Coalition Killing More Insurgents In Afghanistan Than Ever
Taliban Bench Warmers
By Christian Lowe
IT’S TRUE THAT INSURGENT violence is on the rise in Afghanistan, with a surging Taliban taking up tactics first used against U.S. forces in Iraq, including suicide bombs, improvised explosive devices, and vehicle-borne IEDs. Afghan civilians and national security forces are being killed in greater numbers this year than any year since the 2001 invasion. According to an Afghan diplomatic source, 700 civilians have been killed so far this year–some in poorly-targeted U.S. bombing raids–but a large proportion of those have been the victims of insurgent attacks.
The other side of the story is quite different, however. Along with the rise in Taliban–and to some extent, al Qaeda violence–has come a sharp increase in the number of insurgents killed by Coalition (mostly American and Australian) troops and Afghan security forces. The Afghan diplomat said about 3,500 Taliban have been killed this year, and several top commanders captured.
There’s been a major tactical shift recently in how the Taliban insurgency attacks Coalition forces. Of course, IEDs and suicide bombings are up 20 percent over last year’s 5,388 total, but there have also been a number of large-scale engagements waged against allied patrols that wind up resulting in high enemy losses. It seems anathema to the usual tactics of an insurgency, where small hit-and-run attacks prove most effective at driving government forces and their allies out of the fight. And it speaks to a growing trend of military incompetence within a Taliban depleted of its experienced, native-born fighters.
In September alone, a number of engagements involving hundreds of Taliban fighters resulted in resounding defeats for the insurgents. In two separate battles on September 27, Coalition forces claimed 165 Taliban fighters killed. And just this week, NATO forces and Afghan soldiers reportedly trapped 250 Taliban fighters in a village north of Kandahar after an attempted insurgent ambush. That’s counter to the basic tenets of guerrilla warfare which abhors mass–the more fighters you pull together in one group, the bigger the target. The Soviet-fighting mujahedeen were only able to mass in significant numbers after U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles eliminated Soviet air cover.
So, why the sudden wave of mass attacks? A lot has been made in recent news reports of the increase in foreign fighters joining the ranks of the Taliban, with some of those stories insinuating that the development is a measure of the insurgency’s growing strength and influence. The New York Times reported on October 29 that the foreign fighters “are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than their locally bred allies.”
But a top American commander based in Kandahar–where the Taliban movement was born–explained that from his perspective the foreign fighter influx is actually a sign of weakness. The high body count is a result of “ineptitude” he said, and stems from the fighters’ lack of experience and training.
“In this type of war, when you mass against forces like us . . . without firepower, we’re able to destroy them quite easily and we’ve shown that over the last six to seven months,” said Col. Thomas McGrath, the American commander in charge of training Afghan security forces near Kandahar. “They’re bringing in cohorts of young men who really don’t know any better and it’s been a colossal failure for them.”
The violent reprisals, fundamentalist edicts and civilian deaths resulting from suicide bombings, IEDs and ambushes against Coalition forces have driven the Afghan population away from the Taliban and curtailed local support for any insurgents, particularly foreigners. The Afghan government has been using this rift to its advantage recently, initiating talks with Afghan Taliban commanders to convince them their lot is ill served by an association with the foreign fighters who terrorize their countrymen.
With locals dropping out of the insurgent ranks, foreign zealots are assuming command. And as they continue their suicide charges against Coalition forces in Afghanistan, their influence and battlefield acumen withers.
“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.”
(Daily Standard)
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More Coalition victories failing to be reported in the US MSM! Thank you Pat! What a beautiful picture too! It should be made into Christmas Cards and sent to every anti-war, anti-military liberal democrat in Congress.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 pmGeez, sure doesn’t look to me like that fella in the foreground is enjoyin’ his 72 virgins.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:28 pmI wonder what the count is on islamic militants killed since this war began in 2001? I bet it is pretty lopsided. I sense that AQ has been bled dry of experienced killers and now are depending on young idealists to fill their ranks.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 pmThe tough ole Taliban got tired of living in the cold hard mountains and decided to fight..
Bring it on. The more more kill the less that can breed a new generation
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 pmThe count on dead haj is inching closer to 20,000. The last I heard it was at 16,800. But that was awhile ago. With all the recent successes that we have had in Iraq and Afghanistan the count is much higher. And that count doesn’t include AQ killed on other fronts such as the Maghreb or Somalia.
Yep, every time that AQ & Co come out to play, they end up like the fool in the pic….dead…
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:53 pmHey I did not read the article, but who the FUCK are you assholes to keep our score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 pmHaven’t you learned from the MSM that TRUE (cough, cough, hack,hack,cough) Americans only want to know that we are losing boots on the ground!
If your name is franchie or Paul Hausser in the spirit of full disclosure my last post was pure SARCASIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:12 pmSully
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:14 pmNot as ugly as he was before he got fucked up!
nice picture
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:52 amyep these retards are getting bitchslapped bigtime.
November 3rd, 2007 at 4:07 amjust the other day one of our australian sas troops was KIA
then 3 days later the sas went out on an operation in that same area and killed 50 of them and captured 12
Howie:
No man it’s not “cough, cough, hack,hack,cough” It’s “hack, hack, THEN cough, cough…hack, cough, hack…”
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:54 amWould love have Christmas Cards made up for my wacky neighbors, we have a deathtoll sign down the street of civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Fuck them!
November 3rd, 2007 at 9:59 amForeign fanatical fools to the slaughter. I like it! The Afghan fighting is generating huge kill ratios; many of these fights cause zero friendly deaths.
November 4th, 2007 at 1:30 amlight at the end of the tunnel ?
November 4th, 2007 at 4:36 pm