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Originally Posted by Vronsky
The question here of course is how come the Taleban are on their feet again? Hadn't the Daisy Cutters wiped them completely off the planet. So whose helping them? Where's their support coming from? Seems the same is happening that the Russians experienced: they too appeared to be in total control of the country, but couldn't hold their ground against the rising guerilla in the end, despite massive military efforts  |
They (Taliban & Al Qaeda) never were militarily defeated in Kandahar. Since most Taliban are Pashtun, when they abandoned Kabul some went with the Al Qaedistas to Tora Bora but most of them went back to their tribal homeland. Most of those that went to Tora Bora died or were jailed. Some escaped into Pakistan and either stayed with Pashtuns in Pakistan or filtered back into Kandahar. The deal that Karzai (himself a Pashtun) reached with the Pashtun tribal chiefs was that so long as the former Taliban stayed "former" that Kabul would leave Kandahar semi-autonomous (like the other provinces).
But since the Al Qaedistas have linked-up with the former Taliban in Kandahar and have begun suicide bombings, and expanded into other provinces, the military let Karzai know that they were going-in unless the tribal leaders reeastablished control. The tribal leaders informed Karzai that they were powerless, Karzai was let-off tehir formal agreement, and the military went in.
When dealing with tribal cultures, the military in Afghanistan took the lead from the Special Forces and CIA and have worked within the paradigm as much as possible. This is in contrast with the military in Iraq, which has tried to run the occupation without concern for tribal influence.
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