Taliban alive and kicking

The fiend Zarqawi may be dead in Iraq (and may he get his just deserts), but things are not going well in Afghanistan:

Legions of undefeated Taliban and al Qaeda soldiers have renewed their jihad. Flush with money, amassing recruits, and armed with guns, rockets and explosives, they are fighting to regain power. In recent months they have mounted a string of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against American and NATO forces; more U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan in the last 18 months than did during the peak of the war.

Meanwhile Taliban fighters are at liberty in parts of the country and terrorize the local population, killing people they deem too friendly to the government.

Why is this happening? The writer, Elan Journo, says that in our desire to be nice, we did not use force sufficient to destroy the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and then, also in our desire to be nice, we allowed the Afghanis to install an Islamic government, which has difficulty articulating how its philosophy differs from that of the Taliban.

What then should we do? The VFR answer: A three-week war once very three years is cheaper than permanent occupation.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 08, 2006 11:18 AM | Send