Another drone attack in Pakistan under new commander in chief

PARACHINAR: Ten people have been killed in US drone attack in Kurram Agency.
(The News)

President Obama is fairly gung-ho about killing Taliban types in Afghanistan and especially Pakistan for a commander who was all but ready to cede Iraq to whatever faction wanted it the most.

Look for teeth marks on the tongues and lower lips of your liberal Democrat acquaintances. Those who are paying attention through their Obamuphoria, that is.

I'm only slightly reassured by these reported attacks. Obama is shaping up as a weak president, though admittedly the paint's still wet.

More on that Taliban comeback

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded hundreds of Taliban on Thursday in an offensive to clear the militants from the outskirts of Kandahar city, the provincial governor said.

NATO confirmed in a statement issued in Kabul that Taliban fighters, including many believed to have escaped during a mass jail break last week, had been routed from positions among the orchards and farms of Arghandab district, northwest of Kandahar.

(Reuters)

Seems like just a few days ago some in the reality-based community were assuring us that if we actually needed proof that the Taliban was making a comeback then the recent jailbreak was really all the proof that was needed.

The bloggers at Comments from Left Field helped accentuate the Taliban momentum with a follow up post:

Three days after about 400 Taliban fighters were sprung from Sarposa Prison in Kandahar, eight villages near that city are back under Taliban control.

And about three days later the Taliban got its butt kicked again. I'll look for the Comments from Left Field update on the continued Taliban successes.

The Taliban comeback?

A visit to Comments from Left Field confronted me with the reality (coming from the reality-based community could it be anything else?) that the Taliban is making a comeback in Afghanistan.

If there was any doubt that the Taliban have been making a comeback, the spectacular prison break at Sarposa Prison in Kandahar should put them to rest:

Afghan and international troops launched a desperate hunt Saturday for more than 1,100 prisoners NATO said escaped a jail in Afghanistan when Taliban rebels blasted it open.

The Taliban said 400 of its own fighters escaped when the rebels attacked the facility in the southern city of Kandahar late Friday with suicide bombs before shooting the guards.

Afghan authorities put the number of prisoners who fled one of the country’s biggest jails at 886, more than 380 of whom were Taliban.

Let's grant that the prison break was spectacular and a boost for Talibanian morale.

Making a comeback?

Kandahar, June 15: More than two dozen insurgents were killed in Afghanistan as security forces hunted for hundreds of militants who escaped from a prison after a brazen Taliban attack, police said on Sunday.

Afghan and international troops have been searching for more than 1,100 escapees who fled after the militant group blasted open the jail in the southern city of Kandahar late on Friday, killing several prison guards.
(ZeeNews)

South of the town of Garmser, where the desert horizon is an undulating blur of heat haze, British forces had faced the Taliban in a largely static war for two years. But in a month of fighting, with more than 100 separate engagements, the Taliban have been successfully pushed back after suffering about 200 dead.
(The Daily Telegraph)

U.S. Marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a "catastrophic success."
(Star-Tribune)

While at Base Delhi I saw a copy of the Guardian. The Pakistan correspondent had come down and done a few interviews and the headline on his story was "UK forces fighting losing battle" or some rubbish like that. The facts are simple. We are now dominating Garmsir. We have killed Taliban, taken no casualties and have now pushed and secured further south than any other British army unit. Garmsir is now opening its hospital again. If you ask the locals they said they thought they would never see it again. As I write this, the Taliban in our area of operations are in turmoil, taking heavy casualties every time they feel brave enough to pop up. I don't see this in any way as losing any battle.
(The Guardian UK)

The news on the ground in Afghanistan has been overwhelmingly bad for the Taliban this year. The prison break and Pakistan's increased wavering on pursuing cross-border Taliban movement serve as the only real bright spots for the enemy. The situation in Pakistan is the key to any hopes the Taliban might have of remaining a relevant force in Afghanistan.

The folks in Left Field perhaps support the war in Afghanistan--many on the left do--but they criticize the handling of the war. Ironically (?) the gripe is the lack of troops. Why aren't we trying the brilliant Democratic plan proposed for Iraq? Simply leave in order to encourage Afghan forces to step up and take charge.

The grousing from the left is misplaced. The strategy adopted by Petraeus in Iraq is largely being employed in Afghanistan with considerable success, though some of our NATO partners aren't entirely on board. And yet again the left is arguing the reverse of its Iraq argument: Instead of encouraging increased participation from our NATO allies, they want the U.S. to increase its role (if only all those U.S. troops weren't eradicating AQI a couple of countries away!).

Are the Left Fielders recommending an incoherent approach to foreign policy? Looks like it at first blush, anyway. But I like the feistiness I see from the site, so I'm bumping Alan Colmes' disappointing "LiberalLand" from the Sith Blogroll. Orson Scott Card will retain the position as top dog among the liberals, however, even though he supports the war.

Dealing with terrorists: ransom demands

I'm happy that the South Korean hostages formerly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been freed. Their ordeal must have been horrible.
But I sure hope that the South Korean government is telling the truth about it.

SPIN BOLDAK - South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than $20 million to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said on Saturday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

The freed hostages flew out of Afghanistan on Friday to Dubai en route for South Korea. Seoul has denied paying a ransom.
(Edmonton Journal)

If the anonymous Taliban figure is telling the truth, then how many extra deaths does this deal entail? Not counting the next round of potentially profitable hostages? If hostages are worth more than $1 million per, doesn't that increase the demand for hostages in terms of simple economics?

My heart goes out to the South Koreans--it does. But I'd rather not see them freed if it triples the number of innocents killed. The Taliban has less reason to lie than the South Korean government, in my judgment. I fear that hundreds may die to pay for the tens.

Don't negotiate with terrorists (don't take any step toward meeting ransom demands).

A little background on Abdullah Mehsud

In the post linking to the story on the grenade suicide of Abdullah Mehsud, I wondered about his past, and what accounted for his role in terrorist operations in Pakistan. Pakistan's The News published a bio story.

He surrendered along with several thousand Taliban fighters to the forces of Uzbek warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, in December 2001 in the northern Kunduz province following the US invasion of Afghanistan. Despite his promise to the Taliban commanders not to deliver them to the US, Dostum handed several of them to the American military authorities. Abdullah Mahsud too was turned over to the Americans, who subsequently transferred him to the specially-built US prison at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

He was released in March 2004 after spending 25 months at Guantanamo Bay. Until then, he wasn[']t well-known even in his native South Waziristan. But the stint in an American jail and his artificial leg soon made him a household name in the area. His long hair and daredevil nature made him a colourful and interesting character. Stories were told as to how Abdullah Mahsud rides a camel or horse to visit his fighters in his mountainous abode. He started making speeches in mosques and madrassas preaching Jihad and exhorting the young people to fight against the US and its allies.
(The News)

I don't know the source of author Rahimullah Yusufzai's statement that Mehsud served with Taliban forces, or the account of his capture. If true, it suggests that Mehsud was properly designated as an unlawful enemy combatant if he wasn't fighting in a Taliban uniform. His release from Gitmo after 25 months played a part leading to the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers and the five deaths that occurred during a subsequent rescue attempt.

Gitmo grad gets his via grenade

How many innocents died because we released this guy?

Hopefully it was one of those deals where we transferred custody to his home country--so it's their fault. But I wouldn't bank on it.

On the other hand, certain liberals might argue that he would never have served the Taliban if we hadn't imprisoned him first ...

clipped from www.abcnews.go.com Abdullah Mehsud, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, talks to the media as his bodyguard stand guard near Chagmalai in South Waziristan along the Afghan border in this Oct 14, 2004 file photo. Mehsud, who led pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan after his release, died on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 when he blew himself up with a grenade to avoid arrest. Armed intelligence agents cornered Mehsud and three other men at the house of a leader of an Islamist political party in the southwestern town of Zhob, police officials said. (M. Sajjad/AP Photo) Jul 24, 2007

Taliban threatens to kill South Korean hostages

I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm certainly saddened.

This entry updates the story here about the abduction of two Germans and 18 South Koreans by Taliban terrorists.

KABUL: Taliban militants threatened to kill at least 18 kidnapped South Korean Christians, including 15 women, on Saturday unless Seoul pulls out its 200 troops from Afghanistan, underscoring the militia's use of soft targets to weaken President Hamid Karzai's government.

[...]

"They have got time until Sunday noon to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, or otherwise we will kill the 18 Koreans," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said on Friday on a satellite phone from an undisclosed location. "Right now they are safe and sound."

Deal with the terrorists, and they have incentive to try it again.

Afghanistan: Taliban claims responsibility for kidnapping

KABUL: The Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for the kidnap of almost 20 South Koreans and two German nationals, and said they would only free the Germans if Berlin withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.

"The Taliban have kidnapped the South Korean nationals. There are 18 South Koreans -- three men and 15 women," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told French news agency in a telephone call from an unknown location.
(The News)

The Taliban spokesman went on to say that the South Koreans would be investigated (whatever that means) before a decision would be made regarding their fate.

As for the two Germans, the Taliban has decided that it will be sufficient to secure their release if Germany will withdraw its forces from the NATO coalition supporting the democratic government in Afghanistan, along with the release of all Taliban prisoners.

Not to minimize the lives the the kidnapped Germans, but What a deal!