Taliban Suffers “Huge Defeat”
ABC News’ The Blotter has a fascinating eyewitness account up of a “huge defeat for the Taliban.”
It happened last Wednesday: after fierce fighting the Afghani national flag was raised “on what had been one of the biggest strongholds of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and a leading world center of heroin production.”
At around 9:30 a.m. the town of Musa Qala (with some 45,000 inhabitants) was secured by Afghan, British and US troops. It was the result of “NATO’s biggest in the country since Operation Anaconda in 2002.”
The operation “was launched last Tuesday with an attack across the Helmand River by British Royal Marine commandos, a thrust from the west by light armor of the U.K. Household Cavalry Regiment.” However, all that was - according to Stephen Grey who saw it taking place before his eyes - “a feint for the main airborne landing from the north of a battalion of soldiers of Task Force Fury from the 82nd Airborne.”
When the NATO allies attacked, the Taliban decided to stay and fight. But they were not able to stop the NATO forces. The Afghan, British and American troops (one wonders whether other forces were involved as well since the American media constantly ignore the fact that other countries like the Netherlands are actually fighting in Afghanistan as well) continued to attack and, in the end, the the “82nd Airborne advanced to take positions north, east and south of the town” while the sky was lit “with large explosions from heavy ordnance dropped from the air to support the U.S. advance.”
In the end, it took the troops some eight days to secure this village (or city I’d call it). And it means quite a tremendous blow to the Taliban. It was true stronghold of the Taliban, they have now lost it and are forced to retreat. In other words: an incredibly important victory for the Afghan government and NATO.
Only two British and one American soldier were killed, while the Taliban reportedly lost hundreds of fighters / terrorists.
What now, one might wonder? One of the main problems in Afghanistan isn’t conquering cities or villages, it has been to rebuild the nation and to convince the local population to stop supporting the Taliban. Of course, the locals will only turn against the Taliban if they’re sure that the Afghan government and NATO won’t abandon them (once again). This means that there have to be a lot of troops stationed in Musa Qala and surrounding areas and that NATO has to do some serious reconstruction.
Luckily, this is exactly what NATO plans to do. Dutch media have often reported that American troops are great at fighting but less good at reconstruction and befriending the local population (by working with them). This means that the Afghan troops and other NATO allies will have to take the lead in this regard; the strengths of the allies should be used. If the US is good at fighting, let them do most of the fighting. If European troops are better at reconstruction, let them take charge of that process and let them convince the locals to turn their backs on the Taliban.
It’s good to see that there’s finally coming good news out of Afghanistan. It’s said to note that the War in Afghanistan has become the Forgotten War. This while so much is at stake in this war. This is the country that was ruled by the Taliban and where Bin Laden plotted 9/11. It’s of vital interest for the West to make sure that the Taliban won’t regain what they’ve lost.
A.J. Strata points out that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are on the run in just about every country these days. The West has to keep the pressure on. When NATO stops paying attention, the Taliban will be right back.
More at:
- Instapundit: “May there be many more, until they’re all out of the picture.”
- Ace of Spades: “Now you may wonder why a major victory in the, ahem, “Forgotten War” (the first forgotten war Afghanistan, and not Forgotten War II, Iraq) isn’t being reported by the media. It’s because they’re Patriots, buddy! They don’t want to leak out the sensitive intelligence to the Taliban that they just got their asses kicked unholy. They might not know yet, so keep it on the QT, all right?”
- The Corner (Michael Ledeen): “this considerable victory against the terrorists has been—how shall I put this?— somewhat underreported. Rather like the Really Big Story which is the defeat of al Qaeda in Anbar Province, and the transformation of the Marines there from fighters to civil reconstruction workers and even investment advisers.”
USS Neverdock points out that ABC and the BBC report in a slightly different manner about the war and the successes.
Fester, meanwhile, believes that even good news is bad news.
Will anybody think of the poor heroin addicts?
Will anybody think of the poor milbloggers who are so close to seeing everything turning out okay?
I ascertain that this is serious and perhaps underreported (which could be blamed on the viewers and the lack of any will to extend reporting beyond the viewers’ predilections, rather than the "Liberal MSM" TM), but I don’t go by stories, I go by the closest thing we can get to science on these matters, and I do not rely on those politically/emotionally vested on seeing one kind of development.
That is indeed a good news.
My only lament is, that this did not come soon enough. One wish that our resources were not spread too thin to other non-justifiable goals, so we could have defeated Taliban much sooner and more decisevely..
And , btw, big thank you to NATO members for the help in Afghanistan, Michael.
I know, you do not hear this so often from Americans…
Thank you and yes, it had taken too long, but better late than never.
Good post, Michael. We receive far too little news from the Forgotten War. Before I begin my rant, I want to thank the Dutch & other nations who have stepped up in Afghanistan.
Victory? There was no organized Taliban force left in Afghanistan at the end of 2002. We took back a city we had already won previously., forced to yet again use massive air strikes which must have killed hundreds of civilians. Somehow I don’t think the locals like us very much.; First we (meaning primarily the US & not Britain) abandon them, then we bomb the crap out of them again. They get to rebuild again, bury & mourn their dead again, care for their wounded again, rebuild their commerce again, & place bets on how long it will take for us to abandon them to the Taliban again.
This was not a victory; it is instead a do-over. Thanks to the US CEO pulling most US troops out of the region to gain corporate welfare for the oil cartel in Iraq & leaving NATO to scramble to fill in the gaps in Afghanistan. There are approximately 40,000 coalition troops to police over 30,000,000 Afghans. Is it any wonder the poppy fields grow up to the edges of coalition airstrips? There are more cops in New York City than troops in Afghanistan. Ridiculous.
I don’t have any answers for the current quandries. While Iraq was an unjust war, even illegal, we have a moral obligation to try to help them get back on their feet. (Forget about sweetheart contracts for US oil companies or permanent military bases.) Yet in order to bolster troops, we would need to draw on troop levels currently in Iraq, just as the Brits have done. We also owe the Afghans the same.
My boyfriend is a Sgt. in Task Force Fury and was/is in Musa Qala. I can’t tell you how happy I am that they have been succesful. Although, the injuries (mostly unreported) and deaths are tragic and not to be forgotten. I am just glad that other countries are reporting on this major assignment since i cant seem to find decent news on it in any local source - shame on the American "news" networks and journalists who prefer reporting about football players and the weather on the front page every damn day.
Or, some of the NATO countries (other than Netherlands, Britain, Canada and the non-NATO ally Australia) which haven’t met their promises of troops and trainers could pony up??
And the backtracking wasn’t due to inadequate troop forces, it was due to failure of political progress to strengthen the government and prevent the violent upsurge (which has always been a problem in Afghanistan).
Hope: Many thanks to you and your boyfriend for your sacrifices. May God continue to keep him safe.