Interview with the Taliban

[Farnan]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/216235/page/1

Long but very interesting.

[Exarch]

it'd be great if you also cut and pasted the full article in spoilers, the way i do

[Denny Crane!]

it'd be great if you also cut and pasted the full article in spoilers, the way i do

He isn't you I'm not so lazy that I can't click a button.

This is really interesting, you rarely get to hear from the other side. Isn't it odd that they really believed their taliban empire hanging people from goalposts was such a good thing.

[Heinz Guderian]

This is really interesting, you rarely get to hear from the other side. Isn't it odd that they really believed their taliban empire hanging people from goalposts was such a good thing.

what do you mean?

[Denny Crane!]

what do you mean?

Pretty much what was said. You see people here from varied backgrounds with nostalgic viewpoints about what was a brutal regime. It seems strange that there are people who weren't around to be indoctrinated in that regime still being able to idolise it.

It doesn't say much for the chances of that region ever becoming civilised. There is a long history of internecine hatred dating back millenia, the only thing uniting common taliban is hatred of others seen as invaders. Take away foreign presences and there will be a renewal of old tribal feuds and a resurgence of them brutalising themselves. Not sure what it would take to civilise that region but I suspect the USA will fail.

[Farnan]

I know but the link also leads to bios of the Taliban and a map. And it keeps the formatting.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

The article is also like...5-7 pages long.

[Heinz Guderian]

Amazing article. How did you find it? Do you use news collating websites like Newsnow.co.uk?

Edit: Its not that long people. Totally worth it.

[Farnan]

Amazing article. How did you find it? Do you use news collating websites like Newsnow.co.uk?

Edit: Its not that long people. Totally worth it.

http://realclearworld.com/

Great website to find links...

And Exarch: Newsweek is anything but right wing.

[Heinz Guderian]

http://realclearworld.com/

Great website to find links...

And Exarch: Newsweek is anything but right wing.

thanks for the link. bookmarked. i use Newsnow.co.uk, which also offers region specific news from all sides of the political spectrum. Asia Times is also good for Afghanistan. Whats that magazine you use? Foreign Policy?

[Farnan]

thanks for the link. bookmarked. i use Newsnow.co.uk, which also offers region specific news from all sides of the political spectrum. Asia Times is also good for Afghanistan. Whats that magazine you use? Foreign Policy?

Sometimes...

But mostly:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/

And:

http://www.armytimes.com/ (which is not connected with the US Army just focus its reporting on Army-related themes)

Along with the site I showed.

[hellheaven1987]

The article tells full of bad news:

1. The insurgency in Afghanistan is slowly turned into a national struggle rather than religious struggle.

2. More fund is spending on that insurgency recently.

[Exarch]

yeh, stil in the middle of reading it, tho i'm also watching tv
mind you, newsweek is very pro right wing

[Heinz Guderian]

At uni, i was allowed to use the "Athens" system which would allow free viewing of subscription only magazines like Jane's etc. Now i gotta pay.

But OT, its amazing to think how quickly the taliban unravelled. Some of the personal stories mentioned in the article are even somewhat "depressing". Haqqani might be playing up his own role in the revival. Money obviously plays an important factor here, and the article touches upon the flow of funds from the Gulf. It seems the fighters still have no counter to American air power, and the helicopter continues to reign hell from above.

After so many years of honing their tactics, the Taliban et al havent come up with a tactical counter. This may be their undoing, unless they somehow manage to get hold of sophisticated air defence weapons which seems extremely unlikely.

[ivan_the_terrible]

Turning into national instead of relgious is not so bad, actually.

Nationalist extremists tend to be more rational than religious ones. Plus a national movement is just national, but a religious one can be global....

[hellheaven1987]

Turning into national instead of relgious is not so bad, actually.

Nationalist extremists tend to be more rational than religious ones. Plus a national movement is just national, but a religious one can be global....

The problem is that the foreign aid to Taliban is for religious case, but what Taliban insurgency wants is national case.

In short, it would be another Soviet style of defeat again.

[Tiberius Tosi]

Seems like the native Afghan fighters were more realistic about their defeat than the Arab fighters were.

If this article shows anything it is this: we do not need to defeat or kill these fighters in combat, but we need to defeat their will to fight. This will be a much harder task than in Iraq, as much of it was a power struggle, inter-relgious violence between sects, mixed with a small amount of religious fanaticism.
These fighters are either religious fanatics, or hardcore loyalists to the Talibani government or ant-US occupationary forces. But they are not stupid, they realize they cannot match US and NATO military might, but that they must use other methods to outlast us.
It's strange when you read it you almost feel some sympathy for some of the speakers, but then you hear them say they killed X number of Afghani troops, and you realize the irony of their entire fight...

[hellheaven1987]

Seems like the native Afghan fighters were more realistic about their defeat than the Arab fighters were.

If this article shows anything it is this: we do not need to defeat or kill these fighters in combat, but we need to defeat their will to fight. This will be a much harder task than in Iraq, as much of it was a power struggle, inter-relgious violence between sects, mixed with a small amount of religious fanaticism.
These fighters are either religious fanatics, or hardcore loyalists to the Talibani government or ant-US occupationary forces. But they are not stupid, they realize they cannot match US and NATO military might, but that they must use other methods to outlast us.
It's strange when you read it you almost feel some sympathy for some of the speakers, but then you hear them say they killed X number of Afghani troops, and you realize the irony of their entire fight...

The worst part is "must use other methods to outlast us"; apartly, the method they are planning to use is to fight a war of attrition, until NATO cannot take the lose anymore.

That is, insurgents actually have advantage.

[Keravnos]

Our real jihad was beginning by the start of 2005. Jalaluddin Haqqani's tribal fighters came actively back to our side because the Americans and the Pakistanis had arrested his brother and other relatives. He appointed his son Sirajuddin to lead the resistance. That was a real turning point. Until then villagers in Paktia, Paktika, and Khost thought the Taliban was defeated and finished. They had started joining the militias formed by the Americans and local warlords, and were informing on us and working against us. But with the support of Haqqani's men we began capturing, judging, and beheading some of those Afghans who worked with the Americans and Karzai. Terrorized, their families and relatives left the villages and moved to the towns, even to Kabul. Our control was slowly being restored.

and

By the end of 2005 the Taliban's ranks in Ghazni were increasing. There were new recruits like me and more former Taliban returning home from Pakistan. At the same time, we started receiving shipments of RPGs, rockets, mines, and bombs, most of which were old and rusty. My group only had three RPG launchers and only one mortar tube, and a few rounds for each. We had a few rusty Russian mines that only worked about 30 percent of the time. So we could only carry out very quick and limited attacks on convoys, construction crews, and district compounds. At first we didn't have much success. But we were learning. Just firing a mortar, even if it didn't hit the target, was a big deal: it proved to everyone we were there and were a force to be respected.


The Americans and their Afghan allies made mistakes after mistake, killing and arresting innocent people. There was one village in Dayak district near Ghazni City where the people had communist backgrounds, from the days of the Russians, and had never supported us. But the police raided the village, beat the elders at a mosque and arrested them, accusing them of being Taliban. They were freed after heavy bribes were paid. After that incident the whole village sent us a message asking forgiveness for the abuses of the communist era.

The above show that it was 2005 that Taliban returned in force, which is in tandem with other articles I have read. Right now it is 2009. Either someone has dropped the ball back then, or something was under reported. Either way, had those initial Taliban invasions been thwarted back then, things would be much better now. Having said that, hindsight is 20/20 and like many I did think back then that the Taliban would fade away. Present facts on the ground suggest that I must have been mistaken.

What does surprise me, however, is that so many of them found refuge in Pakistan.

I gave him a list of our needs. Even before he read the list, he smiled and said: "Whether I am alive or dead, remember this: the resistance will become greater than your greatest expectations. We will return to control Afghanistan." The next day he called me, took a page out of a notebook, wrote something on it, and gave it to me. The note said to go and see this guy and he will help you. Back in Pakistan, I found the man. He kissed Dadullah's letter. After two weeks this man had provided me with all the guns, weapons, and supplies I had requested. Dadullah gave such letters to many people.

Seems they would and did retreat into Pakistan for R+R. I have to wonder how difficult would be to defeat an enemy who does already use a neighbouring country as a base.

and some comic relief...

Once we sent a shipment for the making of IEDs to our forces in Zabul province. For some reason we forgot to include the remote-control devices. I got an urgent call from the commander asking me to quickly send the missing items.

anyways, back to the point at hand because this is unfortunately very serious...

In 2007 I returned to Afghanistan for the first time. I visited the south and spoke to Taliban units, to elders and villagers, and raised new recruits. Mullah Omar has entrusted me with the job of touring towns and villages on both sides of the border to encourage people to support, contribute to, and join the jihad. Between 2006 and 2009 I have personally raised hundreds of new recruits to join the resistance. [In August] I traveled to eight Afghan provinces in 20 days. The unpopularity of the Karzai regime helps us immensely. In 2005 some Afghans thought Karzai would bring positive change. But now most Afghans believe the Taliban are the future. The resistance is getting stronger day by day.

This is what seems to be the problem. We need to Kill Off all those Talib indoctrinators as one of those seems to equate to 100 new Taliban. This passage also indicates one clear reason why people join the Taliban. They have nothing to lose, so joining Taliban looks like the only choice available, rather than an uneasy life with not much to live on (Many Afghanis seem to survive some days of the week without being able to eat). Contrast that to the images of glamour and success that the rich and powerful of the Kabul enjoy and you will see why many Afghanis join the Taliban even if at gunpoint.

It would seem to me that the only real way of getting back those hearts and minds and show that NATO led forces are the wave of the future would be some projects for the populace, now. I saw a documentary on CNN showing some Afghan villagers who had to decide which of their children to feed on any given day. How could anyone survive this and be expected to support the fight against the Taliban?

We found out that the Americans were finding us by tracing our cell-phone calls, and by calls from spies giving away our locations. So we forced the cell companies to stop all transmissions from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Have they really got that much influence ?

Our men, on the other hand, are watching American bases 24 hours a day. They inform us of American movements. We used to hit the Americans with roadside bombs and then disappear. Now when we explode an IED, we follow that with AK and RPG fire. We now have more destructive IEDs, mostly ammonium-nitrate bombs that we mix with aluminum shards. We get regular deliveries of these fertilizers, explosives, fuses, detonators, and remote controls. One heavy shipment is on its way right now. I think we are better at making IEDs now than the Arabs who first taught us.

An evolution of Taliban strategy that needs to be countermanded ASAP. Best way would be to use it against them.

I was engaged to be married a year ago, but I don't have the $1,500 bride price to give to the girl's father or the $500 for the wedding. If I had money, I would not delay my marriage. Who would marry me? You'd be surprised. The people here are not worried about giving their daughter or sister to Taliban, who can get killed within one week of the wedding. They are happy to be part of the jihad.

As if those "ungrateful slaves" had a choice. It would either be their daughter or their throat. Nobody actually likes the Taliban over at Afghanistan but their brainwasheds pawns.

It's not easy being in the Taliban. It's like wearing a jacket of fire. You have to leave your family and live with the knowledge that you can be killed at any time. The Americans can capture you and put you in dog cages in Bagram and Guantánamo. You can't expect any quick medical treatment if you're wounded. You don't have any money. Yet when I tell new recruits what they are facing they still freely put on this jacket of fire. All this builds my confidence that we will never lose this war.

I believe that by their actions that "jacket" of fire should be the least of their concerns. Those out to slay and enslave innocent people just minding their own business and establish a slaver's state in which their own brothers would be subjected to torture and pain absolute might want to get used to the idea of not just wearing a jacket of fire but living in a place with fire and sulfur for... a long time, after they are killed like the animals that they are.

In the south the mujahedin have adjusted to Obama's new crusade by making some small strategic withdrawals and fighting back mostly with IEDs.

Nato forces are NOT Crusaders. Crusades ended nearly a thousand of years ago. They fight to keep the Muslims of Afghanistan free of the Taliban slavers. Every body knows that when not brainwashed or "allowed to discuss" at gunpoint. I wonder how would the Taliban call someone who kills his own brother and takes his wife as his whore? Letting small children go hungry and die in the harsh Afghan winter without clothes? Do they know what awaits them next? All the brainwash imposed upon them by their leaders, all the lies they live and breathe in won't save them from judgement and I believe judgement will be as harsh as the treatment they have bestowed upon their own brothers, their own flesh and blood.

[jankren]

I see dark future for the Amrikiyy in Afghanistan.