Inside the Taliban:
‘The more troops they send, the more targets we have'
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad,Saturday 15 August 2009
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an Iraqi journalist who works as a special correspondent for the Guardian.
Phi Beta Iota Selected One-Liners followed by link to McNamara in Fog of War
Includes MAJOR finding on drone need for infrared body heat detection sensors
From nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, the government controls the country's main arteries. The rest of the time they belong to the Taliban.
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“The situation is very simple here,” he continued. “We are Muslims and tribal people, the Taliban are Muslim and from the same tribes, the foreign troops are non-Muslims and there was no referendum from the people to ask them to come here.
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When the Taliban were here the jihad was only in Afghanistan. Now, thanks to the Americans, the jihad has spread to many other countries.”
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“We tell the Americans to stop this war, we are not tired.” His fatigued voice, however, told a different story.
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Under our [Taliban] government, when we taught the children the letter J it stood for jihad. Now it's jar [meaning neighbour].
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Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment:
Below is a link to the summary of the finest retrospective ever done on top-level errors of war. In the above story, the single most important intelligence finding is that the drones are not equipped with heat-sensing equipment such as we have on our search & rescue helicopters, and this one addition will significantly augment their capabilities.
By sheer coincidence, just as this entry was being made, a DVD preview of The Fog of War was playing, and McNamara was saying that he confused Viet-Nam with the Cold War while not understanding that the Vietnamese thought it was a Civil War. The gap between those with power and those with knowledge has become cataclysmic, at the same time that the voters and taxpayers have given up control of their Republic and its Treasury.
