Taliban in Afghanistan a Tough Cunning Enemy

This video shows the life of British and Afghan National Army troops on patrol in Afghanistan. As you will see several British soldiers with over 15 years experience in the British Army state that the Taliban are a tough, cunning, enemy and that conditions on the ground are the toughest that they have seen during their career as soldiers.

As many of the British troops have served in Iraq, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and various other hotspots to state that fighting in Afghanistan is the most intense that they have ever experienced is quite a statement to make. It is easy to see from the video why the soldiers would make such a statement. In one long day they are under constant attack from Taliban forces that they never really see, run low on water and ammunition, and are nearly bombed three times by their own coalition aircraft. Not only that, the British forces are required to babysit with the Afghan National Army troops, whose average age appears to be about 18 years.

To make things even worse the compound that they captured from the Taliban is re-occupied just as soon as the troops move along to their next mission. The truth is that coalition forces do not have nearly enough boots on the ground to occupy and secure large areas of Afghanistan. Even with the 40,000 additional troops that president Obama is committing to Afghanistan coalition forces will be far short of the number of troops necessary to implement a successful clear and hold strategy. As a comparison, in Vietnam at the height of the war the US had almost 600,000 troops in country and we all know how well that turned out.

With the major interest of the Afghan National Army seemingly to be to smoke hashish at every opportunity the American exit strategy from Afghanistan of standing down as the Afghan army stands up seems to be only wishful thinking.

This video shows the type of coverage of conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that you never see in the mainstream media. The sooner that the American government accepts the reality that the Taliban will never give up in their quest to cause the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan the better off our troops and the American people will be. It is a total waste to be spending billions of dollars fighting a war that we cannot possibly win.

Watch the 15 minute video of a day in the life of British troops in Afghanistan and you will see exactly how impossible the situation is for coalition forces.