Some positive war news for America out of Afghanistan.
The Nation (Pakistan) says Dozens reported killed in Afghan militant infighting: police. The report begins:
Up to 60 militants and 19 civilians may have been killed in bloody clashes between rival Islamist militant groups in northern Afghanistan, a police official said Sunday. The fighting between Taliban rebels and militants loyal to the Hezb-i-Islami insurgent group erupted early Saturday in Baghlan province where both factions are active, said provincial police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi.
Not that I am cheering any violent deaths even against people unfriendly to us, but evidence of major schisms between different groups whose goals are not pro-America is good news from a war standpoint.
The more the Islamic fundamentalists are at each other's throats, the less they will be at ours. Given that the U. S. has committed to a form of nation-building in one of the poorest societies on Earth, perhaps there will be a bit of breathing room. Military victories in little Marja or in larger Kandahar are guaranteed, though the fight in Kandahar may be costly in dollars as well as lives. All those are transitory, however, as the U. S. found out in Viet Nam.
Maybe, just maybe, the Karzai government will be seen by the Afghans as at the least no worse than the alternatives.
Copyright (C) Long Lake 2o10
These groups have been fighting and killing each other for over two decades. This is nothing new.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's increasing in intensity, though-maybe a sign of some pressure on them- unfortunately the US has opted for the Karzai crooks over the other crooks. "Our SOB" vs theirs.
A horrid game our pols play