Taliban gain power in Kandahar

[Razgovory]

Hey Squeelus, how are you feeling now about the argument that B. Hussein Obama's background would kill off muslim fanatic recruiting?

How do you feel about?  What with the article last week that Al-Qaida can't seem to find any recruits.

[Sheilbh]

Hey Squeelus, how are you feeling now about the argument that B. Hussein Obama's background would kill off muslim fanatic recruiting?

Taliban are as much Pushtun nationalists as Muslim fanatics.

[Admiral Yi]

How do you feel about?  What with the article last week that Al-Qaida can't seem to find any recruits.

The same as before.  I don't remember the article you mention commenting on an Obama effect.

[Razgovory]

How do you feel about?  What with the article last week that Al-Qaida can't seem to find any recruits.

The same as before.  I don't remember the article you mention commenting on an Obama effect.

That seems fair. I don't recall this article commenting on an Obama effect.

[Grallon]

I'm just having a really hard time understanding how it has gone down so far or so quickly from where it was 1-2-3 years ago even.

Seems americans are good at winning wars but not so good at winning peace.  Mind you the other westerners (including canadians) in place weren't any better.  But then again we're dealing with tribesmen mired deep in medieval obscurantism...  Perhaps there never was anything to do.

We should all cut our losses and leave muslim countries. 




G.

[Admiral Yi]

That seems fair. I don't recall this article commenting on an Obama effect.

Which would suggest that Squeelus' prediction of an Obama effect was not very accurate.

[Queequeg]

That seems fair. I don't recall this article commenting on an Obama effect.

Which would suggest that Squeelus' prediction of an Obama effect was not very accurate.

Within the last week we've had an article on Al-Qaeda having a recruitment crisis.

I'd be surprised if I ever said that the election of Barack Obama would lead to the downfall of the Taliban, and if I did I probably was getting into hyperbole (pretty rare for me, right guys?).  The Taliban are, as Sheilbh pointed out, more Pashtun Nationalists than Jihadists these days, the Arabs are marginalized and the connections between Pashtun areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan are way more important than the pan-Islamic World ones.  Barack Obama was never going to will away Pashtunwali.

I'd hold that my prediction was probably more right than I guessed, given the elections in Lebanon and Iran, and the subsequent destabilization of the latter. I think those were related to a softening (read:making-sane) of American policy, and the boost to our image. 

That said, my ideas on Afghanistan have changed a lot recently.  A lot.