an oorah posting for the day.

The Warrior Song

Khyber Agency

Three drone strikes in Pakistan's Khyber Agency resulted in 54 terrorists killed. That is some good intelligence. It seems that Predator or Reapers hit a meeting. It is way to early to speculate a new trend in drone targeting. However the Haqqani network leadership has secured it self a way of retreat out of N. Waziristan the attacks maybe following them.

Either way ridding the world of 54 taliban is never a bad thing.

Afghan War Review

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/16/war-review-taliban-al-qaeda-diminished/

ISAF has done a great job in working to secure Afghanistan however Pakistan has a vested interest in keeping the Taliban, Haqqani Network, and Hezb e Islami active and vital. The reason for this Pakistan wants to either have direct control or see a destabilized Afghanistan as that helps gives them strategic depth against India. The three groups I just listed have had and still do harbor and train other Pakistani and international terrorists with Pakistan's tacit approval and in some cases material support. The good Taliban as the Pakistanis see these groups are a strategic asset and will not move against them. Our drone strikes against the the Haqqanis are mere pin pricks and since we cannot hit Quetta where Mullah Omar's Taliban reside we cannot hit their command structure either.

Remember Pakistan's Tribal Area is the key.

Interesting Observation

"For the most part, the resistance (mujahideen) had no strategy to speak of, and their command structure was often so informal as to be nonexistent" from Soldiers of God by Robert Kaplan in 1990.

This is true even today as the ISAF captures Haqqani Network commanders on a regular basis and their attacks do not let up. Keep this in mind when the discussion about Taliban commanders comes up as there is always someone to take charge when a commander is killed or captured.

Here is something you do not hear about everyday because Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have actually gone after al-Qaeda pretty hard in their territories. Apparently a Palestinian al-Qaeda member got himself killed in Afghanistan. I wonder if he counted as one of just a few hundred remaining al-Qaeda members remaining in the Af/Pak theater (Sarc).

Sweden

Suicide bomber in Stockholm last night. Thankfully only the bomber was killed and two others wounded. This is what happens when you turn a blind eye to the radicalism growing in your midst. Europe is unable and/or unwilling to attempt to assimulate their growing Muslim populations but at the same time too politically correct to do anything about them. This will not be the last of these attacks and the terrorists only have to get lucky once to cause a great deal of harm.

Either Europe is going to have to make radical changes or be changed by the radicals.