deja vu all over again, ... remember this story?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09142006/postopinion/editorial/insanity_editorials_.htm

INSANITY
September 14, 2006 -- The damning evidence was on the front page of yesterday's Post: A dra matic photo showing more than 100 Taliban terrorists in formation last July for a graveside funeral for one of their own in Afghanistan.

The image was shot from high in the sky by an unmanned American drone - which fed a continuous satellite feed back on the ground.

A ripe target for a surprise missile strike? It certainly would seem so.

But according to a statement yesterday from U.S. Central Command in Afghanistan, "a decision was made" - preposterously - "not to strike the group of insurgents at that specific location and time" because the site was a cemetery with a funeral in progress.

In the end, all intelligence officials could do was to watch helplessly as the terrorists split up into groups too small to be targeted with any precision.

The Pentagon said that it does not discuss rules of engagement.

No wonder.

For the rule makes no sense on its face.

The Taliban, as savage a foe as American troops have ever encountered, follow no rules at all. A failure to fire on an assemblage of that size, simply to protect the cultural sensitivities of a cold-blooded foe, borders on the insane.

This isn't the first time the military has lost an opportunity to strike a major blow against the terrorists.

Back on the first night of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 an unmanned Predator reconnaissance aircraft identified a convoy of cars and trucks fleeing Kabul as that of Mullah Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban. But a fighter-jet strike was vetoed - reportedly by Central Command's judge advocate general.

Mullah Omar was spared - and today remains in hiding.

To be sure, firing at that funeral would have gotten al-Jazeera in a tizzy.

Too bad about that.

After all, it's not as if the terrorists respect such events.

This past Sunday, the funeral of an Afghani provincial governor - killed last week by a suicide bomber - was itself attacked by another suicide bomber, killing six people, including his nephew.

The Pentagon cited that murder yesterday, proclaiming that Coalition forces "hold themselves to a higher moral and ethical standard than their enemies."

That could have been written by the same lawyers who kayoed the Mullah Omar strike; you can bet they won't be on the firing line the next time the Taliban start shooting.

How many Coalition soldiers will die because 100-plus Taliban were allowed to walk free will never be known, of course. It can't be.

This much is clear, though: The Taliban never show mercy - and they are contemptuous of those who do.

War is about killing.

Or being killed.

About winning.

Or losing.

Time to change the rules.

******************************************

I always thought the biggest lesson to be learned from the Vietnam War was that we must NEVER AGAIN fight a war with one arm tied behind our back. Looks like the Germans didn't pick up on that lesson, either.

Posted by: Paleologos at May 19, 2008 11:33 AM

I recall that early on in Afghanistan, the US had to opportunity to send a few rounds in the general direction of Mullah Omar, but lacked the resolve to actually pull the trigger without explicit authority from the Pentagon. Is that clerical gentleman still among the living?

Posted by: MP at May 19, 2008 11:37 AM

There is no determination on our side to win this.

The illusion that we can somehow win 'hearts & minds' in the Muslim world is just that: it will always remain an illusion.

The Germans see that the US and everyone else is making at best a half-assed effort and don't see why they should get themselves into hot water.

Apart from that you have an extremely hostile environment in the far-left, red-green government back home in the fatherland.
By the standards of most JW readers, even the conservatives in Germany (as in most Eurabian countries) are socialists, America-skeptics (if not haters) limp-dick pencil-pushers and fearful dhimmis, afraid to rock the boat.

Germany, as most European countries, depends on exports and building contracts with Arabia and the 'Muslim world' and will do whatever it takes not to upset this delicate balance act.
These soldiers are not at fault. The are following their orders, that's what soldiers do...

Germany's interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is a good man, but he doesn't have much support in this current freak cabinet:

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2008/05/germany-islamist-terrorism-greatest.html

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at May 19, 2008 12:12 PM

The Germans, and some others, are in a pretend war, no guns allowed really, they're just props. Mostly, they sit in their compounds and peek out. Oh hum, but it looks good.

Posted by: Sounder at May 19, 2008 12:31 PM

Greetings:

I think the police refer to this as the "rubber gun squad."

Posted by: 11B40 at May 19, 2008 12:58 PM

It is clear from history, both ancient and modern, that there is only one way to win a war.

This is not it.

Victory comes to the protagonist who causes the other side to so lose its will to continue that it readily and eagerly puts down its arms and surrenders, whatever the terms offered.

Good examples are the Roman conquest of Britain, The Napoleonic wars, The American Civil War, WWII (Pacific theater), WWII (European theater), The Falklands skirmish, etc.

Examples of less successful strategies include:

Vietnam, the first Gulf War, the current inter-ethnic conflicts in Thailand and the Philippines, the Arab/Israeli conflict, and now Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by: idiotboy at May 19, 2008 3:53 PM

Why do I feel the spirit of Willy Brandt and the '72 Olympics? (Because the Germans made a shameful little deal with Arafat soon after the debacle in Munich.)

Posted by: ironbill at May 19, 2008 5:25 PM

Thank the Germans for their help and send them home..

Posted by: pulsar182 at May 19, 2008 5:56 PM

11B40 - Affirmative on the "rubber gun squad."

Posted by: MP at May 19, 2008 6:01 PM

11B40 - Affirmative on the "rubber gun squad."

Posted by: MP at May 19, 2008 6:06 PM

The German soldiers must have been quite frustrated. You don't join special forces and go to Afghanistan just so you can sit around and do nothing. Why, exactly, did they even deploy special forces there?

Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at May 19, 2008 7:37 PM

"Why, exactly, did they even deploy special forces there?

Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop"

to give token support on the war on terror and to stay in the good graces of the USA who has provided military support throughout the cold war and beyond....and to keep getting all that foreign aid that US taxpayers provide to Germany..that's right folks..your tax dollars at work, given to another country that refuses to totally commit to fighting a just war. Every year the Germans demand the removal of US forces, and every year the US military contingent in Germany is reduced, bases are closed, forces redeployed.

ANd now that Russia is re-arming, Germany should be seriously reconsidering its cold relationship with the US..

Posted by: pulsar182 at May 19, 2008 8:26 PM

Do the German forces carry guns or bananas?

Because this seems to be the strategy of baboons.

Posted by: profitsbeard at May 20, 2008 1:24 AM

That's it!!! I'm a double agent now...

Posted by: eloivsdiablo at May 20, 2008 5:39 AM

So, shoot 'em in the leg. You are authorized to do that, aren't you?
If you miss and kill the Talibani, well, it was an accident. So sorry.

Posted by: tanstaafl at May 20, 2008 8:36 AM

It's not the winning. it's the taking part.

/sarc.

Posted by: pr126 at May 20, 2008 2:52 PM

did the Germans think to call in the US Apache helicopters. THe US gunners love target practice with live bullets.

Posted by: pulsar182 at May 20, 2008 6:53 PM

The Germans had better be carrying live ammo:

May 21, 2008 INTERVIEW WITH A TALIBAN COMMANDER
'What's Important Is to Kill the Germans'
Taliban commander Qabir Bashir Haqqani is threatening the Germans in Afghanistan. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, the representative of the radical Islamists says they will ramp up deadly suicide attacks against Germans and other "invaders" in the northern part of the country.

DDP
A Bundeswehr soldier in Afghanistan: "Stop the Germans"

SPIEGEL ONLINE: One year ago, a suicide bomber killed three Germans and several Afghans at a market in Kunduz. Did you order the bombing?

Qabir Bashir Haqqani: That was the most successful strike of our mujahedeen in Kunduz since the collapse of the Taliban. Our intelligence passed on a message to the bomber, who had been waiting a week for such a golden opportunity to carry out an attack. The bomber was a resident of Kunduz.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The three Germans killed weren't even combat troops, they were army employees in charge of purchasing refrigerators for the troops' kitchen.

Haqqani: It is not important what kind of soldiers they were. What's important is to kill and hammer out the Germans in Kunduz. The Germans are the most important enemy in the north and because they are stationed in Kunduz, the city will soon become the Kandahar of the north.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What exactly are you planning?

Haqqani: We are going to banish the Germans to their bases more and more. If they leave their bases, we will be waiting for them with improvised explosive devices (IED) and fedayeen (suicide bombers) on every road. Because of its historical jihad background and its fundamentally anti-Western and anti-American sentiment, Kunduz is an important place for the Taliban movement.

ABOUT QABIR BASHIR HAQQANI
DER SPIEGELQabir Bashir Haqqani, 40, is the Taliban's military commander in Kunduz. By his own account, he is the head of the radical Islamists' executive council for the province. He counts 13 mujahedeen groups under his command. Three of them have been created this year for the sole purpose of perpetrating attacks against the Germans and other foreign "invaders."

Haqqani claims that in Kunduz alone he has around 500 fighters under his command -- an increase of more than half in the last seven years. He says the number of number of suicide bombers willing to die for the Taliban cause is also increasing. In the provinces of Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan there are today close to 1,000 armed Taliban. "Our main goal is to stop the Germans and any other Western invaders' armies," Haqqani says. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who was responsible for the most-recent attempted attacks on German soldiers?

Haqqani: You just don't understand: There is no need for special orders anymore. The mujahedeen are just doing what they are responsible for doing. To kill and attack Germans is the goal and that is clear to everyone. The entire chain and network is responsible.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Who do you take your orders from? From the Taliban's Peshawar shura or from the Quetta shura?

Haqqani: We are unaware of any shuras located outside of Afghanistan. Every local commander is responsible for his own areas. The area commander is accountable to the district commander who is in turn accountable to the provincial governor. The governor is then accountable to the provincial executive council, which deals with Taliban military shura.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is your primary goal for this year?

Haqqani: Our spring offensive, named "ABRAT" ("teach the enemy a lesson"), is still running and the results so far have been good. We have carried out seven suicide attacks in Kunduz and engaged in combat of varying degrees of intensity 150 times with German and Afghan troops. We are implementing new techniques. But it would not be prudent to tell the newspapers and magazines of the enemy about our secret military strategy. But the new weapons include IEDs, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and our own special weapons, the Faedayan (suicide bombers). They will have to carry many more bodies in coffins on their shoulders if they don't come to the realistic conclusion that their forces must withdraw from our country. We view these soldiers as being the stooges of the Americans and Jews.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: NATO and US troops have reportedly already killed one-third of the Taliban commanders. There are still many more on their target list. Do you fear you could be the next?

Haqqani: That is the propaganda of the enemies. Yes, we lost some key commanders such as Mullah Dadullah, Osmani or Mansoor Dadullah, but just look at the history of the Taliban between 1995 and 1996. Back then we also lost two important main commanders -- Mullah Mohammad and Mullah Borjan -- but we still took control of Kabul and almost all of Afghanistan.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How many suicide bombers are now ready to be activated under your command?

REPRINTS
Find out how you can reprint this SPIEGEL ONLINE article in your publication. Haqqani: The bombers are our weapons of choice because the Germans and all the others are afraid of them. This is the strength of mujahedeen and of course we will strike more Germans in Kunduz -- more even than we did in the last couple of years. Our bombers are unchallenged and unstoppable.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Koran prohibits suicide. So how are you able to manage to convince large numbers of faithful to die for the Taliban cause?

Haqqani: The holy Koran forbids committing suicide, but it does not forbid the fedayeen. There is a huge difference. Suicide is when a person kills himself without any ultimate goal, but fedayeen strive for the ultimate goal, Islam. There are many examples of this in our history. The United States and international community are always talking about human rights. But what about Guantanamo and Bagram? Are the people there being treated according to these values? With the help of the holy Koran and important clerics, we have proven there is no doubt about the justification of suicide attacks.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you justify the fact that suicide bombers also kill thousands of innocent civilians, most of them faithful Afghan Muslims?

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Posted by: pulsar182 at May 21, 2008 9:50 PM