U.S. Says Taliban Strength Is Growing

[warpedskydiver 0]

U.S. Says Taliban Strength Is Growing
Wednesday, May 24, 2006 4:32 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By NOOR KHAN

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Fighting in rugged southern Afghan mountains killed at least 24 militants and five Afghan forces, while the U.S. military acknowledged Wednesday that the Taliban have grown in "strength and influence" in recent weeks.

The violence came after a week of some of the deadliest violence since the Taliban regime's ouster in 2001. As many as 336 people have died, mostly militants, according to Afghan and coalition figures.

The Afghan military commander for southern Afghanistan, Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, said up to 60 rebels had died in the latest fighting in Uruzgan province, which involved ground forces and a U.S. airstrike. The U.S.-led coalition, however, said 24 militants had died.

It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the numbers, which were impossible to confirm independently because the scene of the fighting was remote and insecure.

The fighting erupted after militants hiding in a mountain compound in a small village in Tirin Kot district fired small-arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at a joint Afghan-coalition patrol late Tuesday, according to two separate U.S. military statements.

The troops fought back for six hours, forcing the militants to retreat before they tried to bring in reinforcements from two nearby compounds, the statements said.

The forces then called in air support. American bombers and unmanned Predator aircraft, along with French and British fighter jets, dropped bombs and fired rockets at the militants.

Besides the troops and police that were killed, six Afghan soldiers and three police were wounded, one of the statements said.

In the past year, Uruzgan's largely inaccessible mountains have been the site of some of the heaviest fighting, but militants suffered high losses in multiple battles with coalition forces, and the violence there had subsided in recent months.

Uruzgan was one of three southern provinces where U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins said the insurgents have bolstered their numbers.

"We know for a fact that in recent weeks they have grown in strength and influence in some parts of Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan," he told a news conference in Kabul. "There is a hard-core group of Taliban fighters, certainly numbering in the hundreds."

He said the militants are recruiting poor villagers.

"They prey upon people who don't have a lot of hope. They recruit people to join their cause," he said. "These people may not believe much in the cause, but they need a job."

Meanwhile, a British military C-130 cargo aircraft carrying the British ambassador caught fire while landing at an airstrip in Helmand, said Sgt. Chris Miller, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

He said one of the plane's tires burst when it hit the ground at the airstrip in Lashkargah in Helmand province, sending debris into an engine, which then caught fire. No one was hurt and there was no hostile fire involved, he said.

Separately, a district chief, a judge and two guards from the Shahrak district of Ghor province were killed by a group of armed men who ambushed their car Tuesday evening, said Karimuddin Rezazada, the deputy governor of Ghor province.

[billvon 3,120]

>The violence came after a week of some of the deadliest violence
>since the Taliban regime's ouster in 2001. As many as 336 people have
>died, mostly militants, according to Afghan and coalition figures.

Iraq faces similar issues. Although US casualties are down, Iraqi deaths overall are at their highest level since the invasion (and considerably higher than when Hussein was in power.)

"Mission accomplished."

[ahegeman 0]

Quote

Iraqi deaths overall are at their highest level since the invasion (and considerably higher than when Hussein was in power.)

You sure 'bout that? According to what statistics?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just interested in the specifics of what you're talking about.

---------------------------------------------------------------
There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'.
--Dave Barry

[billvon 3,120]

>You sure 'bout that? According to what statistics?

6,331 from 1st May 2003 to 19th March 2004 (324 days: Year 1)
11,312 from 20th March 2004 to 19th March 2005 (365 days: Year 2)
12,617 from 20th March 2005 to 1st March 2006 (346 days: Year 3).

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.

AP: 5,558 Iraqi civilians killed under occupation
Survey of morgues in Baghdad, three provinces reveals grim toll

An Associated Press survey of deaths in the first 12 months of the occupation found that more than 5,000 Iraqis died violently in just Baghdad and three provinces. The toll from both criminal and political violence ran dramatically higher than violent deaths before the war, according to statistics from morgues.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5045166/

[ahegeman 0]

That's a far lower death rate than the 1M or so deaths quoted as a result of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War (or more appropriately, by the governments penchant for building palaces rather than distributing the oil-for-food money as intended). Of course, many of those weren't technically "violent" deaths, so I guess they don't count. A foreigner's death only matters if one can somehow pin it on the US. Starving to death under a dictator's thumb doesn't make for such good headlines.

It also compares favorably to the rate of 13K/year (300K over 23 years) murdered by Saddam's security forces, the conservative figure claimed in the link you provided, so I don't know how you can claim it is "considerably higher" than when Hussein was in power.

---------------------------------------------------------------
There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'.
--Dave Barry

[billvon 3,120]

> Of course, many of those weren't technically "violent" deaths, so I guess
> they don't count.

Starvation is indeed a problem throughout the world, and we should be working to stamp it out. War is NOT a way to make that happen.

------------------
Children Pay Cost of Iraq's Chaos
Malnutrition Nearly Double What It Was Before Invasion

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 21, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- Acute malnutrition among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the United States led an invasion of the country 20 months ago, according to surveys by the United Nations, aid agencies and the interim Iraqi government.

After the rate of acute malnutrition among children younger than 5 steadily declined to 4 percent two years ago, it shot up to 7.7 percent this year, according to a study conducted by Iraq's Health Ministry in cooperation with Norway's Institute for Applied International Studies and the U.N. Development Program. The new figure translates to roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from "wasting," a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein.
--------------------

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A809-2004Nov20.html

>It also compares favorably to the rate of 13K/year (300K over 23
> years) murdered by Saddam's security forces, the conservative figure
>claimed in the link you provided.

If you want to claim that his earlier killings upped his average, I won't argue with you. There's no doubt that he was an evil, murderous dictator. The morgue stats about the years before the invasion are pretty clear though; things have gotten worse since then. We have to figure out a way to reverse that trend.

[kallend 2,150]

Quote

That's a far lower death rate than the 1M or so deaths quoted as a result of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War (or more appropriately, by the governments penchant for building palaces rather than distributing the oil-for-food money as intended). Of course, many of those weren't technically "violent" deaths, so I guess they don't count. A foreigner's death only matters if one can somehow pin it on the US. Starving to death under a dictator's thumb doesn't make for such good headlines.

It also compares favorably to the rate of 13K/year (300K over 23 years) murdered by Saddam's security forces, the conservative figure claimed in the link you provided, so I don't know how you can claim it is "considerably higher" than when Hussein was in power.

PATHETIC attempt at justification for an illicit war!

If relief from starvation were our mission, we would start in sub-Saharan Africa.

If relief from despotic rule were our mission, we would start in sub-Saharan Africa.

If defeating the Taliban and Al Qaeda were our mission, we would not have distracted ourselves with a misguided, mismanaged misadventure in Iraq.

"Mission Accomplished" my a$$.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[ahegeman 0]

It wasn't a justification for the war. Just a disagreement with the stats.

---------------------------------------------------------------
There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness'.
--Dave Barry