operations in Western Pakistan which will only expand if not checked.
Bill continues by outlining the terms of the truce:
– The Pakistani Army is abandoning its garrisons in North and South Waziristan.
– The Pakistani Military will not operate in North Waziristan, nor will it monitor actions the region.
– Pakistan will turn over weapons and other equipment seized during Pakistani Army operations.
– The Taliban and al-Qaeda have set up a Mujahideen Shura (or council) to administer the agency.
– The truce refers to the region as “The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan.
On September 6, 2006 at 4:14 pm, m.takhallus said:
It’s catastrophic news. Go back to our primary purpose in going into Afghanistan: to deny safe haven to Al Qaeda. If this news is accurate Al Qaeda just gained a safe haven in Pakistan. And unlike Afghanistan we cannot invade Pakistan or push for regime change there. In other words we’ve just wasted a lot of time, a lot of money, and too many lives and achieved nothing. Al Qaeda it seems now has a safe haven in the same country that possesses 15-100 deliverable nuclear weapons.