From the front lines...

Flashback

Reading today’s NYT front-page story on the war in Afghanistan gave me a flashback to the Soviet-Afghan war when the Times was covering the collapse of the invincible Soviet 40th Army. Soon after their defeat at the hands of Mujahideen guerillas in 1989, the entire war weary U.S.S.R. collapsed, its economy in ruin and popular discontent at highest point. Are you listening Barack?

From the Times:

Six years after being driven from power, the Taliban are demonstrating a resilience and a ferocity that are raising alarm here, in Washington and in other NATO capitals, and engendering a fresh round of soul-searching over how a relatively ragtag insurgency has managed to keep the world’s most powerful armies at bay…

Another quagmire?

In case you missed it, there was a deadly bombing last month at India’s embassy in Kabul. Obviously, the work of the Taliban or Al Qaeda guerillas right?

Actually, it’s more complicated than that according to NYT reporters Mazzetti and Schmitt. The bombing, which has already intensified the ongoing conflict between nuke-armed Pakistan and India over Kashmir, and threatened the shaky partnership between the U.S. and Pakistan, may have been carried out and paid for by former CIA agents with logistic support from our partners in the War on Terror, the Pakistani secret security agency ISI.

According to the Times report:

American officials say they believe that the embassy attack was probably carried out by members of a network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose alliance with Al Qaeda and its affiliates has allowed the terrorist network to rebuild in the tribal areas… Jalaluddin Haqqani, the militia commander, battled Soviet troops during the 1980s and has had a long and complicated relationship with the C.I.A. He was among a group of fighters who received arms and millions of dollars from the C.I.A. during that period, but his allegiance with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda during the following decade led the United States to sever the relationship.

Mr. Haqqani and his sons now run a network that Western intelligence services say they believe is responsible for a campaign of violence throughout Afghanistan, including the Indian Embassy bombing and an attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul earlier this year.

When do we get to find out just how “long” and how “complicated” this relationship with the CIA was (is)?

How do terrorists groups end?

This is the research question posed by the Rand Corp. and the counter-insurgents at Rand tell us how. They say, it’s NOT by waging a “war on terrorism.”

How do terrorist groups end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. Rather, most groups end because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they join the political process. This suggests that the United States should pursue a counterterrorism strategy against al Qa'ida that emphasizes policing and intelligence gathering rather than a “war on terrorism” approach that relies heavily on military force.

Then there's this: Al Qaeda No. 2 "re-killed" in Pakistan.