Marja: "...a bleeding ulcer right now”'? (McClatchy reporting)/Taliban--and Afghan--thinking

Further to this post based on a McClatchy story,

Marja: '...“This is a bleeding ulcer right now”'

an exchange of messages between ISAF (headline below a bit off) and McClatchy Newspapers:

U.S. military criticizes McClatchy story on McChrystal in Marjah

Regardless of the merits of the above dispute, readers might be interested in this post of Babbling's that recounts an encounter Torch contributors, and another Canadian milblogger, had with a McClatchy reporter in January this year:

There are none so blind as those who will not see

Meanwhile, a thought experiment at Foreign Policy's "AfPak Channel":

Kandahar Through the Taliban's Eyes
As the U.S.-led coalition attempts to retake Afghanistan's critical southern provinces, they should first attempt to look at the conflict from their enemies' perspective.

More on our opponents' thinking from Con Coughlin in the Daily Telegraph:

We will never defeat the Taliban if they think we're going home

And it ain't their perception alone that's important, as I wrote a few days ago:

Afstan: Brits going wobbly...

What's a poor Afghan to think?..