Al-Qaeda and Taliban totally pwned
Fascinating story in the Asia Times about Al-Qaeda’s and the Taliban’s successes and failures in Afghanistan. They were having a great deal of success raiding NATO’s supply lines in the Khyber area. They’d even managed to secure the loyalty of the local sheikh, Namdar, who was providing them with cover and safe houses. They knew they had to be careful, but Namdar was a Salafist Muslim, just like Al-Qaeda:
After coming under intense pressure in its traditional strongholds in the North and South Waziristan tribal areas, al-Qaeda and the Taliban staged a joint shura (council). This meeting concluded that they had to be especially careful of local political parties and tribals who were all too ready to sell themselves in the US’s quest to find Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. The council pointed to the example of Iraq, where the US’s policy of courting Sunni tribes to turn against al-Qaeda has had marked success.
Detour: Al Qaeda thinks there’s American progress in Iraq. Petraeus thinks there’s American progress in Iraq. The international leftist elite? “Umm…Sadr is still making trouble. Oh, wait, he’s whining and asking for a cease fire, you say? Well, have we caught Osama yet?”
Anyway, back to the Taliban: their Khyber raids were working until one day, when they got their butts whipped by Pakistani forces and retired to those safe houses, only to find a little surprise waiting for them…and Namdar laughing all the way to the bank.
Long story, but it has a happy ending. Goes to show you that in a world of changing allegiances, $150,000 can go a long way…
Since we’re in Afghanistan, by the way, did you hear that opium production is way down this year?
Sometimes these things get lost in that relentless, pollyannaish torrent of good news from the MSM.
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Yet more news we won’t see anywhere but places like this.
Indeed PBoilermaker, the liberal media and liberals in this country won’t cover this story. It doesn’t fit in with their politcal agenda.
Thanks see-dubya, this summed it up perfectly:
They must not be watching TV here in the USA. The only thing I am aware of buy keeping up with the MSM is a body count. Unfortunately, it’s not the enemies. Well, that is not entirely true. What I also get from the MSM is we have killed 600,000 Iraqi civilians.
Yes, good news gets lost in the msm. Thanks for this s-d. Our military is doing their job and well. Gotta love them all and thank God for them.
L
Congrats to our men and women in uniform for taking care of business. They may not get the respect they deserve from MSM but as for me and my house, we are forever greatful. KEEP FREEDOM AND LIBERTY ALIVE.
The story has no sourcing and seems to come straight from highly unreliable US government sources (proven unreliable in the past by reporting progress that didn’t actually happen).
Wait to believe this. Wait for reports of decreased violence. Wait for such reports from multiple named sources. Wait for those sources not be US government officials or others under their control.
It must suck real bad for these lefties in the MSM; always being wrong!
I thought I read this earlier in the dictionary under BDS. If not it should be added as a clear example of BDS.
And yet on another string, he points to a Government report as reliable and accurate! Go figure!
Catch him, hell he ain’t been sighted in the Senate halls for about a year and a half now, try Chi-Town.
Ok lgm, I’ll wait until the final numbers of dead terrorists is complete… when the last one is dead and gone forever.
I don’t see what his problem is with this report by Syed Saleem Shazad …. oh wait, yes I do, it doesn’t fit in with his liberal agenda therefore must be fake news and not real.
Wikipedia (liberal in its own right) has this on his bio:
We should let the NYT source this story and investigate it thourghly then we will get the real story.
lgm I found your picture
You know, sometimes I wonder where these pseudo-intellectuals from the MSM plan on retiring to.
For their sake it better be the likes of Cambridge, Berkeley, or Madison.
Otherwise, when the rest of us run into these morons at the 19th hole, they just might be in for a good old fashion ass kicking.
Frankly, I’m looking forward to the day.
What a comical hack, and like clockwork, always looking for the cloud in every silver lining. How distressed you must be to hear your country may be winning a war.
ah c’mon blind mule his club isn’t that big.
Stop before we win!
To be fair to lgm
when he says “…highly unreliable US government sources” he may be thinking of the Clinton aspirin factory attack…(he’s busy on Google now, checking to see if it really was an aspirin factory..heh)
lgm,
Where is your sourcing to prove the story is false? How do you know the story is from “highly unreliable US government sources”?
I don’t see any quotes from Pelosi or Reid…../sarc off.
lgm – swoop and poop at its finest
No but he thinks it is, aj did you look closley at the face?
MM thanks for keeping it real.
Can you do me a favor and start a live blog on your site I would really like to see you delivering this message to us live.
YOUR THE BEST!
lgm has new top secret information (not to mention a brain tumor).
That seems a bit personal don’tcha think See-Dub?
Blind_Mule
ROFL great PS! That is a keeper!
lgm sounds like he is suffering from schizophrenia.
All we need to do is let him know those voices that are giving him his information are really himself.
Sorry Mohawk
Well, to many in the MSM, Afghanistan can be played one of two ways:
1) The forgotten war or the “Other War”
2) Play up the fact that Iraq is diverting from our goals in Afghanistan, thereby ensuring that OBL is never “captured.”
Yes, the MSM is good at not reporting any kind of positive developments when they’re more centered on portraying our guys and gals of the military as heartless killers, naive country bumpkins, or warmongers.
I just had a friend come back a few months ago from Bagram AB and he told both my husband and I that it’s still dangerous over there. He’s a maintainer for the PA Air National Guard and had several morters launched in his general direction. He just laughed it off.
Like much about the Middle East, progress is slow and heartbreakingly painful at times. Too bad many Americans think it’s like a video game and war can be finished up in time for a beer or soda to celebrate.
Maybe someone already mentioned this, but opium production had peaked in the last couple of years to levels never before seen in history of Afghanistan, so to say it is down this year is not necessarily saying much. Sure it may be down from last season, but at the same time it may still be a huge crop based on more long-range historic levels.
..nice spin though ..seem to be seeing more and more of this kind of thing around here lately, and not particularly liking it.
If we could only buy LGM for what he’s worth and then sell him for what he thinks he’s worth, we’d all retire happy. Saudi Princes would be jealous of our wealth.
How ’bout anectdotal evidence of military men and women (like my friend who just got back) of the progress we’re making? Would that satisfy you?
Nahhh…. you got a playbook and you’ll stick to it.
Hey, lgm, have you ever thanked a military man or woman for their service? Done something selfless to show you care? Or is the military just another facet of the unappreciative ax you use to grind the Bush administration every chance you get?
Tell me, do you or your social circle of treasonous friends “wait to believe” reports of failure as rabidly as you decry reports of success on the battlefield?
From someone who has actually seen the progress firsthand, I can testify that you are full of it.
You’re sounding a bit desperate, “Jon”.
Nice thing about blogs you dont have to be here, or read links provided, or dltdhyotwo or leave snippy comments for the host.
Darn it, that’s my picture!
That is absolutely priceless. Can you put that on t-shirts?
The key is that pay-offs/bribery have been our best weapon in the war on terror. Unfortunately, that is very tenuous strategy and setting a dangerous precedent.
Thanks, I love PS it is my friend
, before I was allowed to post on this site I used to email them to Michelle but the only one she has used was for the PS contest on
Jet Blue
Man, if only I had George Soros’ kind of money, the kind of bribing I could do to “persuade” (hehehe) certain dubious examples of liberal/RINO leadership to exit the country. But, where to put them? Where?
Dubai seems to be a happening place given that Michael Jackson seems to be in eternal exile there these days. How ’bout Jordan where Hussein’s family ran off to with the Iraqi people’s billions?
Maybe, we should consult Zimbabwe’s Mugabe on the best exit strategy?
For an enemy that doesn’t typically hold Western values like honor and integrity dear, how do you propose we solve the problem in the near term? The entire culture is corrupt.
The strategy is tailored to the actual threat, it is not based on the liberal daydream that talking nice will lull everyone into some kind of agreement.
Go ahead an print one on your PC they have tranfer paper to do that, Did you need some saying to go with it let me know if you can’t do it yourself.
We will never be making progress no matter what, liberals have no intention of admitting that they are wrong they never do and never will.
lgm. You mean how the MSM used liars in the past?
It is OK to use fabricated information from our enemy, but not OK to use any information that just might run counter to the MSM drum beat of “we are loosing this war”!
You can’t buy love. I don’t know that bribing corrupt tribal chiefs (called “warlords” when we want to bomb them) is a long term solution. There are many demands on the money we are borrowing from China already, like tax breaks for the rich, the stimulus package, etc.
HELLOOOOO. Do the names Bill Roggio and Michael Yon ring a bell? The same type of reports come from them too.
The only reason you come on here is to throw a turd in the punchbowl because that’s just the kinda prankster you are.
Yeah, we know you’re a leftwingnutbag who hates the country, the military, and any vestiges of patriotism.
We get it.
Who said it was the long term solution? Get a dictionary and look up the words “strategic” and “tactical”.
More importantly, are you capable of delineating an effective strategy based on actual conditions? If so, I’m dying to hear it.
$150,000 bought a hell of a fine party. RIP , Naaaaa
American Troops = Second to None. BEST
LGM, I am torn about bothering to express my thoughts on your comments, as I am one of the people that recently spent 15 months watching peace break out all over multiple AOs. Can’t speak on Afghanistan, but “government reporting” was based on MY Reporting on the ground in places where we ran off, killed or captured all AQI. If you think I was lying, or my brothers were, I take serious offense. Swoop on back here and ask me about Ramadi, Fallujah, or southern Baghdad.
TOS, your statement:
. indicates that you have absolutely no understanding of how we are fighting this war. I won’t go into all of the intel, but any local that accepts payment for intelligence is the most circumspect guy in the neighborhood. And any intel gained is just one piece of evidence to put a guy away via the court system.
ArmoredCAV ,
My concerns
see-dubya thanks for some really good news from the forgotten front of Afghanistan. When I mean forgotten I am talking about the MSM. I have a couple of folks in my Squadron over there right now and we think about them daily. Best use of $150K I can think of. A fraction of what the lying crapweasels in DC could spend during a day of their BS hearings with absolutely nothing to show for it.
Armoredcav, Thank You. You make me Proud to be an American.
TheOtherSide, what exactly concerned you so much about that 2,000 word article?????
Is it because the author dedicates an entire two sentences regarding concerns about the strategy?
Or was it because the US commander was expressing his reasons for being conservative with respect to his trust of some Sunni leaders?
Thanks see-dubya. It’s always nice to read of real progress.
There are a lot of proud Americans here, although some can be very rude to ladies at times.
Yeah…you’re right lgm…those guys in the military lie all the time unlike those pillars in the drive-by media.
Should wait for the same length of time it took Rather to realize he had been punked with fake documents?
/sheesh. Grow up.
No. Our military has been our best weapon. Spreading some cash is a tool.
What sort of dangerous precedent do you have in mind?
Speaking of dangerous precedents, publishing classified material is certainly one. It’s too bad the left doesn’t recognize that instead of making them up.
You mean unlike the highly relieable msm in the usa? (opps sorry, did not mean to use such offensive three letters!
sar\
ummm, where is your sourcing?
I’m glad to see some great signs coming from Afghanistan. I’m very anti drug so to see the production going down is great news. But this quote bothers me, “Afghanistan’s drug trade has soared since the invasion in 2001, giving rise to a $4 billion industry that accounts for about a third of the country’s total economy.”
HEY LGM!!
Get your liberal head out of the sand! Mrs. Malkin is a JOURNALIST.
And you know what? Your MSM media doesn’t report on progress or reduced violence because
a) It makes Bush look GOOD
and
b) They are too busy trying to get Obama elected.
Which just happens to match some of what I’ve heard, first hand from returning troops, as a member of the Patriot Guard — when we do our “Welcome Home” missions.
(not many people know that we do those, too)
On April 25th, 2008 at 4:21 pm, lgm said:
The story has no sourcing and seems to come straight from highly unreliable US government sources (proven unreliable in the past by reporting progress that didn’t actually happen).
lgm, I cannot speak with first-hand knowledge the credibility of this story. However, as a Marine currently serving on my fourth tour in Iraq, I can most definitely assert (through first-hand knowledge) the successes of the surge. Since you continue to distrust government sources, why not come over here and take a look for yourself?!
Bribes are unfair because they favor the rich. Darn!
Finally! Cpodug got it. I’ve never thought Troll was the correct epithet for lgm. Harpie is perfect for it! All he does is swoop in and crap on anything he sees. Too right cpodug, a Harpie.
Yeah, just like that Beauchamp story debacle, right? Oh yeah, that was a lone soldier being critical of the military, and who was shown to be yet another liberal lying weasel.
Is this the same treatment you give the highly dubious reports of polar bear decimation and “global warming?” No, I didn’t think so.
I am still waiting for that sourcing on John Kerry’s “heroism” that he promised us, repeat, PROMISED US, that would make those silly Swifties out to be the liars he claims they are.
Still waiting….