A sudden wave of Taliban failure in Afghanistan

Christian Lowe:

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So, why the sudden wave of mass attacks? A lot has been made in recent news reports of the increase in foreign fighters joining the ranks of the Taliban, with some of those stories insinuating that the development is a measure of the insurgency's growing strength and influence. The New York Times reported on October 29 that the foreign fighters "are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than their locally bred allies."

But a top American commander based in Kandahar--where the Taliban movement was born--explained that from his perspective the foreign fighter influx is actually a sign of weakness. The high body count is a result of "ineptitude" he said, and stems from the fighters' lack of experience and training.

"In this type of war, when you mass against forces like us . . . without firepower, we're able to destroy them quite easily and we've shown that over the last six to seven months," said Col. Thomas McGrath, the American commander in charge of training Afghan security forces near Kandahar. "They're bringing in cohorts of young men who really don't know any better and it's been a colossal failure for them."

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With locals dropping out of the insurgent ranks, foreign zealots are assuming command. And as they continue their suicide charges against Coalition forces in Afghanistan, their influence and battlefield acumen withers.

"What they've been able to do is just terrorize people. And people are getting tired of it, and you can tell that because they don't have the local fighters," McGrath explained. "There's a lot of fighters down here but they're not the same as we saw back in 2001; they're coming from outside and they're just coming up here and getting killed."

It is not just that the locals are dropping out. we have been very successful in the last year at killing Taliban leadership targets. This lack of leadership is effecting the way they are fighting too. Al Qaeda's reinforcements are not that tactically intelligent in the way they fight and the Afghans are naturally suspicious of them and not likely to give them sanctuary. While the Taliban have shown an ability to ramp up violence it has been extremely costly to their cause. the only ones they are fooling are a few reporters.