Taliban Commander: War Until West Leaves

[AnOhioan]

Source: Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- A man identified on tape as the Taliban's new top field commander warned Wednesday that new recruits were volunteering as suicide bombers and that fighters would continue their holy war until Western powers leave Afghanistan.

Violence struck throughout the country with two bomb blasts that killed four people, including a Finnish soldier in the usually quiet north. NATO said it attacked a meeting of Taliban leaders in the south, killing an unspecified number of militants.

Shuhabuddin Athul, a Taliban spokesman, played an audio tape over the telephone to an Associated Press reporter that Athul said was a recording of Dadullah Mansoor, brother and replacement of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander shot to death in a U.S. operation this month in southern Afghanistan.

The man on the tape said Taliban fighters were ready to avenge his brother's death and would "pursue holy war until the occupying countries leave."


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHANISTAN?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

[DavidDvorkin]

1. "And then we will follow them home!"

He added.

Okay, maybe he didn't say that. Maybe I just imagined it after listening to a Bush speech.

[LynnTheDem]

2. They bled Russia dry.

They swore they'd bleed us dry.

Just as Osama bin Laden so dearly wants.

And of course George W. bUsh is so very willing to oblige. As long as his own kids aren't dying for bush's bullshit.

[ohio2007]

12. "They" bled them dry? "they" couldn't retake their country from the Soviet puppet

installed if western aid with radical muslim sect followers from arab lands were not there to do the fighting for them.

just calling it a spade.

Besides, this newest "taliban leader general" whatever, just put himself on the radar.

the clock is ticking on him now !
lol
retirement isn't ecactly a benefit in his line of work

[TheFarseer]

3. Don't confuse Afghanistan with Iraq

We have a real coalition in Afghanistan, we have the moral high ground in Afghanistan, the Taliban is a bunch of evil assholes unlike the mostly ordinary people who believe they are defending their homes in Iraq. Not to mention, people in Afghanistan actually attacked us. My problem with the whole thing is we let them hang around and get strong enough to fight back like they are right now instead of crushing them when we had the chance in 2001 or 2002.

[frankieT]

5. Sorry but I strongly disagree

"We have a real coalition in Afghanistan" - yes a western coalition of countries distant thousands of miles from Afghanistan

"we have the moral high ground in Afghanistan" - I don't see exactly why. US bombed the shit out of the country, killed thousands of civilians, installed a puppet government, opium trade went from zero under taliban rule to new highs, etc. I really don't see what is so MORAL about that.

"the Taliban is a bunch of evil assholes" - Ok they're fundamentalists, maybe extremists but they're afghan ! you see the difference ? IT'S THEIR COUNTRY NOT YOURS ! they fight for the freedom of their country. They don't want western influence in Afghanistan, whether it's communist, or bulls**t western democracy with its signs of democracy (MacDonald's, Coca-Cola, MTV, free porn...)

"Not to mention, people in Afghanistan actually attacked us" - That's the only valid reason US get some worldwide support for this invasion. In my opinion, it gave the right to attack Afghanistan to root out AL-Qaida, not the talibans. The talibans never attacked US. Half of the country are talibans, and the other half are not so different from them. Crushing the talibans means only genocide and total foreign oppression.

[BushOut06]

7. Thank you!

This might not be a popular position on DU, but we have no fucking business in Afghanistan either. Afghanistan did not attack us. The Taliban did not attack us. There's even doubt whether OBL and this "Al Kayda" group attacked us. Even if we allow for the fact that OBL did attack us, that is no justification to invade a sovereign nation, even if they were sheltering him.

We should have used the same approach we used with Libya, when they were harboring the fugitives wanted for downing the Pan Am flight. We isolated Libya, imposed strict sanctions on them. Eventually, Libya handed over the fugitives to stand trial. There were no bombs, no invasions, nothing of the sort. Why couldn't we have used the same approach with the Taliban?

[TheFarseer]

9. yes, it's their country

that's why most of them were fighting the Taliban to get their country back. We did most of them a favor getting rid of those horrible people. That is why you don't see polls from Afghanistan where 98% want us out and 70% or whatever want the Taliban back.

We have the moral highground because they attacked us and we reacted, I feel, in an appropriate way. I can see the point that we only had a reason to attack Al Queda and not the government of Afghanistan, but how then would you get at Osama and that crew? The Taliban would protect them.

We definitely had a coalition. The Northern Alliance was doing the heavy lifting in the original campaign while we bombed Taliban positions.

I guess I just feel like this war was justified and the Iraq war was completely unjustified.

[frankieT]

10. I think you lack some cultural perspective

Talking of "polls" in Afghanistan is a total joke ;) Polls are only relevant in our "civlized" democracies, reflecting trends in societies where INDIVIDUALISM is the rule.

Besides, when you say that "most of them were fighting the Taliban to get their country back", you're wrong, the Talibans won the civil war that followed when USSR left the country because they were the largest party in Afghanistan with the largest support among the population. This population was tired of the violent and lawless warlords, the traffickers and the rapists. Talibans were the most dedicated to install some kind of law in the country, even if this law was obviously tainted with strong ideological islamic pakistani influenced BS. But you must not make the mistake to think that Talibanism is totally "alien" to Afghanistan. It is very close to the structure of the afghan society, which seem to us very archaic. But hey, it's their country, if women wear burqas it's part of their "collective" history and culture. I know its provocative to say that, I had big fights with friends about that, but afghan people are very attached to their freedom and way of life (read "the horsemen" by J.Kessel to get an idea of it), imperial powers like Russia and England never managed to subdue the country.
They're also very loyal and attached to honor, that's why they didn't betray people they host (OBL). Believe it or not, before 2001 if you asked help or hospitality to some tough afghan man, he would risk his life to protect you even if you're christian.

Regarding US motives in the country, i only watch facts, US didn't manage to destroy Al-Qaida and OBL (some say they let them run away on purpose), they removed Talibans and controlled the country through a puppet government with the help of the warlords and traffickers. This was never about "war on terror", but the control of a geo-strategical asset, exactly like Iraq.

[Marrah_G]

4. We need to remove our troops from Iraq and put an end to Taliban power once and for all

People need to understand this isn't a bunch of nice guys fighting an occupation force. This is a bunch of monsters fighting to regain their stranglehold on the people of Afghanistan. We brought them to power in the first place (to fight the russians) and we need to help the Afghani's in keeping them out of power. If they regain power it is a certain sentence of slavery and/or death to every female Afghani (and a few men). The time has come for us to Fix the mess Bush 1 helped to create.

[Bigmack]

6. The Brits and the Russians...

tried and failed in Afghanistan... a hundred years apart.

Maybe you think good ol' Murikan arms will succeed where they failed. I agree they are monsters, but they are very experienced monsters... experienced at guerrilla war and waiting out an enemy in their lands.

I'd like to cure the world, too, but let's start with one that's winnable.

[High Plains]

8. Or we could let the Afghans deal with Afghanistan.

I'm kinda tired of the Wilsonian impulse to save the world.

[ohio2007]

11. You mean give it back to the ISI of Pakistan

That could get the unruly provinces to remain peaceful and forget about overthrowing the dictator for a time.