Mongols

Maybe the Mongols had it right in their treatment of the Middle East and Southwest Asia...

Defeating Islamic Terrorism

The UK's new CINC of the Army has stated you cannot defeat Islamic militancy. In this he is correct even if he used the wrong name which is terrorism. A point that I wish people would get right. There is no way to defeat an idea this one being that these terrorist believe that Islam must rule the world as Allah commanded. There are ways however to mitigate this ideas effects. Firstly pound the active cells to dirt if possible by killing, capturing, or turning them. Second Western media and liberals must stop acting to mitigate counter-terrorism activities and stop their support or protection of groups and or individuals that support Islamic supremecy. Political correctness run amok and the hatred of all the good things that the West represents is a huge problem for the left and media little do they realize that if the Muslims get their way all their free speach will come to an end and the Gay pride parades in San Fransisco will turn into hangings. Lastly a concerted campaign of counter propaganda on all fronts must take place which includes pressuring groups like Google to take down all jihadist propaganda from their websites and using cyberwarfare to go after other websites.

This is a very simplistic way to state some very complex issues but you get the picture.

Drone War

Well since I cannot get my post up like I want to I will have to do it the hard way. More to come.

Something you may not know

The whole Taliban insurgency just is not a bunch of Islamic hardliners bent on Sharia law world wide. There is also another group that has a huge stake in an unstable Afghanistan and that is the drug dealers. Afghanistan is the worlds largest supplier of heroin and opium beating out Asia's Golden Triangle are. I was reminded of this today reading the ISAF's website like I do on a daily basis and came across this article. The drug dealers are just as deadly as the regular insurgents and often times they cooperate as the same routes that can take the drugs out of the country are used to bring weapons and fighters in.

Busy Week

Six Drone Attacks this week including two today for a reported 38 Taliban and associated group deaths. Most of these attacks have occured in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan an area controlled by the Haqqanis. There were however two attacks in S. Waziristan that hit a commander for Mullah Wazir's group around Azam Warsak. He was important enough to try to hit in his car then when that did not work we hit his offices and killed him there.

An important one I missed was the killing of a German national on Bekkay Harrach on 9/21. This is important because he had made several videos to recruit German muslims and also calling for the usual... overthrow of the German government, implemention of Sharia etc...

It is also interesting to note that the Haqqanis have been getting hit hard as they try to attack U.S. and Afghan combat outposts and that we are also hitting their rear areas in Pakistan. The tribe that the Haqqanis belong to is not a big one and the constant drain of manpower may soon tell on their operations. This week alone over 50 Haqqani network fighters have been killed in attacks on combat outposts in addition to the over 20 in their base areas. However they keep coming.

The pounding continues

Another drone strike this time in S. Waziristan in Mullah Nazir's territory. Nazir is a good Taliban and has actually fought against the Uzbeks in his area. However Nazir wages the jihad in Afghanistan and is close with Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden.

This makes 15 strikes this month and 9 in the last nine days. Today's strike killed 6 and wounded 5 with an expenditure of 3 missiles.

I do not know if the strikes are being launched on actionable intelligence or are just cruising looking for targets of interest. Killing four guys on a motorcycle seem somewhat pointless except it is taking 4 trigger pullers out of the game. I have to believe now that the Taliban and AQ leadership is getting a little leary of moving openly much. This is not such a bad thing if we can keep their leadership pinned down. This is exactly what is happening to our troops in Afghanistan. In out effort to defend population centers we have surrendered the high ground to the Taliban and their allies. In Pakistan currently we hold the high ground.

Drone Strike 9/20/2010

Dirazindi villiage, N. Waziristan Predator or Reaper drones attacked and killed four Taliban. We fired 4 missiles at a cost of $232,000 to kill four guys unless this was Osama bin Laden and not four foot soldiers it hardly seems worth the effort on this one.

As we continue to pound the Haqqani network in both Afghanistan and its home in Pakistan it seems to me we think we can either pound them into negotiating or hope to degrade them a great deal before we pull out.