The latest commentary from the Taliban’s Voice of Jihad English site (PDF via Scribd.com here) is pretty biting – here it is in its entirety [emphasis mine]:
By making a 6-hour unannounced trip to Afghanistan last night, Obama proved that his military strategy and surge of 30,000 troops, his morale-boosting propaganda, all have failed to make a dent. The Mujahideen have further driven the enemy into the corner, to the extent that now he is not able to visit Afghanistan in the light of the day. He comes during the night and hurries back in the darkness, ironically acting like a thief.
Similarly, the brief speech of Obama to American soldiers in a military base, being dotted with his low- pitched and jittery-fraught voice was demonstrating the scope of the American military’s fear and mistrust in Afghanistan. There was no word in Obama’s speech, indicating any military achievement or at least giving good news to troops to boost their morale. Obama admitted in clear terms that their enemy (Taliban) were a determined and resolute opponent. However, he claimed that they would not defeat the Americans.
Obama’s admission that the Taliban are a determined force, in fact, exposes the invading Americans acknowledgement of the fact that the Taliban are waging an unflinching struggle with unwavering determination. During the past nine years, the invaders have not been able to force Taliban to retreat from any given small area a or a village of any mention despite the invading American resorting to committing brutalities and using all military power at their disposal.
If they had any spectacular achievement or any tangible results, particularly, in the recent operations of Marjah, he would have refereed to them in his speech, to put them on display in front of his audience. On the other hand, Obama’s visit to Afghanistan in the darkness of evening and even not informing Hamid Karzai, the Head of the Kabul puppet administration until he was in a helicopter on his way to the Afghan presidential palace for a 25-minutes long meeting with the surrogate, shows how arrogantly the Americans behave with their henchmen. The surrogates may obediently betray their religion, honor and conscience but still they would not obtain pleasure of their masters– who are not ready to consider them an entity of any stature to reckon with.
This is a good example of a quick (if ham-fisted, harsh, and not grammatically perfect) response to current events, taking advantage of a potential political fault line, especially with the last sentence.
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2 Comments
One cannot imagine that Taliban will contribute to the theory that ‘pen is mightier than the sword’. For them it is the sword which is the mightiest. But it seems that they have realised that a pen can also do its bit here and there and hence this propaganda stuff.
The Taliban and Al Queda are smart to try to exploite the rift between the US and Hamid Karzai. However, I cannot see Karzai making a deal with the Taliban when they demand US withdrawl and Karzai depends on US support. Once the US left Karzai would fall to the Taliban agreement or not. Iran might be able to fish these troubled waters though. They could achieve their aims with Karzai still in power while the Taliban could not.
It is really hard to believe that the US could manage to be at odds with Karzai, Israel, Iran and now even Maliki in Iraq all at the same time.