British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed

[Skynet]

From Times Online
October 1, 2008
British envoy says mission in Afghanistan is doomed, according to leaked memo

Charles Bremner, Paris and Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor
The official version of the US-led campaign in Afghanistan received a blow today with a leaked report that the British Ambassador in Kabul believes that US strategy is wrong and the war is as good as lost.

The potentially explosive views were published by Le Canard Enchaîné, a respected French weekly, which said that they were direct quotations from a diplomatic cable written by François Fitou, the French Deputy Ambassador in Kabul.

Mr Fitou reported to President Sarkozy's office and his own Foreign Ministry that Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador, believed that "American strategy is destined to fail" in Afghanistan, according to the newspaper.

It published a reproduction of what it said was the coded cable, in which the French diplomat summarised the ambassador's main points from a September 2 meeting.
More on the linkhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4860080.ece

 

[ABrighter2006]

Fixed Linky: Times Online webpage

“The current situation is bad. The security situation is getting worse. So is corruption and the Government has lost all trust. Our public statements should not delude us over the fact that the insurrection, while incapable of winning a military victory, nevertheless has the capacity to make life increasingly difficult, including in the capital.

“The presence — especially the military presence — of the coalition is part of the problem, not the solution. The foreign forces are ensuring the survival of a regime which would collapse without them. In doing so, they are slowing down and complicating an eventual exit from the crisis (which, moreover, will probably be dramatic)."

 

[Skynet]

Karzai's bid to reach out to Taliban supported by France
AFP
Published: Wednesday, October 01, 2008
PARIS - France voiced support on Wednesday for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's bid to hold talks with the Taliban but said he must not engage with hardcore extremists in the militia.
Karzai said Tuesday he had asked Saudi Arabia to help persuade the Taliban militia to enter into peace talks but that discussions had not yet started.
"In some regions at the local level, there must be contacts," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview to i-Tele television.
More on the link
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=1cc7f1ea-84d3-4c07-99dd-f312f41bc394

 

[Skynet]

Pakistani Taliban deny report leader Mehsud dead
Wed Oct 1, 2008 5:25pm
By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Questions swirled on Wednesday over the fate of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, with a Pakistani television channel reporting he had died of illness but Taliban spokesmen dismissed the report.

Mehsud is the militant commander Pakistani authorities accuse of being behind a wave of suicide attacks across the country, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December.

Mehsud, an ethnic Pashtun tribesman in his mid-30s, has denied involvement in the attack on Bhutto as she left an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi on December 27.

The Geo television channel reported late on Tuesday that Mehsud, based in the lawless Waziristan region on the Afghan border, had died of kidney failure after a long illness.

But Taliban spokesmen denied the report of his death, or even that he was seriously ill
More on the link
http://www.reuters.com/article/worl...c=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

 

[dhobi_walla]

Not looking good is it?
The comments are worth a read over on timesonline.co.uk but the spelling is atrocious. Ironic that the standard of english is better on arrse than the times.

 

[Skynet]

Regret the last two posts I got my threads mixed!

 

[Closet_Jibber]

Did British head sheds not say that about the yank "Surge" in Iraq?

 

[dhobi_walla]

Just noticed the BBC aren't running this story....
A Google News search however reveals 13 International Newspapers running it.
What you won't find on the BBC

 

[big_mac4824]

I would say france would be looking to exit asap even though they have only just re sent troops, cant say they have a proven track record with guerrila warfare!
until the goverment gives commanders the man power they need then it will always be an uphill battle, is there any news of the that plant pot reid being re shuffled? have not be reading the news recently

 

[fantassin]

I would say france would be looking to exit asap even though they have only just re sent troops, cant say they have a proven track record with guerrila warfare!

You are talking non sense there. Some of the greatest experts of COIN were french and their works are still considered as the basis of current doctrine.

Trinquier and Galula are household names in COIN circles and their works are studied the world over.

http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/trinquier/trinquier.asp

Quote Wiki:

"Galula has been considered to be an important military expert by contemporary defence experts. Notably, the US Military give his experiences as examples in the context of the Iraq War and he is often quoted in the US Army's Counterinsurgency Manual (FM 3-24).
Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice is a mandatory reading for students of the Command and General Staff College."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Galula

Frank Kitson, the UK's leading exponent of COIN in the 70s himself acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Colonel Trinquier's works such as "La guerre Moderne"; it formed the basis of some of his own studies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Trinquier

 

[OldSnowy]

FCO is denying it all anyway, saying it's the work of troublemakers in France. The Times have probably given it rather too much credibility - they certainly did themselves no credibility favours by calling the Canard a "respected French weekly"!

 

[dhobi_walla]

FCO is denying it all anyway, saying it's the work of troublemakers in France. The Times have probably given it rather too much credibility - they certainly did themselves no credibility favours by calling the Canard a "respected French weekly"!

True. It's a Commie Rag after all but where there's smoke...

 

[msr]

I thought it was the equivalent of Private Eye

 

[fantassin]

Le Canard Enchaine is not exactly "a Commie rag". That's L'Humanite, the official french communist party daily.

Le Canard has a long tradition of bringing out scandals and confidential informations, often leaked by civil servants with an agenda. They also have a long history of warping the truth to fit their leftist views but the cases they bring out generally tend to be true.

 

[dhobi_walla]

Le Canard Enchaine is not exactly "a Commie rag". That's L'Humanite, the official french communist party daily.

Le Canard has a long tradition of bringing out scandals and confidential informations, often leaked by civil servants with an agenda. They also have a long history of warping the truth to fit their leftist views but the cases they bring out generally tend to be true.

So It's a Commie rag then?
Just kidding.
Ta for the background info. Everyday's a school day...

 

[fantassin]

Here is more info on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Canard_Enchaîné

 

[In-Limbo]

I read the situation like this today...

Terry is a cnut. Since the carpet bombing shortly after 9/11 he's fled into FATA and set up shop. There are 3 Warlords on the boil from the old soviet era, who had been paid up by the CIA delivered by ISI hands years ago... but since then the CIA wants them served up on the plate but the ISI have been acting all shifty and not letting them go.

Now though the ISI are shitting themselves because after hiding all these cnuts away, and leaking pursuit intel to them, it turns out that Terry actually is a proper cnut who have effectively killed well over 200 Maliks throughout FATA, doing the usual beheading on DVD production to spread fear and awe among the masses in a twisted information op, and have replaced the traditional tribal leadership with their own cnuts.

Not content with stripping away FATA tribal traditions and law, they now cut about on horseback in downtown Karachi at night, scaring the bejebus out of Pakistanis - Talibanisation is creeping in mafia stylee in Pakistans biggest cities.

In fact it's gotten so twisted that when the Taliban launched an attack on a Pakistani ammunition factory, the main stream press in Pakistan incited the religious right into a frenzy so that they demonstrated not against the Taliban for conducting the attack and killing 64 Pakistani workers, but against the government.

So... in summary Terry is a right cnut, and Pakistan has lost swathes of land to Terry, so they've had to go all kinetic in order to demonstrate to the locals who live under the boot of the Taliban that even though they've had their clan chieftains slaughtered by Terry, that Pak Mil still runs the show.

So they're currently booting fcuk out of each other in Bajaur Agency, and by ready reckoning a few weeks back there was something like 1,300 Pak Army losses with 5,600 or something casualties... that's a battle that Pakistan can't afford to loose this time. And they got a bit of a shoeing last time even with 80,000 troops that they had to scramble back with a cease fire.

Recently Pakistan have shifted the ISI leadership, partly to replace staff previously loyal to Gen Mush with the new Generals buddies, and the current ISI head is an anti-Terry hawk so I hope to fcuk they can reverse their position on the Terry cnuts they've hosted, helped and supported.... because if it wasn't clear to them then, it is now... their country is being taken over by bandits and jihadi mufti cnuts. Oh and there are nukes in that equation somewhere.

Where's Afghanistan again....? [sic]

 

[whitecity]

Just noticed the BBC aren't running this story....
A Google News search however reveals 13 International Newspapers running it.
What you won't find on the BBC

Now you're starting to sound like SLR_boy with your conspiracy stories. BBC carried the Fitou story on the World Service last night.

 

[dhobi_walla]

Conspiracies aside, a search for cowper-coles on the BBC News website reveals the most recent article as 15/09/2008 and a search for fitou (French Ambassador not the wine producing village) gives 1 result about Wine.
Strange they should broadcast it on the World service but forget to put the story on their website which is updated 24hrs a day.

 

[whitecity]

Strange they should broadcast it on the World service but forget to put the story on their website which is updated 24hrs a day.

Why?