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Pakistan helping taliban

Non-story.

"As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical."

"It is a matter of policy that documents that are classified are not discussed under any circumstances,"
 
I wouldnt say its non story BK. Espically what I extracted "The report has EVIDENCE that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato's withdrawal "

How can that be a non story???
 
I wouldnt say its non story BK. Espically what I extracted "The report has EVIDENCE that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato's withdrawal "

How can that be a non story???

You're right, It is a story; the story is that a protectively marked doc has got itself into the hands of Quentin Sommerville.

I meant that given the nature of the sources and that it is stated not to be assessment, there's nothing really we can (or should) add.
 
Unless anyone had fallen for the myth that the Taliban is composed of either idiots or of fanatics unhinged by their religious frenzy, this is a statement of the obvious. The Taliban are incapable of defeating the Coalition forces, and the ANA and ANP are incapable of defeating the Taliban. Once western forces have gone the country will revert to the Taliban.

The cassus belllo was the Taliban's sheltering of Al-Quaida: once they had been dislodged the Coalition had no business being there, and no realistic hope of success unless the country was to be occupied and administered like India under the Raj. Without that level of commitment it was always going to end up this way.

Contrary to what St. Tony said, Afghanistan was always going to be very like Vietnam.
 
Hardly new news to us serving really. Considering bin laden's safe haven was in there anyhow. Just confirms everyones suspicions......

BBC News - Pakistan is helping Afghan Taliban, says Nato report

This piece is interesting though:

The report has evidence that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato's withdrawal by deliberately reducing their attacks in some areas and then initiating a comprehensive hearts-and-minds campaign.

In other news: alcohol may get you drunk, and nights are usually without sunshine ;-)
 
In other news: alcohol may get you drunk, and nights are usually without sunshine ;-)


Indeed. I'd go so far as to say the Taliban are the least of our worries.

Neither Pakistan or Afghanistan are viable nation states with their current borders and ethnic makeup. The battle is for the centre - call it Waziristan, the Pushtun or whatever you like - and the victor will gut the loser in terms of territory. So far the centre has resisted any efforts to sway it one way or the other, much preferring to live in their own filth, bum small boys and treat women like animals - sorry, I mean follow their rich and varied cultural traditions. The other wrinkle is that our COIN doctrine, based as it is on the assumption that there is a state to be an insurgent against, is flawed before we start.

Now Pakistan is a wobbly nuclear state, paranoid about their much larger nuclear neighbour with whom they've had the odd war. Establishing a strong Afghanistan will, by definition, weaken them. That gives hardcore religious nutters their best chance to get a real, proper, working bombm complete with delivery systems. That worries me, and I'd cheerfully throw Afghanistan under the bus to make sure it doesn't happen. The Pakistanis won't stop, they see it as vital to their national security and they know we are leaving and dumping them with the fallout anyway.

No doubt someone will be along soon to ask when I was last in Afghanistan and point out we are doing much better these days. Doesn't matter though does it ? We start to draw down seriously next year and I 'd place a small bet that we'll be all out save a few fig leaf trainers way, way before 2015.
 
Possibly the most blindingly obvious non-news story of the past decade (when even then it would have been old news).

The ISI playing both sides of the fence? Wow, quite the revelation that. No wonder the Taliban are biding their time and being clever buggers when Cameron and Obama keep bloody telling them 'we're leaving in 2014/2015, after that the place is yours', and they've long known that Karzai's remit barely extends to or beyond the major cities and towns.

Jesus, talk about 'phoning-in the defeat early.
 
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