Taliban Rebels Close Schools to Recruit Boys to Fight, U.S. General Says

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBIYA9IQCE.html

SHARAN BASE, Afghanistan (AP) - Taliban rebels are emptying Islamic boarding schools of students in a desperate drive to recruit fighters, including teenage boys, before next month's legislative elections, the U.S. military's operational commander in Afghanistan told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

But Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said that despite the rebel threat and a spike in U.S. casualties in a spate of attacks, the 20,000 American forces in Afghanistan are enough to safeguard the polls, the next key step toward democracy.

He said the increase in American troops being killed - 66 so far in 2005, making it the deadliest year for American forces in the country since they ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001 - was a result of a dramatic jump in the number of U.S. patrols and operations against militants.

"We are out there patrolling more, therefore we are more susceptible to enemy attacks," he said while visiting a U.S. base next to the town of Sharan, in volatile eastern Paktika province. "If we are going to truly disrupt the enemy all the way through the elections and keep him off balance, we are going to have to continue these operations."

Does this mean that when we see a headline like 30 Taliban Fighters Killed By US Forces that they actually killed 30 Afghan school kids? This is disturbing.

[rodeodance]

1. the warloads were always in control outside of Kabel dispite those

free elections that Bush and Laura always talk of.

[Richard Steele]

2. Boy, good thing we left Afghanistan to go destroy Iraq!

Things are just PEACHY there, aren't they?

Is there ANYTHING B*sh has ever done that
he didn't FUBAR?

ANYTHING?

[Southpaw Bookworm]

3. Sounds familiar

Guess they've learned a lesson from Bush's approach: Slice financial aid programs while tuition is increasing so that desperate lower income kids feel their only way to go to college is by joining the military. The only difference is women being allowed in the U.S. military.

[daleo]

4. Recruiting teenagers? That is despicable.

Then again, 112 U.S. fatalities in Iraq were 19 years old, and another 19 were 18 years of age. In Afghanistan 13 of the U.S. dead have been 19 years old.

[PurityOfEssence]

5. Oooh, they're desperate; we're really gonna show 'em now!

Uh-huh.

[ninkasi]

6. Anybody want to guess what's next?

From the article "But Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said that despite the rebel threat and a spike in U.S. casualties in a spate of attacks, the 20,000 American forces in Afghanistan are enough to safeguard the polls, the next key step toward democracy."

I think that because the Taliban already had so much control before we invaded, any elections that are supposed to bring democracy will bring, instead, another Islamic state with Sharia the rule of law.All of our losses in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Osama remains at large.

This is the most corrupt, inept administration in the history of our country. Now, though, have we come to this, that our country is sending teenagers in to fight other teenagers? This is obscene, when the ones responsible for this never served in the military, due to "other priorities."

[0rganism]

7. "desparate drive" =?= "final throes"

Mission accomplished, yeah, mission accomplished real good.

[Robeson]

8. "in a desperate drive to recruit fighters, including teenage boys"...

...Sounds like their recruiters and our recruiters have a lot in common...