Ding, dong, Dadullah's dead
Booya.
Can he be replaced? Sure. The better question is whether he can be replaced with another commander of equal craftiness, reputation, and experience. And that's a lot more doubtful.
Heck, look at the issues the Taliban has had with essential personnel like bomb-makers, and remember that leaders are even harder to produce - especially for loosely organized groups like theirs.
Of course, the question remains whether we can destroy their ability to fight more quickly than they can destroy our nation's will to fight.
Update: Graeme Smith, the Canadian reporter with the best connections in Kandahar outside the wire, reports on some of the difficulties and confusion already being seen within the Taliban. Sowing confusion within your enemy's command structure is always a Good Thing.
Previous reports of his death or capture had proved untrue, but officials displayed the body to confirm the killing.
For many years Mullah Dadullah has been known to be one of the most brutal and extreme Taleban leaders.
In the last 12 months he has become perhaps the most significant military commander in Afghanistan, certainly in the south where the close quarters fighting has been most intense, our correspondent says.
But it is difficult to assess the impact of his death on the insurgency, our correspondent says, because the Taleban's command structures are loose and fighters often operate in small, self-contained units.
Can he be replaced? Sure. The better question is whether he can be replaced with another commander of equal craftiness, reputation, and experience. And that's a lot more doubtful.
Heck, look at the issues the Taliban has had with essential personnel like bomb-makers, and remember that leaders are even harder to produce - especially for loosely organized groups like theirs.
Of course, the question remains whether we can destroy their ability to fight more quickly than they can destroy our nation's will to fight.
Update: Graeme Smith, the Canadian reporter with the best connections in Kandahar outside the wire, reports on some of the difficulties and confusion already being seen within the Taliban. Sowing confusion within your enemy's command structure is always a Good Thing.
6 Comments:
He's dead, he was bad, he died the way he wanted to, everyone is happy.
But when "they" kill one of "ours" and decide to expose the body to the press as the Americans have just done with this guy, and the pictures of our dead soldiers make the papers and TV headlines, no one better say a word, because I didn't read or hear a single word of protest against the display of this guy's corpse to the Press corps.
Don't do unto others......
That was the idea behind the law about not torturing prisoners. The Americans forgot the reason behind the law, and now they have three soldiers in the insugents' hands in Iraq.....
They will never learn.
taxpayer: As an RBK amputee I was gratified to see the stump.
ID, you know.
Plus spelling, spelling, spelling.
Mark
Ottawa
ID is why they will also display our corpses, to prove that they killed them. It does not make it right.
Mark, I will be glad to congratulate you on your french spelling and grammar on your French posts the day I read any. In the meantime...
"as the Americans have just done with this guy"
Except it wasn't the Americans, now was it? It was the Afghans themselves. Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid if memory serves.
"Taxpayer," I'm getting tired of catching you talking crap here. You need to either better inform your opinions, or spout your garbage some other place.
taxpayer: I guess we both go hop, hop then.
Mark
Ottawa
And my best time in the 100 yard dash (on a standard artificial leg) was about 18 seconds. Times sure have changed:
http://tinyurl.com/2lgzpa
Mark
Ottawa
Post a Comment
<< Home