More tying up loose ends ahead of Gulf War 2: Junior’s Turn. Many groups would love to overthrow the American puppet, Hamid Karzai, while the Americans are busy collecting ears in Iraq.
NY Times: U.S. and Its Allies Fight Rebel Force on Afghan Peaks:
As many as 80 fighters aligned with the former mujahedeen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord who once battled Soviet occupation but has now joined forces with the remnants of the Taliban to oust the Americans, were thought to be lodged in caves and mountain hideouts near the border with Pakistan, said the spokesman, Col. Roger King. Those forces fired on Apache helicopters that went to investigate their presence in the Adi Ghar, a mountain range just north of Spinbaldak, the border crossing between the southern Afghan town of Kandahar and the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Mr. Hekmatyar, an Islamic fundamentalist who was an important leader in the resistance against the Soviets in the 1980’s, is opposed to the American military presence in Afghanistan, and to the government of President Hamid Karzai, whom he sees as an American-installed leader. There are also reports from Afghan and Pakistani officials that Arab and other foreign fighters are now based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, along the Afghan border, and are preparing new and bigger attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.
This has more to do with propping up the weak American-controlled government which has little if any control outside Kabul. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar actually has a lot of credibility with many Afghans because unlike Karzai he has not lived in America most of his life and actually fought the Soviets when they attempted to do what the United States is attempting to do now. I would hope Americans would have the same intolerance for foreign control as the Afghan people seem to have. I think we’ve been bred to take whatever master we’re given here in the United States. It’s good to see the rebel spirit of freedom alive somewhere in the world. Be warned, the NY Times article is laced with propaganda.