Taliban leader’s pronouncement coincides with his butt getting kicked

A top Taliban commander told the Associated Press that he’s moving to meet the US surge in Afghanistan;

Waliur Rehman told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Monday night that the Pakistani Taliban remain committed to battling the army in South Waziristan tribal region, but they are essentially waging a guerrilla war.

Rehman is a deputy to Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, and the man in charge of the group’s operations in South Waziristan.

“Since (President Barack) Obama is also sending additional forces to Afghanistan, we sent thousands of our men there to fight NATO and American forces,” Rehman said. The Afghan “Taliban needed our help at this stage, and we are helping them.”

Of course the thing he didn’t mention is that Pakistan has forced his troops out of Pakistan. And the Taliban’s surge has gone unnoticed by the US military;

“We have not noticed any significant movement of insurgents in the border area,” [Col. Wayne Shanks, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan] said.

In the meantime, a CNN poll indicates that although most Americans are opposed to the war, they also support the “surge” of US troops;

Fifty-nine percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday morning said they favor the president’s plan to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, with 39 percent opposed.

“Most of those who oppose Obama’s plan would like to see the U.S. immediately withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

The survey indicates that a majority of the public opposes the war, with 55 percent of respondents opposed and 43 percent in support of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

So, as long as we’re there, we might as well win, Rehman’s ghost ninjas notwithstanding.

Category: Military issues, Terror War