The reality is something much, much different.
May 24, 2006: The last two weeks have seen an ambitious Taliban offensive shot to pieces. As many as a thousand Taliban gunmen, in half a dozen different groups, have passed over the Pakistani border, or been gathered within Afghanistan, and sent off to try and take control of remote villages and districts. The offensive was a major failure, with nearly half the Taliban getting killed, wounded or captured. Afghan and Coalition casualties were much less, although you wouldn't know that from the mass media reports (which made it all look like a Taliban victory). The Taliban faced more mobile opponents, who had better intelligence. UAVs, aircraft and helicopters were used to track down the Taliban, and catch them. Thousands of Afghan troops and police were in action, exposing some of them to ambush, as they drove to new positions through remote areas.
The good news is not that we're killing the bad guys. The good news is that the AFGHANISTAN MILITARY is killing the bad guys, something that the MSM doesn't want you to know, something that the MSM is going to attempt to prevent you from learning. They don't want you to know that Afghanistan, while not a tourist hotspot, is not a pit of hellish warfare.
The Afghan and British governments are both accusing Pakistan of looking the other way as Taliban groups set up shop and openly operate in Pakistani border areas. Pakistan denies this, but anyone who is bold enough to travel to these areas, will see evidence of Taliban presence (including enforcement of conservative Islamic lifestyle practices.) In truth, the Pakistani government has never controlled many areas along the border, and is only now, for the first time in its history, trying to exert control.
When the USA buddied up to Pakistan, it was for pragmatic reasons. We needed (and still need) help destroying al Queda. We've caught some of the big fish in al Queda with Pakistan's help, including the #3 man in charge of operations. Who was captured IN Pakistan, by Pakistani troops and our boys working together. But we also need to keep in mind that there is a huge segment of Pakistan's population who has more in common with the turbaned tumblefucks than with any kind of modern world. Remember a few months ago when we bombed a house in Pakistan, trying to kill some high level terrorist poo-bahs? We didn't get the people we wanted, but that was because the terrorists we were aiming for showed up late, and thus escaped the bombs. However, we DID get some of the lower level al Queda goathumpers, and the fact that these people in the hills of Pakistan were inviting the upper-level al Queda turds shouldn't surprise anyone. The reason we support President Musharaff is because he's the lesser of two evils, not because he's some great liberating force in the Middle East.
May 21, 2006: Coalition forces found that about a hundred Taliban gunmen were staying at a religious school near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Smart bombs hit the school in the middle of the night, but several dozen of the Taliban fled to nearby homes. As Afghan and Coalition forces closed in, the surviving Taliban fired back from nearby homes. So smart bombs were used on the homes as well, which killed about 16 civilians and wounded another twenty. Over 80 Taliban were killed, with no Afghan army or Coalition dead. The Taliban promptly spun their use of civilian homes, as human shields, as a Coalition atrocity.
The quote I remember most about this incident is the Afghan Defense Minister telling the people of Afghanistan NOT to help the Taliban, because if they do "then this is what happens."
I'd say that the Afghani people have a few less moral inhibitions than we Americans do, eh?
