[Biggest
Islamic
web site in the
U.S.]
All Rights Reserved
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087.
Phone: 410-435-5000.
[$10
for one year. $1 for sample]
Disclaimer:
Views expressed are not necessarily shared by editorial committee.
Responses (positive or negative) up to 250 words are welcome.
Names will be withheld on request.
------------------------------------------------
Analysis by our Afghanistan Monitor
Latest Afghan battle Indicates Best
U.S.
troops no Match for Taliban
350 of 82nd Airborne vs 80 Taliban: Nineteen 2000
pound & two 500 kg bombs
dropped
As New Trend has no reporters on the
ground in Afghanistan, we have to
depend on U.S. military reports which are heavily
slanted for military and
propaganda purposes. However, scientific analysis
can help bring out the
reality of the situation.
The U.S. has tried to create an ongoing
impression that the Taliban are
finished and Karzai's regime is busy
reconstructing Afghanistan. U.S. support
regime, General Musharref of
Pakistan,
has also repeatedly said that the
Taliban are finished and that Pakistan (meaning
Musharref) will cooperate
fully with the Karzai government.
The latest fighting shows that the Taliban
have not only RETURNED (as New
Trend was the first to report) but are defying
the awesome military powerful
of the United States. Thus the basis on which the
U.S. is building its future
plans for Afghanistan might turn out to be
fatally flawed..
In the latest clash, the U.S. admitted that
there had been "heavy"
fighting but would not admit any losses. [We are
suffering NO LOSSES in
Afghanistan is a psychological ploy which could
backfire when the truth comes
out. In the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the
Soviets would not admit for
five years that anything serious was happening,
or that they were suffering
any losses at all.]
The U.S. report indicates as follows:
1. There were an estimated EIGHTY Afghan
mujahideen (rebels according to the
U.S.)
2. The U.S. sent in 350 of its best troops, the
world famous 82nd airborne
division, backed by Afghan mercenaries used for
scouting and reconnaissance.
(The numbers of Afghan mercenaries are estimated
at 500 though no
specific numbers were released. There are usually
as many, often twice as
many, mercenaries as U.S. troops in these
forays.)
3. The best U.S. force of 350, using Apache
helicopters, backed by 500
mercenaries could not dislodge the 80 mujahideen.
4. The U.S. then sent in it best planes, B-1s,
F16s and AC 130 gunships.
Nineteen 2000 pound bombs and two 500 kg bombs
were dropped which probably
obliterated the target area. It appears that the
mujahideen adroitly avoided
these attacks and the next day were back in
action though dispersed and
retreating and moving around.
5. According to the U.S., 18 Afghans were killed.
The report is very vague
about who these were: mujahideen or mercenaries
or civilians?
---------------------------------------
PAKISTANI REPORTS seem to agree about the 18
killed but indicate that 9 of
these were mujahideen, 8 were Afghan mercenaries
and one a U.S. soldier. One
U.S. helicopters appears to have crashed owing to
light ground fire. The
Pakistanis indicate general support in the area
for the mujahideen.
WAS THE FIGHT A MINOR CLASH, AN EASY AMERICAN
VICTORY? It probably unnerved
both the U.S. and Karzai because one news agency
reports that on January 28,
in the midst of his preparations for the State of
the Union Address,
President Bush called Karzai to assure him of his
support.
WERE THESE TALIBAN OR HIZBI ISLAMI of
HIKMATYAR? The U.S. report
seems interested in indicating with emphasis that
these were supporters of
Hikmatyar. However, careful reading of the report
indicates that these were
actually Taliban who were at one time supporters
of Hikmatyar (or are simply
Taliban interested in the newly formulated or
formulating alliance with
Hikmatyar.)
Evidently the U.S. wants to play down the
RETURN OF THE TALIBAN to
camouflage its failure to destroy the Islamic
movement which defied it on the
issue of Osama.
----------------------------------------------------------------
PAKISTANI REPORTS INDICATE THAT THE 80 TALIBAN
ARE LED BY A HAFIZE
QUR'AN
FROM KANDAHAR, an official under Taliban rule.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE DEPLOYMENT OF MAXIMUM of AIRPOWER is
not unlike American tactics in
Vietnam where superbombers were often called in
for saturation bombing of
tiny Viet Cong units. The result was horrific
suffering of civilians which in
fact increased the support for the Viet Cong.
----------------------------
The barefooted Taliban, scampering like
mountain goats in the rugged
terrain north of Spin Boldack are waging
classical guerrilla warfare. If 80
of them could not be defeated by the 82nd air
borne, what will happen to the
American endeavor in Afghanistan with 1,000 or
2,000 or 10,000 Taliban
waiting in the mountains to raise the green
banners of Jihad?
If the call for Jihad goes out successfully,
it will also affect the
people of Pakistan's border areas who feel
dishonored by Musharref's troops
running around with FBI pointers trying to pick
up
Chechen,
Egyptian,
Tajik, Uzbek,
Sudanese
and other Islamic refugees, as has been reported in the Pakistani
media.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003-02-01 Sat 06:27ct