The Taliban carried out a daylight Mumbai-style attack on on government centers and civilian targets in the heart of the Afghanistan capital of Kabul today.
The Taliban fighters wore suicide vests and used assault rifles and RPG's as well as car bombs to attack the central area where the presidential palace, the Justice Ministry, and the Central Bank are located. The Serena Hotel, a shopping mall and a movie theater also became part of the war zone.
The attack lasted six hours and resulted in widespread damage and scores of wounded.
Seven Taliban fighters, three soldiers, and two civilians were killed in the fighting.
The attack took place as President Karzai was swearing in his new cabinet and is mulling over offering the Taliban an amnesty and a place in his new government. For their part, the Taliban have so far refused any negotiations until the NATO forces leave the country.
What today's attack was likely supposed to demonstrate to both President Karzai and the Afghan people is that the Taliban are capable of striking even in the heavily guarded heart of Kabul, and that relying on NATO to protect them is futile.
There will undoubtedly be more such attacks, since they're designed to erode any basic sense of security for the Afghans.That was an old Viet Cong tactic.
It seems clear that if one is going to engage in a "nation building" excersize, that one needs to supply enough troops to provide security for the populace. Would more troops work here? Are the additional troops that would be needed available?
ReplyDeleteI think the answer to the first question is maybe. Unless the rules of engagement that our people are under are relaxed, I'm not sure it really matters how many troops we have in the country.
I think the answer to the second question is we don't have them to commit even if we wanted to. Our "allies" in NATO might be able to make up the difference but they don't seem interested. It is my snese they would rather see millions of Americans killed than pitch in to help us.
Given the geo political realities of the situation, I think a better use for our military is to redeploy it to defensible positions along our borders rather than have our brave warriors engaged in fruitless efforts to provide security in places like Afghanistan.