by Abinyah Walker
As reported on Spacewar.com the Taliban is regrouping in Afghanistan, not through military strength of numbers, but because of the struggling Afghan democratic government's inability to attract the hearts and minds of the people. The US implemented strategy works very well on the American public, but very little on the actually Afghanis. The Taliban are carrying out their own campaign to win the hearts and minds of the people. If and when that happens, the power of representation will shift back to a Taliban authority undermining the government of Hamid Karsai and plunging the region back into a Cold War era civil war.
"It's not necessarily the strong enemy, it's the very weak institutions of the state; that in that vacuum, in that weakness, then, you have Taliban influence able to move in there and, through coercion of the people then to assert that influence," Eikenberry said speaking at a Pentagon briefing.
There has been a tactical change in the Taliban operations since 2005, indicating that they have the ability to adapt to the US and multinational NATO forces. They have not sought to confront the allies with military formations, instead they simply weaken the US and its NATO allies signifying to the Afghan people that resistance is still possible.
"We have not seen conclusive evidence that there has been any migration from Iraq to Afghanistan of foreign fighters that are bringing with them skills or capabilities. On the other hand, we have seen a steady increase in the sophistication of IEDs, an increase in the sophistication of tactics, but these are the kind of techniques, these are the kind of skills that, very frankly, in today's information age can be gleaned from the Internet and be gleaned from Web pages and can be improved by a force that's operating against you over time as they continue to adapt their own tactics,"
However, the inherent focus on security is overshadowed by what the Afghanis want, better economic restructuring. Eighty percent see the economy as their number one need, with infrastructure, social services and the rule of law as their primary concern. Personal security, at this point, will only improve with economic security.
Taliban |ˈtaliˌban| a fundamentalist Muslim movement whose militia took control of much of Afghanistan from early 1995, and in 1996 took Kabul and set up a radical Islamic state. The movement provided support for the al Qaeda terrorists and was forcibly removed from power by the U.S. and its allies after the September 11, 2001, attacks. ORIGIN from Pashto or Dari, from Persian, literally ‘students, seekers of knowledge.’
