Pimping for Mullah Omar

Reuters/Washington Post:

Foreign troops will be forced out of Afghanistan in the face of Taliban attacks, the Islamic group's fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was reported as saying in a rare message on Friday.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban government in 2001.

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"I am confident that the enemy will run away in degradation and embarrassment ... Afghans have always expelled their enemies by force and no enemy or aggressive force has left Afghanistan at its own will," Omar said.

Omar also said a plan to hold tribal councils, or jirgas, on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border in an effort to find ways to end the violence was a trap.

"Now the aggressor forces in our country want to entangle our valiant nation and tribes in their devilish trap by way of jirgas," he said, according to an Urdu-language translation of the message, issued by AIP.

"But I am sure that no Muslim will participate in something that is created by the aggressors and puppets. Those who attend will only be people who have sold out," he said.

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The Reuters attempts to add context to Omar's bravado but misses badly. Wouldn't you think that the fact that about 90 percent of the 4000 killed in Afghanistan were Taliban would be important to understanding whether Omar was just blowing smoke? This is truly bad reporting.