US troops posing with body parts.

[ferno 10]

What does your "relative" think of your support for extremists, does he/she know how you feel about the matter?

 

Pointing out that many Afghanis support the taliban is not the same as saying I support them. Argue with what I've said and stop making stuff up.

[rubydazzler 11]

When reading some of the posts on topics like this, I can't help thinking about what they used to call the fifth columnists during WWII.

 

It's a sort of drip drip of 'authoritive misinformation' and chinese whispers that eventually leads to demoralisation and hopelessness in easily influenced people.

[Frank Sidney 11]

There are many accounts of civilians being killed in Afghanistan. I'm not claiming that this represents policy on the part of allied forces, but there are significant numbers of civilains who have been killed.

 

To claim that innocent people haven't died as a result of allied actions is ridiculous.

 

I've never claimed that you made it up...as usual..

[ferno 10]

I still don't believe it, I'd bin that theory..

 

..

 

On what grounds?

 

Even the Americans are beginning to concede it's inevitable:

 

A secret US military report says the Taliban, heavily backed by Pakistan, are confident they can win the Afghanistan conflict, and that they are gaining popular support at the expense of the Kabul government.

 

The report, The State of the Taliban 2012, is the latest of a series drawn up by a US special operations taskforce on the basis of interrogations with 4,000 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida detainees.

According to published excerpts, the report finds that "Taliban commanders, along with rank and file members, increasingly believe their control of Afghanistan is inevitable. Though the Taliban suffered severely in 2011, its strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact."

 

The authors, American researchers attached to special forces, conclude that the weakness and venality of the government in Kabul is an increasing source of strength for the insurgents. "In the last year, there has been unprecedented interest, even from [Afghan government] members, in joining the insurgent cause. Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over [the Afghan government], usually as a result of government corruption, ethnic bias and lack of connection with local religious and tribal leaders.

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/01/taliban-afghanistan-leaked-report-pakistan

 

It's a fact that coalition troops are leaving, it's naive to assume the taliban won't step into the vacuum, Afghanistan is effectively a country with large lawless areas.

[cressida 1,553]

And sadly, many of them were executed for cowardice and lack of moral fibre, when they were really suffering from battle fatigue, shellshock and PTSD.

 

Thankfully, we live in more enlightened times.

 

I wasn't meaning the soldiers you mention, that of course was wrong

 

Here's hoping for more enlightened times anyway

[spooky3 10]

On what grounds?

 

Even the Americans are beginning to concede it's inevitable:

 

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/01/taliban-afghanistan-leaked-report-pakistan

 

It's a fact that coalition troops are leaving, it's naive to assume the taliban won't step into the vacuum, Afghanistan is effectively a country with large lawless areas.

 

From that it sounds like they've been invaded by Pakistan!

[Frank Sidney 11]

Pointing out that many Afghanis support the taliban is not the same as saying I support them. Argue with what I've said and stop making stuff up.

 

How many as a percentage of the population. Do you have any evidence...Oh and what about the women? again..

[Aleksandr 10]

You're being silly. It's a valid point. Doubtless there are those in Afghanistan who welcome the presence of the allied forces, but there are many many people who have been killed by them. By no means all of them are in any way combatants and many have been women and children.

 

To point this out is not anti-west, nor is it pro-terrorist. It's simply acknowledging that there is a great deal of grief and suffering on both sides of the conflict.

 

Our bombs and bullets destroy lives and create widows and orphans as surely as theirs do. That's the truth, that's the reality.

If I were a woman, forced into an arranged marriage with a Taliban misogynist, I'd be truly grateful were I to be made a widow! I'd shake the soldier's hand and say something like: ! أشكركم على الإفراج عني من الجحيم

[ferno 10]

It won't be the Afghan government that fills the security vacuum. As became the template for the decade to follow in other countries, the U.S. greatly underestimated the Afghan population's support for the Taliban, for Sharia, and for jihad for the sake of imposing it. That is in large part because the U.S. greatly underestimated the content of Sharia, accepting a sugar-coated, vapor-ware Sharia -- what is at best an academic, drawing-board conception of what Sharia, could, would, or should be according to agenda-driven apologists, and at worst an outright lie -- as what it really has been in practice all these centuries.

 

"Taliban "poised to retake Afghanistan" after NATO," by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni for Reuters, February 1:

 

KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.

 

 

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/02/report-taliban-ready-to-takeover-afghanistan-following-nato-withdrawal-as-obama-administration-confi.html

 

The assumption to power of the taliban is raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.

[spooky3 10]

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/02/report-taliban-ready-to-takeover-afghanistan-following-nato-withdrawal-as-obama-administration-confi.html

 

The assumption to power of the taliban is raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.

 

Presented differently you'd say that was the military trying to get more money for the campaign...

[The_Mommy 10]

If I were a woman, forced into an arranged marriage with a Taliban misogynist, I'd be truly grateful were I to be made a widow! I'd shake the soldier's hand and say something like: ! أشكركم على الإفراج عني من الجحيم

 

Or.. This bloody place would be hell without us placing our lifes in front of yours...... ?

[ferno 10]

How many as a percentage of the population. Do you have any evidence...Oh and what about the women? again..

 

Nearly a third 5 years ago, almost certainly a lot more now:

 

Troops are facing another challenge in Afghanistan as Taliban support among civilians has rocketed to nearly 27 per cent.

 

 

 

 

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20070319/taliban_support_070319/

 

Mullah Salam, a tribal elder from Helmand province, scene of heavy fighting between Taliban and NATO forces, told TIME why he switched to the Taliban: "Karzai's people made promises to me, and I in turn made them to my tribe, but these were never honored." This last segment of the Taliban is also made up of those seeking justice against NATO forces, a roster likely to grow after coalition jets killed over 30 villagers in Kunduz who were filling up fuel from hijacked NATO tankers.

 

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1923303,00.html#ixzz1sW0JN486

 

 

People disaffected with Karzai and his corrupt drug-dealing brother are looking elsewhere.