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Whining from the Taliban/Muj Crowd

By Larry Johnson on July 19, 2009 at 9:00 PM in Current Affairs

A growing chorus on the left who insist we are losing in Afghanistan may want to come back to reality. While I’m not arguing that things are peachy there are some fascinating signs that the U.S. campaign to capture/kill key leadership is starting to pay some dividends.

Let’s start with the crying and bitching from Osama Bin Laden’s number two, Dr. Ayman Zawahiri. Dr. Z released a recording this past week complaining about a shortfall in cash:

“There are some in the Taliban brotherhood who hold Kalashnikovs in one armory. They don’t have money for bullets. In Allah’s will, I will finish with the following:”
“Let the brothers know that I published this news only after being asked by the leaders of the Taliban to do so, to publish this information so that the Muslims will know that we are in urgent need for money until we’ll drive out the heretics. “
“Brothers! Allah is my witness that I only speak of what I see with my own two eyes. If sufficient money will be found, not a single heretic will sit in Afghanistan.”

I guess that jihad union of the world’s muslims is not working out so good. This latest verbal missive from Dr. Z underscores a point I’ve made for some time–i.e., the vast majority of muslims reject the likes of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Then there is this–the U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan. Don’t get me wrong. I think it is an awful thing for this soldier. But if you check out the video released this week it tells a pretty interesting story.

The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit. Early in the video one of his captors holds the soldier’s dog tag up to the camera. His name and ID number are clearly visible. He is shown eating at one point and sitting on a bed.

The soldier, whose identity has not yet been released by the Pentagon pending notification of members of Congress and the soldier’s family, says his name, age and hometown on the video, which was released Saturday on a Web site pointed out by the Taliban. Two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the video is the captured soldier.

The soldier said the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol.

He is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war, which he calls extremely hard, his desire to learn more about Islam and the morale of American soldiers, which he said was low.

Anytime your enemy has to resort to using a captive to plead for you to surrender you know that you are kicking their ass. I do not believe we can win in Afghanistan through military might alone. Well, guess what? Neither does General Petraeus and General McChrystal. Both men recognize that body counts do not translate into victory. This is not to say they want to pass out daisies. But in tandem with the use of force they recognize that the key is to win the hearts and minds of thousands of village elders.

That’s why I think the latest outbursts from Zawahiri and the captors of this poor U.S. soldier are so instructive–our tactics are degrading the enemy capabilities and they are worried. We now need patience and persistence. If we do not lose our nerve, if we stay calm and focused, we can turn the tide against the ragtag band we label as “Taliban.” The Taliban are not a monolith and they are vulnerable to the ethnic and tribal divisions that remain a harsh reality in Afghanistan. If we can keep the pressure on those fissures the rock of fanaticism will crack under its on insane weight.