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Analysis by our Afghanistan Monitor
Latest Afghan battle Indicates Best U.S. troops no Match for Taliban
350 of 82nd Airborne vs 80 Taliban: Nineteen 2000 pound & two 500 kg bombs dropped

As New Trend has no reporters on the ground in Afghanistan, we have to depend on U.S. military reports which are heavily slanted for military and propaganda purposes. However, scientific analysis can help bring out the reality of the situation.

The U.S. has tried to create an ongoing impression that the Taliban are finished and Karzai's regime is busy reconstructing Afghanistan. U.S. support regime, General Musharref of Pakistan, has also repeatedly said that the Taliban are finished and that Pakistan (meaning Musharref) will cooperate fully with the Karzai government.

The latest fighting shows that the Taliban have not only RETURNED (as New Trend was the first to report) but are defying the awesome military powerful of the United States. Thus the basis on which the U.S. is building its future plans for Afghanistan might turn out to be fatally flawed..

In the latest clash, the U.S. admitted that there had been "heavy" fighting but would not admit any losses. [We are suffering NO LOSSES in Afghanistan is a psychological ploy which could backfire when the truth comes out. In the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Soviets would not admit for five years that anything serious was happening, or that they were suffering any losses at all.]

The U.S. report indicates as follows:
1. There were an estimated EIGHTY Afghan mujahideen (rebels according to the U.S.)
2. The U.S. sent in 350 of its best troops, the world famous 82nd airborne division, backed by Afghan mercenaries used for scouting and reconnaissance. (The numbers of Afghan mercenaries are estimated at 500 though no specific numbers were released. There are usually as many, often twice as many, mercenaries as U.S. troops in these forays.)
3. The best U.S. force of 350, using Apache helicopters, backed by 500 mercenaries could not dislodge the 80 mujahideen.
4. The U.S. then sent in it best planes, B-1s, F16s and AC 130 gunships. Nineteen 2000 pound bombs and two 500 kg bombs were dropped which probably obliterated the target area. It appears that the mujahideen adroitly avoided these attacks and the next day were back in action though dispersed and retreating and moving around.
5. According to the U.S., 18 Afghans were killed. The report is very vague about who these were: mujahideen or mercenaries or civilians?
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PAKISTANI REPORTS seem to agree about the 18 killed but indicate that 9 of these were mujahideen, 8 were Afghan mercenaries and one a U.S. soldier. One U.S. helicopters appears to have crashed owing to light ground fire. The Pakistanis indicate general support in the area for the mujahideen.

WAS THE FIGHT A MINOR CLASH, AN EASY AMERICAN VICTORY? It probably unnerved both the U.S. and Karzai because one news agency reports that on January 28, in the midst of his preparations for the State of the Union Address, President Bush called Karzai to assure him of his support.

WERE THESE TALIBAN OR HIZBI ISLAMI of HIKMATYAR? The U.S. report seems interested in indicating with emphasis that these were supporters of Hikmatyar. However, careful reading of the report indicates that these were actually Taliban who were at one time supporters of Hikmatyar (or are simply Taliban interested in the newly formulated or formulating alliance with Hikmatyar.)

Evidently the U.S. wants to play down the RETURN OF THE TALIBAN to camouflage its failure to destroy the Islamic movement which defied it on the issue of Osama.
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PAKISTANI REPORTS INDICATE THAT THE 80 TALIBAN ARE LED BY A HAFIZE QUR'AN FROM KANDAHAR, an official under Taliban rule.
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THE DEPLOYMENT OF MAXIMUM of AIRPOWER is not unlike American tactics in Vietnam where superbombers were often called in for saturation bombing of tiny Viet Cong units. The result was horrific suffering of civilians which in fact increased the support for the Viet Cong.
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The barefooted Taliban, scampering like mountain goats in the rugged terrain north of Spin Boldack are waging classical guerrilla warfare. If 80 of them could not be defeated by the 82nd air borne, what will happen to the American endeavor in Afghanistan with 1,000 or 2,000 or 10,000 Taliban waiting in the mountains to raise the green banners of Jihad?

If the call for Jihad goes out successfully, it will also affect the people of Pakistan's border areas who feel dishonored by Musharref's troops running around with FBI pointers trying to pick up Chechen, Egyptian, Tajik, Uzbek, Sudanese and other Islamic refugees, as has been reported in the Pakistani media.
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2003-02-01 Sat 06:27ct