Interestingly enough the mainstream media is still in the dark while bloggers who are following the situation are beginning to talk about the "final serious battlegrounds" of the war against al-Qaeda.
"Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated," by what Jabouri says. He is the spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe.
I have been suggesting that for weeks . The latest OBL tape confirmed their desperate situation .
Let's move on .
I am now seeing evidence that the Taliban is splitting and some factions are flipping ;that AQ is targeting these factions ;that Pakistan is beginning to chase the remnants of AQ out of the safe havens in Pakistan ,and that Hezzbollah is now the larger threat to US interests than AQ is (the Iran factor ). Benazeer Bhutto's return has had a huge impact on the situation on the ground there . The Bhutto/Mushareef alliance has turned the tide.
AQ is countering by abandoning the fight in Iraq and sending all available recruits to the Afghanistan front where they will be between a hammer and an anvil . They are also trying to recruit the young Taliban leaders in an attempt to take over the Taliban leadership. The Taliban is about to have it's own version of the civil war that AQ had planned for Iraq. That of course means our enemies fighting amongst themselves. Not a bad deal in my book!
This is all open source information that the press presumably has better access to than I .
I have been suggesting that for weeks . The latest OBL tape confirmed their desperate situation .
Let's move on .
I am now seeing evidence that the Taliban is splitting and some factions are flipping ;that AQ is targeting these factions ;that Pakistan is beginning to chase the remnants of AQ out of the safe havens in Pakistan ,and that Hezzbollah is now the larger threat to US interests than AQ is (the Iran factor ). Benazeer Bhutto's return has had a huge impact on the situation on the ground there . The Bhutto/Mushareef alliance has turned the tide.
AQ is countering by abandoning the fight in Iraq and sending all available recruits to the Afghanistan front where they will be between a hammer and an anvil . They are also trying to recruit the young Taliban leaders in an attempt to take over the Taliban leadership. The Taliban is about to have it's own version of the civil war that AQ had planned for Iraq. That of course means our enemies fighting amongst themselves. Not a bad deal in my book!
This is all open source information that the press presumably has better access to than I .
True enough, but I suppose the local media will never catch up.
The down side is Afghanistan where is has been described [ “…as little more than a hunting lodge for our special operations forces”. There are many indicators that the Afghan campaign is at this date a complete failure…] … Instead of the planned shift toward stability that was expected to be far enough along to enable us to draw down U.S. troops and turn over the security operations to NATO forces, the Taliban has resurged, re-armed, regrouped and re-emerged as a serious military threat.”
But wait, haven't you heard yet. Chou has publicly declared that the war in Iraq has been lost and the troops can't do the job. And we all know that Chou is always right. Just ask her...
Just as the media continues to ignore or downplay positive developments in Iraq, the Democratic 'leadership' continues to declare defeat. I understand politics is a nasty game and both sides want to win the next election, but I will never, ever understand how a 'leader' such as Pelosi, or Murtha, or Reid or whoever can be so damned intent on losing a war and hating a president.
Oh well, after 7 years of "piling on" Bush I guess it's good at least that the Democratic front runner is against 'The Politics of Pile-On' and we can look forward to more civilized discourse in politics. Of course if we apply Hillary's logic to Bush he must be doing a damn fine job.
Just as the media continues to ignore or downplay positive developments in Iraq, the Democratic 'leadership' continues to declare defeat. I understand politics is a nasty game and both sides want to win the next election, but I will never, ever understand how a 'leader' such as Pelosi, or Murtha, or Reid or whoever can be so damned intent on losing a war and hating a president.
Oh well, after 7 years of "piling on" Bush I guess it's good at least that the Democratic front runner is against 'The Politics of Pile-On' and we can look forward to more civilized discourse in politics. Of course if we apply Hillary's logic to Bush he must be doing a damn fine job.
Yeah, I hear ya…
what they don’t understand is that we won, in a sense, the minute this lady voted.
You linked through Yon's site a dated NY Slimes article(6/11/2006) . There is more recent info.availabe.
More recent reports suggest that AQ faces a crumbling alliance with the Taliban and that many Taliban leaders are seeking their own deal with us and the Afghanistan government. News - Telegraph
Quote:
Diplomats confirmed yesterday that Mullah Salaam was expected to change sides within days. He is a former Taliban corps commander and governor of Herat province under the government that fell in 2001.
Military sources said British forces in the province are "observing with interest" the potential deal in north Helmand, which echoes the efforts of US commanders in Iraq's western province to split Sunni tribal leaders from their al-Qa'eda allies.
The Afghan deal would see members of the Alizai tribe around the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala quit the insurgency and pledge support to the Afghan government. It would be the first time that the Kabul government and its Western allies have been able exploit tribal divisions that exist within the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Nato forces in Helmand have been monitoring mounting tensions within the Taliban around the towns of Musa Qala and Kajaki.
"We have been aware in the last week that guns have been pulled and different armed camps formed within the Taliban in that area," said a military source.
According to tribal elders in Helmand and Western diplomats in Kabul, Mullah Salaam had been attempting to negotiate with the Afghan government in secret.
But details of the talks were leaked late last week to his erstwhile allies and this reportedly led to a split in the Taliban ranks.
Mushareef's raid a few months ago on a mosque controlled by radical cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman appears to have signaled a changing of the page . Mushareef is now sending forces into tribal lands. Bhutto ,who had some influence on Rehman when she ran the country is working to flip him. He in turn is becoming a key link in talks with Taliban leaders(and also a target of AQ for a snuffing ).Taliban commanders like Mullah Salaam would not be making deals if they didn't have the support of major players in Pakistan, like Maulana Fazlur Rahman.
The NY Slimes (ignore their spin ) describes how AQ is sending all available jihadi to Afghanistan.They are in a desperate situation there . The Slimes notes that many of these jihadi are being infiltrated into the Taliban (the Slimes calls them new Taliban recruits lol).
AQ has no use for them in the Iraq AQ killing field ;and their base of support amongst the Taliban is weakening ,so they are making a play at a hostile take over of the Taliban. This was exactly the same mistake they made in Iraq when they tried a take over of the Sunni resistance. It will result in the same outcome for them.
Meanwhile the MSM is concentrating on the tail end of the Taliban offensive and reporting every KIA and wounded NATO troop ,and temporary Taliban gains. The Taliban did some schooling on our experiences in Iraq and have been employing some of the tactics used against us there like car bombs and IEDs and " suicide bombings " .
But reports of their losses don't make press. Estimates of Taliban deaths is somewhere around 3500 killed ;and sevral of their leaders on the battle field have been captured. As they lose leadership their tactics will become increasingly sloppy and costly . You may have noted the increased reports of large engagements . That is actually good news. Whenever the enemy masses troops it becomes a target rich environment.
"What they've been able to do is just terrorize people. And people are getting tired of it, and you can tell that because they don't have the local fighters," McGrath explained. "There's a lot of fighters down here but they're not the same as we saw back in 2001; they're coming from outside and they're just coming up here and getting killed."
And of course,just like in Iraq, the increased use of car bombs ,and fundamentalist edicts against the civilian populace will only turn them against the Taliban .They in turn will increasing be a source of intelligence.
You linked through Yon's site a dated NY Slimes article(6/11/2006) . There is more recent info.availabe.
More recent reports suggest that AQ faces a crumbling alliance with the Taliban and that many Taliban leaders are seeking their own deal with us and the Afghanistan government. News - Telegraph
Mushareef's raid a few months ago on a mosque controlled by radical cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman appears to have signaled a changing of the page . Mushareef is now sending forces into tribal lands. Bhutto ,who had some influence on Rehman when she ran the country is working to flip him. He in turn is becoming a key link in talks with Taliban leaders(and also a target of AQ for a snuffing ).Taliban commanders like Mullah Salaam would not be making deals if they didn't have the support of major players in Pakistan, like Maulana Fazlur Rahman.
The NY Slimes (ignore their spin ) describes how AQ is sending all available jihadi to Afghanistan.They are in a desperate situation there . The Slimes notes that many of these jihadi are being infiltrated into the Taliban (the Slimes calls them new Taliban recruits lol).
AQ has no use for them in the Iraq AQ killing field ;and their base of support amongst the Taliban is weakening ,so they are making a play at a hostile take over of the Taliban. This was exactly the same mistake they made in Iraq when they tried a take over of the Sunni resistance. It will result in the same outcome for them.
Meanwhile the MSM is concentrating on the tail end of the Taliban offensive and reporting every KIA and wounded NATO troop ,and temporary Taliban gains. The Taliban did some schooling on our experiences in Iraq and have been employing some of the tactics used against us there like car bombs and IEDs and " suicide bombings " .
But reports of their losses don't make press. Estimates of Taliban deaths is somewhere around 3500 killed ;and sevral of their leaders on the battle field have been captured. As they lose leadership their tactics will become increasingly sloppy and costly . You may have noted the increased reports of large engagements . That is actually good news. Whenever the enemy masses troops it becomes a target rich environment.
And of course,just like in Iraq, the increased use of car bombs ,and fundamentalist edicts against the civilian populace will only turn them against the Taliban .They in turn will increasing be a source of intelligence.
While that report is encouraging there are still many obstacles to overcome. Remember, Afghanistan lacks the historically advanced culture that Iraq had enjoyed in the past. Also we have the opium thread of billions of dollars a year that Al Qaeda has to use as a carrot. One other thing that bothers me in the respect of success in Afghanistan is that of religion: Apostasy is forbidden in Islam and in Afghanistan it carries the death penalty.
I guess we will be seeing Comandant Bush flying a jet onto a ship and addressing the assembled military and declaring MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!!!
Hm, I don't think so......we are still financing this Iraq Fiasco to the tune of 7-8 BILLION DOLLARS A MONTH. Bush lost the war months ago, he stated he made mistakes, AND WE ARE IN A QUAGMIRE!
Linear Mode
