U.S. Military: Taliban pushed back from Kabul
The Taliban are finally in retreat, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The push-back is a direct result of troop increases:
An influx of new U.S. troops near Kabul this year is reclaiming the Afghan capital’s outskirts from the Taliban, but violence would increase in the short-term, the U.S. commander in the area said.
The United States has rushed about 3,000 troops to Logar and Maidan Wardak provinces to defend the capital’s southern and western borders this year, the first phase of a planned increase that will almost double the U.S. presence in the country.
For years the areas near Kabul were quiet, with little presence of either U.S. troops or their foes.
But Taliban fighters moved into the two provinces last year, bringing the Islamist militants to the capital’s edges in substantial numbers for the first time since they were driven from Kabul in 2001.
That is good news, of course, but you have to wonder about the long-term. Can the Taliban be defeated militarily? I’d say no. They are too numerous for that to happen. What then, marginalize them? Should that be the goal? Perhaps – but marginalizing them means they will continue to fight against the federal Afghan government whenever and wherever they can. Certain provinces will not be stable for a long, long time to come.
The best option, it seems to me, is to force the Taliban to retreat at which moment they may be open to a settlement. Both sides have to compromise – the Afghan government has long implied it is willing to do so, the Taliban have rejected any deals, knowing full well they were making a comeback nationally. But the surge has changed the rules of the game. The fundamentalist Taliban may not have been willing to agree on a compromise a year ago, but six months from now, well, they may have a change of heart.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
