Operation Mountain Thrust

Despite all the rancor over Iraq, that country is fairly stable right now compared to Afghanistan.

NATO commanders will soon be taking control of the southern part of the nation, a relatively lawless area teeming with Taliban and now patrolled by American forces. It borders the infamous territory of Balochistan.

In preparation for the changeover, American-led forces kicked off Operation Mountain Thrust Wednesday, designed to soften up the region in advance of the multinational forces. About 11,000 troops under US control are involved.

This should make the anti-Iraq war liberals giddy. Since Afghanistan was the last place on Earth bin Laden was seen alive it's also the only morally legitimate spot the American Army can fight the GWoT. Well, at least until the Taliban devises a few made-for-CNN village massacres.

But not everyone there is Taliban. Some actually have their heads screwed on straight (and still attached):

"The Taliban is a disease, like typhoid," said Muhammad Hanif, Zabul's director of education. "And the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence agency] is the germ that causes it."

Godspeed to them. They're working hard so we can 'go about our business' back here.

MORE 6/15/06

Events are starting to unfold:

Officials say the coalition forces include British, Canadian and Romanian troops. Afghan forces will join them over the next several days as they conduct sweeps on Taliban safe havens.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government is heralding the end of al Qaeda in Iraq due to the seizure of personnel and documents after the Zarqawi raid.

.. "thumb drives or flash disks," a laptop and other documents have been seized in various hideouts. He said the data is helping authorities determine the whereabouts of the network, its leaders, weapons, meetings and how it operates.

It will be quite interesting to see where this might lead. Al Douri, anyone?

BALOCHISTAN TODAY 6/15/06

As you might have noticed in the comments, Mir Azaad Khan Baloch, part of what's called the Government of Balochistan in Exile (located in Jerusalem right now) stopped by to inform about the struggles of the Baloch people, who apparently want their own state. His website is in comments, and here's a recent online interview.

Clearly, the natural resources and coastline of this territory are seen as attractive to other nations, and was most likely a target of the 1979 USSR invasion of Afghanistan. Mr. Baloch suggests the Chinese are now mining resources there at the behest of the Pakistani government.

But exactly where they fall in the grand scheme of the GWoT is a bit hard to figure. The Iranian part is largely Sunni Muslim and routinely causes trouble for the Shiite leadership in Tehran. It was rumored they backed Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. The Pakistani area near Quetta was supposedly home to first WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef and second WTC planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

For such an unknown and forgotten territory it certainly sounds pretty darn important. One has to wonder if the NATO force redistribution in Afghan has any bearing on that presumption.

BACK TO IRAQ 6/15/06

The so-called treasure trove of AQ documents captured around Baghdad after Z-man's departure are coming out, and Reuters says the first batch..

"...reflects al-Qaida policy and the terror organization's cooperation with groups loyal to Saddam Hussein.

Can we trust something left on a thumb drive? Perhaps. The last time one of these little buggers made news was after they found one on a terrorist in western Iraq that tied AQ in Iraq to the London Tube bombings.

And with a little imagination, here's an interpretation that puts the spotlight on the Saddamists (via Zarqawi) for the Golden Shrine bombing:

It suggests carrying out a range of terrorist acts for which it will falsely implicate Iran, including bombings in the West and kidnappings. It also recommends declaring the existence of a relationship between Iran and terrorist groups, and disseminating bogus confessions showing that Iran has weapons of mass destruction.

FORGOTTEN WAR UPDATE 6/17/06

We've knocked off a lot of Taliban lately, 45 according to this AP report, which by the way had a rather short shelf life. At this writing the only place it seems to exist is on Fox News (imagine), while nearly all the major MSM outlets had replaced it with flashes about the 30 or so killed by insurgents in Iraq and the possible kidnapped GIs.

The WaPo did hoist a feature story about Afghan (also cross posted at MSNBC) with emphasis on the Taliban's resurgence, and to remind us:

The enemy in Afghanistan is "adaptive" and "very smart," Freakley said. One tactic they have used lately to counter U.S. dominance in the air is to withdraw, when fighting, into compounds where civilians are located, which has resulted in civilian deaths in two sets of airstrikes near Kandahar.

The spate of recent civilian deaths caused by the bombing has hurt the U.S. image in Afghanistan.

Wonder how long til Murtha demands we retreat to the horizon there, too?

Finally, although the WaPo did do a story you'll not find any mention of the 45 killed nor even the name of the offensive, "Mountain Thrust" included anywhere within. You'd think.....oh never mind.

MORE 6/18/06

Despite a relative lack of coverage from the MSM, fortunately we've got sources like this to broaden our knowledge base.