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Mullah Omar. |
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the overall leader of the Taliban movement (the Amīr al-Mu’minīn or Commander of the Faithful), has released a rare statement, which has been published on the Internet. In the statement, titled “The Afghan Historical Background and the Impetuous Outburst of the British Ambassador,” Omar advises the British to study Afghan history and learn from the defeat of invading parties:
In this context, we can refer to the assertions of the British Ambassador in Kabul who says that the British soldiers will remain in Afghanistan for one generation.
The best and reasonable retort to the outburst of the British Ambassador would be no more than that he should go through the history and the historical background of the Afghans once again. Any invading power which has made aggression against this land, has faced ultimate defeat. Those who opted for encountering the Afghans, have only gained disgrace and obloquy. British invaded Afghanistan not once but thrice. However, each time it faced defeat. These ground realities written in golden letters, are now part of our history.
We fought the Britain from 1839 to 1919 and ultimately, gained independence and defeated the enemy after 80 years.
Today our determination is stronger than that; have best military training and best weapons comparing that time; to top it all we have preparedness for a long war.
The former Soviet Union claimed, the Red Army was invincible but faced defeat at the hands of the Afghans and completely disintegrated. Many other countries got independence thanks to that. Today USA, the Britain and their allies are bent on subjugating Afghanistan. They are in a total self-delusion and their brain seems not working normally.
It has been clear for some time that Omar, the Taliban, and al Qaeda believe they have only to wait for the US and NATO to withdraw and victory will be theirs. “We have preparedness for a long war,” Omar said in his latest statement.
The Taliban have a saying: “Americans may have all the wrist watches, we have all the time.” Omar’s latest statement hammers this point home.
Western leaders are beginning to rush for the Afghan exit, searching for ways to scale down their missions. Just one day after six Italian soldiers were killed in a deadly suicide attack in Kabul, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reiterated that Italy wants out.
“We are all anxious and hopeful to bring our boys home as soon as possible,” Berlusconi said. “We are all convinced that it is better for everyone to leave Afghanistan soon.”
This doesn’t go unnoticed in Taliban circles.
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4 Comments
We have enough forces to beat the Taliban. They are in Iraq. The Euros, except the Brits (for now at least), have no stomach for fighting. It’s like a whole continent full of Carl Levins. Transferring our forces from Iraq to the US and then to Afghanistan will be a logistical nightmare. This is Obama’s conundrum. He knows this will be a long war. An immediate escalation would strain our transport capacity and supply lines, which are already under pressure.
This is the same problem that the Duke of Wellington described when he said Afghanistan “was a country in which a small army would be annihilated and a large army would starve.”
same problem we have now
The Red Army probably would have won had it not been for Operation Cyclone. They didn’t simply push the Soviets out as they’d like to believe and probably tell their followers that they did.
I don’t understand the tendency to cower in fear and doubt everytime we hear the bold predictions from the enemy. Did not al queda in Iraq declare Diyala province their world headquarters shortly before their annihilation? And where would Omar and his taliban be in 2009 had we not taken our military to Iraq? For the first time, they’ll be facing the bulk of OUR military with the skills and lessons learned from the insurgency in Iraq.
Another big difference is that those prior wars were against invading armies that meant to conquer the country. We don’t have that same aspiration. We want to turn the country over to the Afghans. I know the Afghans like to point out their history of victories with a sense of pride but this is an entirely different situation. And of course they have been at war for how many years? Doesn’t sound like victory to me if there is almost constant fighting.
So we are not fighting the whole country, just the Taliban. That’s a big distinction. I think Omar is in a total self delusion and his brain seems not working normally.