Liberty's Blog: Remember Afghanistan

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Remember Afghanistan

Things are heating up in Afghanistan and it seems to be going mostly unnoticed by most Americans. The tactics now seem to me to be a little uncharacteristic of the Taliban, attacking a base head on. Could this be a sign of bigger and not so better things to come? Lets hope the happenings in Iraq don't distract to much from what is going on over in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants attacked a coalition military base in southern Afghanistan for the second time Saturday and the third time this week, the U.S.-led coalition said.

It warned the ambushes could "possibly be a rehearsal for a much bigger attack, possibly an attempt to completely overrun the post."
Afghan and coalition soldiers at Firebase Anaconda in Uruzgan province fought off the attackers Saturday. Several Taliban militants were killed, and two insurgents were wounded and taken into custody.
Earlier, another attack at the base led to fighting that killed four militants.
On Tuesday, 75 fighters ambushed the same outpost from three directions. Almost a third of them were killed when troops and U.S. warplanes repelled the attack. Along with U.S.-led coalition forces, there is a large Dutch troop presence in Uruzgan.

"The insurgents are paying a high price to test our response to attacks on our bases," said Army Capt. Vanessa R. Bowman, a coalition spokeswoman, according to The Associated Press.

"Though direct attacks are an unorthodox method for Taliban fighters, we remain prepared to fight them in any way they choose, though we find they are regularly unprepared for our methods of combat," she said

These are direct attacks and real battles not just skirmishes . Are they testing us? Hopefully they are just being stupid, but I think this might be unlikely.