FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN

Afghanistan battle feared unwinnable

Influx of NATO soldiers sparks Taliban counterattack

Posted: July 23, 2009
12:20 am Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

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U.S. military on duty in Afghanistan

Even though the Obama administration
regards Afghanistan as vital to the national security interests of the United States, concern is mounting that the conflict there is unwinnable, even with the influx of coalition troops, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

While the level of troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are to exceed 80,000 shortly, security analysts increasingly are seeing the U.S. position resulting in a no-win departure similar to that of ancient Persia, the former Soviet Union and Britain before it.

These security analysts believe that Afghanistan is peripheral to what the strategic interests of the U.S. should be. Instead, they believe that Pakistan is more important to U.S. regional security than Afghanistan.

While the U.S. effort in Afghanistan could push the Taliban back into Pakistan, they only would join forces with the Pakistani Taliban, which is capable of threatening the increasingly weak democratic regime of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Nevertheless, in taking a page from its Iraq strategy, the United States has decided to increase the number of NATO troops in Afghanistan. Two years ago, the U.S. initiated a surge of troops in Iraq to allow coalition and Iraqi troops to hold ground that was taken from the enemy.

Analysts argue, however, that a surge similar to that in Iraq won't work in Afghanistan where concentrations of troops would be isolated and difficult to resupply due to increasing hit-and-run attacks by the Taliban. Already, July has been the worst month for U.S. troop deaths since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

Just as the U.S. is building up for a surge in Afghanistan, the Taliban claims to have launched its own "iron net" counter operations.

"We have chalked out our strategy to counter the fresh offensive of U.S. Marines in Helmand, Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces and Inshaullah the foreign forces will concede another defeat," said Yousaf Ahmedi, a senior Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan. "We have code-named our counter operation the Iron Net and it will actually turn out to be an iron net for the Marines and their allies."

In outlining a strategy against the U.S. Marines, Ahmedi said that his forces will not engage in face-to-face encounters.

"We will continue to hit the invading forces through landmines, remote control bombings and guerrilla attacks, which are always successful in war against a bigger enemy," Ahmedi said. "We can besiege the invading forces, but it will not work because of the air strikes. That’s why we will prefer the strategy of hit and run."

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