When General Rick Hillier first explained "the mission" of Canadian troops in Kandahar province, he described it as taming a few dozen Taliban insurgents. Since then the numbers have swelled and new enemies have joined the list. First it was al-Qaeda. Then it was the drug lords. Petty thugs and common criminals got added to the list.
Now, according to Sayed Saleem Shahzad, writing for Asia Times, the opposition is being led by a new bunch, the old-fashioned, hard as nails Mujahadeen.
"What did happen was that around April, military operations were handed over to legendary mujahideen commander Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, a non-Taliban veteran of the campaign against the Soviets in the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, after the bloody civil war that followed the Soviets' withdrawal, Haqqani had surrendered to the Taliban when they reached Khost province.
"In preparation for this year's spring offensive, Haqqani quickly replaced the highly dedicated but militarily naive Taliban field commanders with his team of battle-hardened mujahideen. His motto was, "Where there is no vision, there is no hope." Haqqani made an agreement with Mullah Omar under which once his men brought victory to a front, they would depart for a new one, leaving the Taliban behind to administer as they saw fit under their brand of Islam.
"This arrangement can best be described as a marriage of convenience. On the one hand, it would be wrong to assume that the Taliban are the most popular movement in southwestern Afghanistan. Rather, they are seen as the best alternative to corrupt and inefficient local administrations.
"On the other hand, the mujahideen certainly don't see themselves as subservient to the young Taliban. What they have in common is a hatred of the occupying forces.
"Thus the Taliban movement acts as a unifying force for all anti-American forces in the country, while at the same time bringing discipline and order into local affairs."
The reporter then interviewed Abdul Khaliq Akhund a former associate of the Northern Alliance leader Massoud, who has now joined to help the Taliban insurgency in the south:
"'I believe that nowadays all distinctions between Shi'ite and Sunni, Pashtun and Tajik, have been forgotten and the Afghan nation is ready to take on foreign forces with a new zeal. Now it is winter and it is difficult to mobilize men, either on the plains or the mountains. But once the spring and summer of 2007 come, the Karzai administration, along with its foreign allies, will be sacked from Kabul,' said Akhund confidently.
"In recent months Akhund has led the Taliban to successes in the Baghran district, and he played a major role in defeating British troops in Musa Qala recently. Now he has brokered a ceasefire with NATO troops in Nawzad.
"'You will see, they will soon withdraw from Nawzad as well. Nevertheless, the battle will not be over, we will just take it to the next front until they leave Afghanistan altogether,' Akhund said. "
The US and NATO forces in Afghanistan have had all sorts of warnings of a looming major offensive this spring. We have to hope they're prepared for it.
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