"A Rush to the Taliban's call" (Asia Times)

[swag]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HD13Df01.html

A rush to the Taliban's call
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The Taliban's spring offensive is in full swing, with almost daily attacks, including suicide bombings, in Afghanistan. More than 200 people, including 14 American soldiers, have lost their lives in the Taliban-led insurgency this year.

This toll - and the damage caused - is small in relation to the insurgency in Iraq, though the techniques applied have been modeled on those used by the Iraqi resistance. What the Afghan resistance lacks in expertise and sophistication, though, it is making up in numbers - to a scale not seen since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

Thousands of new volunteers are pouring into the mountainous regions on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan to combat Pakistani troops on the one side and US-led allied forces on the other side. The volunteers include local Waziristanis from the North and South Waziristan tribal areas, Afghans and a small number Central Asian fighters. The vast majority, though, come from North West Frontier Province, Punjab and Karachi.
. . .

The Taliban's recruitment drive for this summer's offensive, which started last year, targeted these jihadis, and many were persuaded to join the Taliban in North and South Waziristan. Apart from those belonging to the Jaish-i-Mohammed and Harkatul Mujahideen, fighters associated with the Lashkar-i-Toiba have also joined the Taliban in their thousands.

The Taliban have also targeted underground militias that sprang up in Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, with a total of about 50,000 fighters, many of whom received training in Afghanistan under the Taliban. These groups range from 20-2,000 people in each.

. . .

[endarkenment]

1. Our leaders have aggression deficit disorder

They go start a conflict and then rapidly lose interest in finishing what they started. Then they go off and start another conflict.

Somebody needs to change their meds.