Defining "Win"

8 September 2003


Fighting on Their Ground

More than a few commentators last week were bothered by a statement by an alleged leader of the Taliban that it was sending 300 fighters to the Afghan-Pakistan border to fight America. The worry that such numbers were still available to the ex-regime of Kabul was more than some could stomach. Even so, about two years ago, the west was worried that their were thousands in North America and Europe awaiting orders. The announcement was really a confession that the US was winning this battle against terrorism.

While the bungled occupation of Iraq has kept it off the front pages, Afghanistan as an international problem has not gone away. Warlords are still in charge of the countryside, the government in Kabul is struggling to control things and rebuild. Indeed, this is normal for Afghanistan. The fact that one bunch of Afghan's, the Taliban, was involved on an attack on America is the only thing that makes it important.

Three hundred fighters is not much in a jihad against the infidel. There are some high schools in the US that could produce more able bodied kids, and in the south and west, they'd be better armed too. The real problem that the Taliban has is the ground on which the battle is being fought. The US may not know the land as well, but then, it isn't American soild. And that is the important issue. There has not been an attack on the US since September 11, 2001. The war on terror is being fought in Afghanistan (and if one buys what President Bush was selling in his speech on Sunday night, in Iraq).

It is a maxim of military science that, if one is fighting on ground formerly held by the opposition, one is winning. The Soviets were losing in World War II so long as the battlefields were Minsk, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Once the battles were in Warsaw, Danzig and Berlin, they were winning. There are no sandals on the ground in California that do not belong to surfers. There are more than enough US troops in Afghanistan to deal with 300 more Taliban. It is unfortunate that US soldiers are on a battlefield anywhere, but better in Afghanistan than Chicago.

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