"Nuristan borders Pakistan's tribal areas and there seem to be growing alliances between local leaders and Pakistani Taliban groups. That makes Nuristan strategically important in the wider conflict as an entry point into Afghanistan - and a potential haven for Pakistani militants."
Note also the number of foreign jihadists reported below. They certainly didn't fly into Nuristan International Airport to get there. "Taliban seize district in eastern Afghan province," by Jill McGivering for BBC News, May 25:
Officials in Afghanistan say insurgents allied to the Taliban have taken another district in a strategically important province in the north-east.
Nuristan Governor Jamaludin Badar told the BBC that 10 insurgents and three policemen had been killed.
Nato-led forces now say they and Afghan troops provided air support on Wednesday.
Local officials say they are trying to re-take the western district of Doab which Nato denies is in Taliban hands.
At least three districts in Nuristan are now under Taliban control. In others, the government presence is either weak or limited.
"We had intelligence reports that close to 500 Arabs, Chechen, Pakistani and Afghan fighters wanted to attack and take the districts," Mr Badar told the BBC.
"The fighting is still going on. Our weapons are no match to those of the insurgents. We have no hand grenades, mortars or heavy machine guns.
"We have asked for help from the defence ministry but they have not responded to us."
The insurgents control key routes into the provincial capital, Parun, allowing them to impose a blockade on the city.
Those darn insurgents acting up again...We know they are insurgents because the article uses the word four times...
That proves they are not jihadists, and Islam has nothing to do with it...If you say differently, why... why, you are just an Islaophobe...
Nuristan was once known as Kafiristan.
From wikipedia:
The region was conquered by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in 1895–96 and the Nuristani were then converted to Islam.
“The Kafirs are thought to be the original inhabitants of the plains country of Afghanistan in what is now Nuristan. They were driven back into the mountain areas by the arrival of Islam in the country about 700AD. They are thought to be the descendents of the old Indian population that used to occupy the region, and they did not convert to Islam with the rest of the population, remaining pagan for several more centuries. Their language is much akin to Sanskrit.”
“The Kafirs were largely independent until the late nineteenth century, when the region was attacked by the forces of Abdur Rahman and the population was more forcibly converted to Islam.
“They had only been converted to Islam as late as the 1890s , at the point of the sword ”
The region was renamed Nuristan, meaning Land of the Enlightened, a reflection of the "enlightening" of the pagan Nuristani by the "light-giving" of Islam.
Nuristan was once thought to have been a region through which Alexander the Great passed with a detachment of his army; thus the folk legend that the Nuristani people are direct descendants of Alexander (or "his generals").
This is so similar to the Vietnam War, it's scary.
The US government supports a totally inept, corrupt government at tremendous expense, whose primary achievement is to alienate the people under it's jurisdiction. The government troops are disorganized, corrupt, and totally infiltrated by the enemy. The US is doing virtually all of the fighting, at tremendous expense, losing thousands of its soldiers, for an area of extremely questionable value to the US, one way or another.
At the same time, the enemy, made out of exactly the same stock of people, with the same language and ancestry, is expert and efficient in infiltrating government areas, and in imposing its own local government. The US troops can win any battle in which they fight, large or small, but are severely restricted in what they are allowed to do while engaging the enemy and cannot reverse the shifting of control to the enemy.
In the meantime, the US government has enunciated no goals, other than that of not openly ceding the country to the enemy and leaving the country in disgrace.
Of course, the Afghanistan War has its own charms. The real enemy is actually our indispensable ally, Pakistan. The only international terrorist operations originating from the area have been initiated in Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan.
Some days, it seems like the only possible benefit to the Afghan War is that it allows the US the excuse to keep a large body of troops near the Pakistani bomb stockpile.
What a great "Occupation." Jihad calls are vomited from mosques in Kandahar and Kabul. Afghan's leader threatens to join the Taliban, and protests every killing by US troops. Taliban still gets 15% cut of Heroin trade. NATO loses 100 soldiers per month. US field allies are abandoning the joke of a counter-terror war. US subsidizes Pakistan's harborage of al-Qaeda.
Pretty soon it is going to be the United States and Israel against the entire world. After Viet Nam we passed this stupid law that we can not use Special Ops to remove heads of unfriendly states and consequently we have to lose a great amount of US youth power on foreign fields. It is only because of that stupid law that Karzai know he can make threats like, "Well I will join with the Taliban."
We refuse to strike the Oil Fields of the middle east, we refuse to defoliate the opium crop. Yet we stay with more of our kids dieting every day. Do we not recognize we can get rid of opium and stop the Taliban in their tracks? No money no war! CAn we not see if we take out oil fields this entire matter is dead? No oil no money and no war.
It appears the United States has "Stupid" written on their foreheads.
Opium grown in Afgan is sold to our kids for a price less than beer. What do we not understand about Opium and its deviate Heroin being part of a terrorist tactic being used on the the United States.
And now European Islamic Terrorists are turning up in Afghanistan. The saps in Europe are allowing them to be trained in Europe to fight the US in the Middle East. Come to think about it the have ample evidence there are terrorist training camps on U.S. soil.
There has to be a reason why our country has chosen not to seriously fight this terrorist war. Maybe the sympathies begin at the top with Obama ben Osama?
IN ANY EVENT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED TO START LOOKING CAREFULLY AT THE SITUATION AND LESS AT THE PRICE AT THE PUMPS!