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1stSgt Sergeant Major/First Sergeant
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We have football, Baseball and NASCAR seasons, they have fighting season.
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COL Ted Mc
COL Ted Mc
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1stSgt (Join to see) - Sergeant Major; Indeed, and that fact appears to have escaped the notice of those who planned on "a short victorious war".
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LTC Stephen F.
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It is interesting that the Taliban seem to announce their spring offensive each year in the way that movie release, etc. are trumpeted COL Ted Mc
I expect part of this is so that they can make the Afghan soliders who are vulnerable to coercion tremble and think of ways to run away.
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COL Ted Mc
COL Ted Mc
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LTC Stephen F. - Colonel; It also lets everyone know that it's time to make sure that they have an adequate supply of flags for BOTH sides.
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LTC Stephen F.
LTC Stephen F.
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COL Ted Mc - that reminds me of the election sign campaigns in this nation which tend to be produced for all sides at one or more regional printers.
I wonder if we could convince the Taliban to honor yellow penalty flags :-)
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COL Ted Mc
COL Ted Mc
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LTC Stephen F. - Colonel; If an arrangement can be worked out for the US to honor "Red Cards" then possibly something can be worked out.
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SPC David S.
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The fighting season I have a feeling will always be. I saw a report that a lot of Afghan army is defecting over to the T'man. While things weren't perfect they seemed headed in a good direction at least compared to Iraq. These late turn of events doesn't look good but at the same time doesn't really surprise me.
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COL Ted Mc
COL Ted Mc
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SPC David S. - Spec; Since the Taliban DID form the government of Afghanistan prior to the invasion, and since the Taliban DID NOT surrender, and since the people of Afghanistan DID NOT have much choice about "accepting" the government imposed on Afghanistan by the invaders, a case CAN be made that the Taliban is in a position much akin to that of the "Free French government" in WWII (except, of course, the "Free French" were on OUR side [and WE WON] which means that the "Free French" were "legitimate").
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SPC David S.
SPC David S.
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Sure there are stories of how the Taliban is pictured as the hero - saving the girls and boys from rape and fighting political corruption. However the truth is that the Taliban are largely supported by the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in an attempt to establish a regime in Afghanistan that would be favorable to Pakistan's national strategy. Since the creation of the Taliban, the ISI and the Pakistani military have given financial, logistical and military support. This goes back to 1947 when Afghanistan objected to its admission to the United Nations.

The Afghan resistance coalescing in Pakistan was a combination of nationalist and religious parties. At the outset, they were divided into over a hundred groups. In 1980, the ISI reorganized them into bigger units and it officially recognized seven of these Peshawar-based parties. Anyone wishing to receive aid from Pakistan, the US, the Arabs, and others, had to join one of these groups. The largest of these factions were the ethnic Tajik-dominated Jamiat-e Islami, led by Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami. Hezb-e Islami was favored by ISI and had close ties to Zia’s backers in Jamaat-e-Islami. It was also one the most radical of the groups (radical groups easier primed for violence). Gulbuddin’s Hizb ultimately received the bulk of the foreign aid (mostly American and Saudi) during the Afghan resistance. Pakistan provided the mujahideen with weapons, supplies, training, and bases from which to operate; and Pakistani units, disguised as mujahideen, also participated directly in the fighting. After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, international interest in Afghanistan and the mujahideen began to wane. Zia died in a plane crash in 1988, and was succeeded by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of the man he had overthrown and hanged a decade earlier. However, even though Hezb-e Islami was closely affiliated with Bhutto’s political enemy, Jamaat-e-Islami, the ISI continued to support Hekmatyar’s faction and the other mujahedeen parties against the communist regime of Dr. Najibullah in Kabul. After Kabul fell in 1992, attempts were made to bring Hekmatyar into a unity government with Rabbani and Massoud, but the Hezb-e Islami commander continued to attack his rivals. Afghanistan spiraled into a brutal civil conflict between competing mujahideen warlords, none of whom were capable of unifying or stabilizing the entire country. Thus the roots of the Taliban began as a Pakistani conquest of Afghan warlords. Thus why they continue to fight as long as Afghanistan's government is not under the direct control of Pakistan every spring. Putting in Pakistani proxy wont work either as the Afghan's will reject this as well. The dirt there has been chewed for centuries. Its a graveyard of empires - nothing more nothing less.
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COL Ted Mc
COL Ted Mc
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SPC David S. - Spec; The relationship between "the bad guys" (the Taliban) and "the good guys" (the Pakistani government) has been an open secret for decades. The only people who don't appear to know about it are the American taxpayers.
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