The Taliban on Sunday drove a massive truck bomb into a U.S. combat outpost in the central-east province of Wardak, killing two Afghans and wounding 77 U.S. service members. CNN reported that, “Investigators are looking at the possibility that insurgents originally planned to use the bomb against a high-profile target in Kabul around the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks but found security too tight in the capital.”
Gen. John R. Allen, commander of coalition and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, echoed the this-just-shows-they’re-losing theory to CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, saying that the truck bomb showed “much more what the Taliban are unable to do.”
“They have been ejected from the population in so many places around the country that their only ability to influence the battlefield on many occasions is simply to go for a high-profile attack. And that’s how we view this particular attack,” he said.
So, they can’t get into Kabul, and they are losing so they stage a “high-profile” attack?
On Tuesday the Taliban launched a complex, sustained, and coordinated attack against targets in Kabul — you know, the place they can’t attack. That raid was focused, in part, on the U.S. Embassy. Workers there reportedly huddled inside the embassy for at least four hours as guards fought off the attackers.
After Sunday’s attack, Malveaux also asked Allen why the United States was still in Afghanistan. He responded, in part, that the United States must leave an Afghanistan “governed by a democratic government that ultimately evinces human rights.”
The next day, Monday, Human Rights Watch released a report showing U.S. trained and financed local police have engaged in widespread killings, rape, theft, and abuse of the people they are supposed to be protecting. The group said, “The Afghan government has failed to hold these forces to account, fostering future abuses and generating support for the Taliban and other opposition forces.”
Guess we’ll be there a while then.
