n the make-or-break struggle for Kandahar, birthplace of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency, U.S. commanders will try to pull off the military equivalent of brain surgery: defeating the militants with minimal use of force.
The goal of U.S.-led NATO forces will be to avoid inspiring support for the Taliban even as the coalition tries to root them out when the Kandahar operation begins in earnest next month.
The ancient silk road city — a dust-covered, impoverished jumble of one- and two-story concrete and mud brick — may not look like much of a prize.
But Kandahar, with a population of more than a million, was once the Taliban's informal capital and an al-Qaida stronghold. It has served for centuries as a smuggler's crossroads and trading hub linking southern Afghanistan to the Indian subcontinent.
President Barack Obama's counterinsurgency strategy focuses on protecting population centers such as Kandahar from Taliban predation, with the hope of building support for the center government in Kabul.
The Taliban are deeply embedded in the local population, raising the risk of civilian casualties in major clashes. Neither are the Taliban regarded as an alien force. For many in Kandahar, they are neighbors, friends and relatives.
Haji Raaz Mohammad, a 48-year-old farmer from Kandahar, said he has never understood why the U.S. is trying to drive out the militants.
"I don't know why they are doing it," he said. "The Taliban are not outsiders. They are our own people."
Therein lies the rub - it can't be about running off the Taliban, because they *are* the locals. It has to be about converting the Taliban and reintegrating them into society, somehow, someway.
By: Brant
Its about protecting the drug dealers
ReplyDelete