“Our religions and our histories are different,” a Taliban commander tells The Times re: Iran. “But our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans.” To that end, “The Taliban fighters scurried up the craggy mountainside. As they neared the top, their 30-strong platoon split into three sections and they launched a ferocious assault on an enemy fort, opening fire from numerous positions. The bullets they sprayed at the fort’s mud-coloured walls were blank, however. They merely pretended to fire their rocket-propelled grenades. When they reached the desert at the foot of the mountain, they did not race away on motorbikes, but filed into sand-coloured tents to refresh themselves with tea and naan.” The Times has no doubts about the identity of the “hosts” for the Taliban training . . .
The attack was a training exercise overseen by Iranian security officials in plain clothes. The Taliban do not know whether they were police officers, soldiers or secret service agents. What they can say is that in camps along the border between Afghanistan and Iran, Taliban recruits are being taught how to ambush British, American and other Nato troops using guns and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
They are learning to attack checkpoints as well as mountain bases. Iranian instructors are also giving them target practice on desert ranges with Kalashnikov assault rifles.
The Taliban are well-trained (as opposed to America’s useless, $6 billion training efforts), well-armed, well-financed and well-motivated. If U.S. forces want to win the war in Afghanistan, maybe they should learn from their enemy how to git ‘er done.
