Nato Troops Pull Out of Flashpoint Taliban Valley

[tekisui]

Source: BBC News

Nato troops in Afghanistan have pulled out of the isolated eastern Korengal valley, commanders say.

The valley in Kunar province is a Taliban stronghold where Nato argues that continued military operations only serve to fuel their insurgency.

US General Stanley McChrystal said last year that he would take a hard look at the valley as part of a strategic review of troop deployments.

He said he wanted to ensure that the focus was on key population centres.

The Korengal valley has a reputation as one of most dangerous areas in the country.

Analysts say that its rugged mountainous terrain with numerous hiding places suits the Taliban's guerrilla tactics.

The valley has seen fierce fighting between Nato and the Taliban, who use it as a route for smuggling weapons and fighters into Afghanistan.

more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8620061.stm

[Webster Green]

1. This is beginning to look like the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

Would have been cheaper (in lives and treasure) to just read a couple of books on the history of the country, and then stay the fuck out of there. :think:

[ClarkUSA]

4. How so? President Obama has set a firm timeline for ending the war next year...

... so there is no sense that this is another Vietnam, as it was for the Soviet Union. We have a reason to be there aka. OBL hiding in the Af-Pak mountain range with the help of his longtime Taliban allies, unlike the Soviet Union.

[maxsolomon]

2. I'd suggest emulating their tactics

don't hold the territory; harass the smuggling.

Apocalypse Now had it right. This is what it will take to "win" in Afganistan:

" I've seen horrors...horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call
me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that...But
you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is
necessary to those who do not know what horror means.
Horror. Horror has a face...And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and
moral terrorare your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared.
They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces...Seems
a thousand centuries ago...We went into a camp to innoculate the children.
We left the camp after we had innoculated the children for Polio, and this old
man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went
back there and they had come and hacked off every innoculated arm. There
they were in a pile...A pile of little arms. And I remember...I...I...I cried...
I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I
wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want
to forget. And then I realized...like I was shot...Like I was shot with a
diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead...And I thought:
My God...the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect,
genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were
stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not
monsters...These were men...trained cadres...these men who fought with
their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with
love...but they had the strength...the strength...to do that. If I had ten
divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You
have to have men who are moral...and at the same time who are able to
utilize their primordal instincts to kill without feeling...without passion...
without judgement...without judgement. Because it's judgement that
defeats us. "

[ClarkUSA]

3. Yup. It's smart of NATO to retrench to evaluate the next stage of engagement. n/t