THE TALIBAN MANEUVERS – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  A respected authority on the Afghanistan war alerts us to this piece by Bill Roggio at Threat Matrix, a blog of the Long War Journal.  Once again the enemy, as savage as it is, shows that it has a functioning brain:

This was inevitable. The Taliban have used General Stanley McChrystal's statements on his desire for negotiations in their propaganda. Here is an except from the Taliban's English-language Voice of Jihad website:

"The top commander of American forces in Afghanistan, McChrystal, in an interview with The Financial Times, has said: 'We fought along war in Afghanistan. Now there is need for peace and for efforts to establish peace. '

"His remarks come amidst reports that it is impossible for his invading forces and other coalition troops in Afghanistan to turn the Jihadic resistance. In fact, the Americans tried every mean and tool to wipe out the Jihadic resistance but the graph of the resistance of the Afghans has been ascending and opposition to the presence of the invaders intensifying."

While we might dismiss the Taliban's statement as mere propaganda, it is very effective to their targeted audience: the Taliban commanders and fighters in the field. McChrystal's words will be viewed as a sign of weakness, and will reinforce the Taliban leadership's longstanding charge that NATO and the US have been weakened and are seeking the exit. McChrystal's statement will be a disincentive for Taliban fighters and low-level commanders who might have considered defecting to do so. This is why you offer the olive branch only after you grind down an enemy force, and not before.

COMMENT:  Absolutely accurate.  But McChrystal, who knows better, is working for a vague commander-in-chief who's already told the enemy that we plan to withdraw from Afghanistan starting in 2011.  Now that the Taliban has our timetable tacked to the wall of its command cave, why do anything except hold out and try to kill as many of us as possible?

We elected the left wing of the Democratic Party.  We're now paying the price.  That price can get much higher.

February 2, 2010