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Afghanistan
Taliban flee U.S. Marines onslaught in Afghanistan
2008-06-03
Taliban insurgents are running away fleeing south towards the Afghan border with Pakistan in the face of a U.S. Marines offensive in volatile Helmand province, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Monday.

U.S. Marines have been pushing south from the former Taliban stronghold of Garmsir in Helmand for a month in an operation meant to cut off insurgent infiltration routes from Pakistan. "They have shown under some amount of pressure they flee to their sanctuaries," General Dan McNeill told a news conference. "In the last two days we have had many reports ... that the insurgents after experiencing these several weeks of pressure below Garmsir are trying to flee to the south perhaps to go back to sanctuaries in another country," he said.

While McNeill was careful not to name any country, the only nation with which Helmand shares a border is Pakistan.
So he didn't have to be careful at all ...
Mainly British troops have been battling the Taliban in Helmand since March 2006, capturing a string of towns in the fertile strip along the Helmand River cutting through the desert. But Garmsir, the southermost town of any size in Helmand, and its surrounding villages had previously evaded capture.

Washington dispatched 3,200 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan in March to bolster mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops in southern Afghanistan after other NATO allies failed to come up with reinforcements.
Posted by:Fred

#7  We need to wait until they're all "safely" in the NWFP then ARCLIGHT the he$$ out of the entire area. We did that a few times in 'Nam, and the results were outstanding. We wiped out half a division of NVA road maintenance people one time in three well-placed strikes. There's no need to worry about "civilian casualties" - there are NO "civilians" in the NWFP - only "unindicted co-conspirators". The Pakistanis will pitch a fit, but a couple of nukes on Rawalpindi/Islamabad will put a stop to that. It's time Pakistan got what it so richly deserves.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2008-06-03 14:33  

#6  I suspect it is not as easy to find these guerillas who melt into small groups climbing the mountainsides as it is to find them in the flat desert. They are demonstrating that it is better to run away and live to fight another day.

You're never as bad as you look when you're loosing and never as good as when you're winning.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-06-03 09:18  

#5  The lions of Islam bravely ran away!
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-06-03 08:08  

#4  ...just means they die tired
Works for me, TW.
Posted by: Spot   2008-06-03 07:54  

#3  It's hard to imagine that the Marines would allow any known Taliban to make it as far as Pakistan without calling in an airstrike to rearrange their plans (and anatomy). Unless they had some ulterior motive, of course. ;-)
Posted by: gorb   2008-06-03 04:39  

#2  But we've got all sorts of thingies flying over the border territories of Pakistan, dropping other thingies that explode. Avoiding suicidal fixed combat just means they die tired.
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-06-03 04:00  

#1  HMMMMM, possible, but IMO are now more intent on AVOIDING FIXED COMBAT. They've got the whole of Paki + CENASIA to run around in whilst Radical Islam NUCLEARIZES.

* FREEREPUBLIC/OTHER NET Posters > opine that the Insurgents in Aghani-Paki are learning the message that fighting US-Brit milunits is SUICIDAL???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-06-03 03:16  

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