U.S. Launches Assault

U.S. Launches Assault

www.foxnews.com

DAHANEH, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines have mounted a helicopter and ground assault to seize the Taliban-held town of Dahaneh in southern Afghanistan and are fighting gain control of the area ahead of next week's presidential elections.

The assault, called operation Eastern Resolve, began before dawn Wednesday, with 500 Marines and Afghan troops entering the town as others battled militants in the surrounding mountains.

The town has never before seen coalition forces.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The Taliban has magically come to life, and has become more powerful after their initial "defeat" back in 2001. I wonder how they went from the folks that got bombed to bits in the invasion of Afghanistan to the superhero fighters that was able to take out 76 western soldiers last month and has already taken out 27 this month. It's like Taliban reloaded.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

We live in an Orwellian world where war is peace. We are always winning but it is neverending. Most people are to brainwashed to even notice that we no longer have real reasons to fight wars and no real objectives. It goes on year after year and if you speak against the senselessness of it you hate America. It hard to retain ones sanity in this reality.

The Taliban is the enemy. We've always been at war with the Taliban.

What I find rather interesting is the Over the top "Super Human" beliefs in them. They are just like any other group comprised and ran by simple humans who are subject to infighting and potential collapse just like any other group.

Nobody is perfect. This could be the first time a group such as this could see defeat.

Again I'm not stating this as fact. Just speculating is all.

I have been sitting here reading the headlines from the MSM sources and I've been noticing a possible pattern. Are parts of the fragmented Taliban falling apart? I've read some of the following reports on the Taliban training young boys for their cause now I know some will say it's just the next generation of fighters which a very real possibility. No doubt. but could it be...

Pakistan army says Taliban training boys to fight

MINGORA, Pakistan — In a voice barely above a whisper, I.H. stared at his feet as he recounted haltingly how the Taliban kidnapped him and a classmate as they played in the street. They cleaned dishes for a few days in a militant training camp in northern Pakistan before escaping during Friday prayers, he said.

The Pakistani army says it has so far found 20 boys like I.H., who is only being identified by his initials for his safety, in the battle-scarred Swat Valley, scene of a major offensive against the Taliban this spring.

They believe the Taliban hoped to turn the boys into informants, fighters or even suicide bombers. Some escaped, others were rescued by authorities. Maj. Nasir Khan said many more are believed to be in the hands of militants.

We also have another story of the head of the Pakistani Taliban being killed and that there is now a power struggle between the different factions within the organization.


National security adviser: US believes Mehsud dead

WASHINGTON — The United States is nearly certain the Pakistani Taliban's leader is dead, and there now is a leadership struggle within the terrorist group, White House national security adviser James Jones said Sunday.

Claims and counterclaims about Baitullah Mehsud's fate have swirled since a CIA missile strike last Wednesday on his father-in-law's house in Pakistan's rugged, lawless tribal area.

"Mehsud was a very bad individual, a real thug," said Jones, who appeared on three Sunday talk shows. He said the U.S. "put it in the 90 percent category" that Meshud was killed. "This is a big deal," he said.

Nobody outside of my own tinfoil hat thinking has tried to connect these dots. For some reason this just reminds me of another struggle once upon a time where one group was desperate for fighters and turned to their youth to help the struggle. Is this possibly a sign of the end? I'm not making a statement of fact just asking a question. I'm looking forward to your opinion and contributions.


Hitler Youth

By 1945, the Volkssturm was commonly drafting 12-year-old Hitler Youth members into its ranks. During the Battle of Berlin, Axmann's Hitler Youth formed a major part of the last line of German defense, and were reportedly among the fiercest fighters. Although the city commander, General Helmuth Weidling, ordered Axmann to disband the Hitler Youth combat formations; in the confusion, this order was never carried out.

[edit on 12-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by SLAYER69


I used too train international students for the USAF.
With that in mind I throw out.

Look at their culture.
They are obliged to give there life
& the lives of their children for the safety of a guest.
If we just became their guests it would be over.

We should be asking ourselves what is there of value?
For what reason would the thinning of the local population be productive?

Did we forget that the Russians needed a pipeline to the sea?
Do we forget the population told them to blow it out there pa zoo zaa?

I understand the Drug connection.
But there are drugs everywhere.
Have we become the Hessian's?

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[edit on 8/12/2009 by n120by60w]

There will always be insurgencies and revolts. Because people want to govern themselves and people want to choose their own destiny!

The reason the war in Afghani has not ended yet are twofold.

1) With each forceful action, we create new militants and enemies.

2) The flow of opium/heroin is a billion dollar industry, the people of Afghanistan are slaves to this industry and no matter how hard they try they will never get rid of it.

The Taliban did get rid of 90% of poppy fields during their reign, and once the USA came in guns blazing, guess what happened? Within a few years the poppy fields got back to previous levels and has even grown to unprecedented sizes.

Then there is the issue of the oil pipeline coming through the territory. So I suppose that is a lesser third reason.

So there you have it. My analysis of Afghani conflict.

Drug war, oil war, slavery, you name it.

Side benefit = A way to test new weapons / tactics in a real battlefield situation.

Indeed, Afghanistan is an anarchy zone and it will always be. It is where you should go if you want to fight a war without purpose or rules.

Originally posted by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi
Indeed, Afghanistan is an anarchy zone and it will always be. It is where you should go if you want to fight a war without purpose or rules.

A common word for this is "Killing Fields."

Afghanistan is a "killing fields" and has been for centuries.

The Taliban are a loosely-knit group of Muslim extremists who are convinced they are waging the Lesser Jihad - and according to their Qur'an, they *are* waging such Jihad. In Jihad, a Muslim has the right to fight any enemy on their soil that is threatening their lives of their way of life. Which is what we're doing.

By bombing innocent civilians, we are guaranteeing a steady supply of mujihaddin, those who are fighting Jihad. Every time we kill someone's family members, we gain new enemies, people who might otherwise have been content to leave us alone.

In the meantime, there is no good way to kill Taliban. It's not like it has a strict hierarchy with definite leaders. It's a loose, informal group that has cells or factions everywhere. Kill one cell, you've got hundreds of others still fighting. Kill anyone who looks like a "supreme leader", and the cells keep on fighting. In order to kill Taliban, you'd have to kill every single Taliban member. But since we can't identify who belongs and who doesn't (they don't give you a special "Taliban" uniform), that would mean we'd have to kill every single Muslim. And, powerful as we are, we cannot do this. We don't have the resources.

The Taliban isn't going away until we stop killing people over there. Even then, it will likely remain as the ultra-religious, fanatical Muslim force we invented. We created the Taliban, hoping that they'd fight and weaken the Soviet Union, who was in Afghanistan much as we are now. The Soviet Union got its bottom handed to it, losing ignominiously to a bunch of horse-riding, rifle-toting guys with far more guts than brains. And guess what's happening to us?

Originally posted by Floating thru Reality
We live in an Orwellian world where war is peace. We are always winning but it is neverending. Most people are to brainwashed to even notice that we no longer have real reasons to fight wars and no real objectives. It goes on year after year and if you speak against the senselessness of it you hate America. It hard to retain ones sanity in this reality.

Exactly correct.

If you aren't crazy after searching for truth, you haven't looked hard enough or long enough yet.

An important thing to note i believe.

"You can win every battle and still lose the war."

This is how the USA is in Afghani. We can win every single battle, yet we are somehow losing the overall war in essence.

The USA wins every conventional battle. With overwhelming tactics and logistics, combined with air superiority and high tech gadgets, winning the battle is inevitable.

However, this is a war based purely on mentality and belief. So really good weapons systems is pretty useless in this type of psychological war. And in fact using weapons increases the psy-op potential the enemy can use to defame you further.

Winning every battle is worthless if you cannot convince the population to stop attacking you. Unless you genocide them all, more will keep coming for the fight.

I think sitting down and talking is the best way to convince a people to be on your side. Shooting at them and blowing up their cities usually pits them against you.

Just an observation.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
An important thing to note i believe.

"You can win every battle and still lose the war."

This is how the USA is in Afghani. We can win every single battle, yet we are somehow losing the overall war in essence.

That's very true. Want to win the Taliban over? Give them money and aide to form their own government instead of fighting them. They might be a bit too extremist now but after they settle down they'll modernize a bit and Afghanistan would become a fair land. Also it would be wise to allow Iran to aide them and to generally leave hostile action within the Middle East itself.

Some enemies can take a beating, but they will give in to kind words. Taliban only wants some love

reply to post by muzzleflash


What would happen in a scenario where a tactic of total non-combative non-cooperative resistance was employed instead? Where the afghanis put down their weapons, got back to their daily lives and simply refused to engage with or acknowledge the foreign presence in their lands as if they didnt exist?

[edit on 12-8-2009 by Taikonaut]

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Winning every battle is worthless if you cannot convince the population to stop attacking you. Unless you genocide them all, more will keep coming for the fight.
Just an observation.

Fair enough what about Iraq?


We have won every contest. The Iraqis are now preoccupied with killing each other more than attacking US forces. Go back over the headlines a couple of years. You will see this pattern. Yet in popular opinion we are loosing or have lost in Iraq.

Which doesn't make since. We haven't lost a battle nor have we had any positions over ran. Saddam is gone there is a new government in place etc. The invasion was very unpopular and hence we get criticized and the war detractors will make sure their opinion is known through their agendas of trying to make damn sure the US cannot call a victory there.

Public opinion is what will call a victory sometimes not boots still standing when the dusts settles apparently.




[edit on 12-8-2009 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by MegaCurious


Unless US forces hire a greater number of native language speakers nothing good can happen. With over a dozen different tribes there is a serious communication break down.