Situation in Afghanistan Not Going Well as Taliban Creates Havoc
Things are unraveling in Afghanistan as Taliban assaults attempt to stretch Nato forces to the breaking point.
As AsiaTimes reports: "The battle for Kandahar, the city in the southern province of the same name where the Taliban rose to power in the 1990s before taking control of the rest of Afghanistan, has begun.
"And while Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces are massed in the area around Arghandab, 20 kilometers north of Kandahar, the Taliban have their sights firmly set on the provincial capital.
"However, a former Taliban foreign minister, Ahmad Wakil Muttawakil, told Asia Times Online he believed the present aim of the Taliban was only to create terror, and not the fall of Kandahar city.
"Whatever the ultimate goal, the fact is that within a week of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's threat to send Afghan troops inside Pakistan to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban leadership, the Taliban have launched a serious challenge to the writ of the Afghan government and NATO troops in the heart of the country's second-largest city and home town of Karzai.
"Three days ago, like in last year's spring offensive, the Taliban occupied the Arghandab district. However, this year the plan had changed.
"First they rattled the Afghan administration's nerve by carrying out the sophisticated raid on the jail in Kandahar, setting free hundreds of Taliban captives who were then taken to the Arghandab district.
"Significantly, Taliban loyalists within the Afghan security forces either assisted in or turned a blind eye to this operation, which came as a shock to coalition forces as they are increasingly relying on Afghan forces. (Underline added.)
"The Taliban initiative this year began with moves to choke NATO's supply lines in Khyber Agency in Pakistan, and to force the Pakistani government to sign peace agreements with militants in the tribal areas to allow the free flow of men and supplies into Afghanistan to fuel the insurgency there. The latter objective was achieved in full, the former to a lesser extent.
"The US military did say on Wednesday though that four of its helicopter engines worth US$13.2 million had gone missing in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The engines were being shipped by a Pakistani haulage company from the main US base at Bagram near the capital Kabul.
Ah yes, the Bush administration's foreign policy in Afghanistan is going as well as their policies in the Iraq sinkhole.
As AsiaTimes reports: "The battle for Kandahar, the city in the southern province of the same name where the Taliban rose to power in the 1990s before taking control of the rest of Afghanistan, has begun.
"And while Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces are massed in the area around Arghandab, 20 kilometers north of Kandahar, the Taliban have their sights firmly set on the provincial capital.
"However, a former Taliban foreign minister, Ahmad Wakil Muttawakil, told Asia Times Online he believed the present aim of the Taliban was only to create terror, and not the fall of Kandahar city.
"Whatever the ultimate goal, the fact is that within a week of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's threat to send Afghan troops inside Pakistan to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban leadership, the Taliban have launched a serious challenge to the writ of the Afghan government and NATO troops in the heart of the country's second-largest city and home town of Karzai.
"Three days ago, like in last year's spring offensive, the Taliban occupied the Arghandab district. However, this year the plan had changed.
"First they rattled the Afghan administration's nerve by carrying out the sophisticated raid on the jail in Kandahar, setting free hundreds of Taliban captives who were then taken to the Arghandab district.
"Significantly, Taliban loyalists within the Afghan security forces either assisted in or turned a blind eye to this operation, which came as a shock to coalition forces as they are increasingly relying on Afghan forces. (Underline added.)
"The Taliban initiative this year began with moves to choke NATO's supply lines in Khyber Agency in Pakistan, and to force the Pakistani government to sign peace agreements with militants in the tribal areas to allow the free flow of men and supplies into Afghanistan to fuel the insurgency there. The latter objective was achieved in full, the former to a lesser extent.
"The US military did say on Wednesday though that four of its helicopter engines worth US$13.2 million had gone missing in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The engines were being shipped by a Pakistani haulage company from the main US base at Bagram near the capital Kabul.
Ah yes, the Bush administration's foreign policy in Afghanistan is going as well as their policies in the Iraq sinkhole.
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