Taliban seize 150 Afghan soldiers capping two-week onslaught

From The Sydney Morning Herald


Mazar-e-Sharif: The Taliban carried out the biggest known capture of Afghan soldiers of the war, taking 150 prisoners after they chased units into neighbouring Turkmenistan and that country forced them back.

The operation took place in the north-western Afghan province of Badghis, and brought to 190 the number of soldiers captured by insurgents in the hotly contested district of Murghab — with 16 more soldiers killed — in less than a week.

Last Monday, an entire Afghan army company was killed or captured there. By Saturday, its defenders said the district had fallen mostly into Taliban control, though Afghan forces were still holding the district's government centre.

The latest capture was perhaps the biggest setback for the Afghan security forces since a Taliban offensive in August in the south-eastern city of Ghazni killed as many as 200 soldiers and police officers, but few prisoners were taken then. The biggest recent capture of soldiers by the Taliban was about 50 who surrendered after a siege of their base, known as Chinese Camp, in Faryab province, also in August.

COMMENT:-

All the more evidence that we really did fail in Afghanistan.

Flashbacks of Vietnam. When will we ever learn?

OrphanSlug said:

All the more evidence that we really did fail in Afghanistan.

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If the sizes of the groups surrendering (in relation to the size of the opposition forces) continues to increase then you can take that as a sign that morale is starting to slide and that people simply want out of the fight.

Wars are won by the side that stops fighting last.

Right now, in Afghanistan, that side is starting to look like it is going to be the Taliban (especially since the US government appears to be "marginalizing" the legal government of Afghanistan for domestic (American) internal political motives (Mr. Trump wants to be able to claim a "victory" in Afghanistan in order to bolster his re-election chances).

OrphanSlug said:

All the more evidence that we really did fail in Afghanistan.

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In this case its even worse since the US, along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan helped to create the Taliban... just like we created ISIS...

The fact that Afghan government forces are being routed so easily during this time of year is troubling. Normally the opium harvest doesn't end until April, at which point all the opium workers are freed to take part in combat and infused with funding from opium sales. The fact that it's happening now, and in the open field of battle, doesn't bode well for the Afghan government.

Jredbaron96 said:

The fact that Afghan government forces are being routed so easily during this time of year is troubling. Normally the opium harvest doesn't end until April, at which point all the opium workers are freed to take part in combat and infused with funding from opium sales. The fact that it's happening now, and in the open field of battle, doesn't bode well for the Afghan government.

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It's time to:

1. Declare victory;
2. Promise unbounded support for the local government;
3. Go home; and
4. Forget about actually providing the support.

EnigmaO01 said:

Flashbacks of Vietnam. When will we ever learn?

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We should have learned from the Russians. The Russian economy collapsed due to their Afghan intervention.

danarhea said:

We should have learned from the Russians. The Russian economy collapsed due to their Afghan intervention.

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Just imagine what we could've afforded if not for this war.

poweRob said:

Just imagine what we could've afforded if not for this war.

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Afghanistan was the right war to wage. These are the people who harbored bin Laden, and allowed them to plan and execute 911. However, we should have just gone in, taken out bin Laden and his cohorts, and then left. Bush kept us in, and so did Obama, after promising to bring the troops home. The way this war was fought was totally ham handed.

danarhea said:

Afghanistan was the right war to wage. These are the people who harbored bin Laden, and allowed them to plan and execute 911. However, we should have just gone in, taken out bin Laden and his cohorts, and then left. Bush kept us in, and so did Obama, after promising to bring the troops home. The way this war was fought was totally ham handed.

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I dont' think that would've taken a war. Just the right intel and black ops.

danarhea said:

We should have learned from the Russians. The Russian economy collapsed due to their Afghan intervention.

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The Russian economy collapsed for many reasons, one of which is that "Oligarchic Bureaucratic State Monopoly Crony Capitalism" is a REALLY crappy economic system. Even the "Oligarchic Kleptocracy" that the Russians are now using is better.

Another factor was the amount that the Russians were spending in an attempt to keep up with American weapons development. The Russians have solved that problem by producing "pilot models" of weapons that are better than American ones so now the US is having to "play keep up" (the fact that the Russians may never actually put their weapons into production is irrelevant to the need to match those weapons and get the superior ones into production).