The jihad goes on, vow freed Taliban

This story underscores the fact that we are in an ideological struggle that we are doing little to win. These men have been in prison, but once freed, they immediately go right back to the jihad. Nothing has been done to convince them that, say, jihad is best performed by resisting worldly temptations, as many would have us believe in the United States. Nothing has been done to make them give up their perspective or reasons for fighting. This from The Telegraph:

Taliban fighters have vowed to continue their "holy war" against the American-led coalition in Afghanistan after they are freed from a notorious prison in the north of the country.

Many of the 400 mostly Afghan prisoners to be released from Sheberghan jail, near Afghanistan's Uzbek border, under an amnesty offered by the country's president, Hamid Karzai, say that they intend to return to the fray against the West, according to prison officials and the word of the detainees.

Why were they given amnesty if all they want to do is start fighting again?

The disclosure of their plans coincided with a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul that killed a British soldier and injured four other people and came despite assurances from Mr Karzai that dangerous followers of the fundamentalist movement would not benefit from the amnesty.

"God created me a Talib," declared Khal Mohammad, 55, an Afghan Taliban commander freed under the amnesty. "He [a Talib] is one who struggles for the happiness of Allah. This is the order of the Almighty Allah - to fight the infidel. It doesn't matter if they are American, Russian or British."

Posted by Robert at February 1, 2004 7:35 AM
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