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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban taunts US over 30,000 extra troops |
| 2008-12-21 |
| Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Washington could send up to 30,000 more troops over the next six months. The senior US commander in the country, General David McKiernan, had previously asked for more than 20,000 soldiers to counter the increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. But Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman claiming to represent the fugitive leader Mullah Omar, said: "Russians also sent that many troops but were badly defeated. When the US increases its troop levels to that of the Russians, they will also be cruelly defeated." He added: "More troops - that means there will be more targets for the Taliban." Soviet forces lost 15,000 men in bitter fighting with US-backed Afghan resistance movements during their 10-year occupation of the country and withdrew in 1988. The US reinforcements are due to arrive in the country in January and be deployed in the provinces of Logar and Wardak, on the southern flank of Kabul. The insurgency of Islamist fighters has encroached on the capital this year, cutting several routes out of the city for westerners and aid agencies. The Afghan government welcomed the prospect of more US troops, but said they should be used to train the Afghan Army and block the flow of insurgents from Pakistan's tribal regions. Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: "These forces should be deployed in places where they are needed - particularly in Helmand and along our eastern borders, from where terrorists infiltrate into our country." Other US reinforcements are due to join British troops in Helmand, where commanders have described the insurgency as a "stalemate". |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 Keep laughing, goat raper. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-12-21 20:23 |
| #4 Again, the broader issue is whether RUSSIA, CHINA, + INDIA, etc. Asian sub-regions, + to include AFRICA, will willingly accept or tolerate the RETURN OF NEW WESTERN MILITARY FORCES + INFLUENCES TO FORMER COLONIES OR VASSAL STATES AS A CONSEQUENCE OF LOCAL SOVEREIGN GOVTS. INABILITY TO EFFEC HALT THE SPREAD OF VIOLENT ISLAMISM + ISLAMIST DESTABILIZATIONS. * E.G. HINDU-LED ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE > many Hindis prefer their WE-KNOW-WHOM-YOU-ARE-AND-WHERE-YOU-LIVE LOCAL ISLAMIST BAD-BOYS, over feared US-LED MILPOL INFLUENCE AND DOMINATION [read, UK = Clive + East India Company, etc.] IN SOVEREIGN INDIAN-ASIAN AFFAIRS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-21 19:44 |
| #3 He added: "More troops - that means there will be more targets for the Taliban." ...and Yousuf will be right out front leading the charge. Right, mouthy boy? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-12-21 19:38 |
| #2 He added: "More troops - that means there will be more targets for the Taliban." We aren't the Brits of the 19th century or the Russians of the 1980s. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2008-12-21 18:05 |
| #1 Better watch your tongue, Sultan-boy, or we'll send 'The Surge' over there! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-12-21 17:34 |