Something Stinks (Afganistan Operations and Proxy War)

Coming back from my hiatus in the desert, I've been reading some backpage news stories about some pretty significant operations in Afghanistan as the Taliban and al-Qaeda attempt to reassert pressure on the new Coalitino-backed, democratic government.

C.S. Scott has a great post with a map detailing the confrontations between Coalition and Taliban/al-Qaeda forces.

My initial thoughts are that the Taliban will have a much more difficult time launching a "successful"* insurgency like the way al-Qaeda has done in Iraq. While they will use the same strategy in Iraq--attacking soft targets like convoys and civilians--they don't have the strongholds of support within Afghanistan to sustain continued operations against Coalition and democratic forces.

The strongholds of support within Iraq were not only willing to harbor terrorists, they were also rich in resources (money and caches of things that go boom). Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan are not devoid of these resources, but they are going to be much more reliant on outside supply lines into the country than the insurgents required in Iraq.

The goal here would be to cut the supply-lines into Afghanistan and choke the feeble and more vulnerable Taliban-insurgency. Any guesses as to where they are getting their supplies from? The Waziristan region of Pakistan is the easy guess, but I would beg the question that there is a border country just to the south that is far richer in resources and would be very interested in diverting our attention into other areas.

Do you think the Iranians are suppporting proxy wars on multiple fronts to keep the perception alive that we are unable to militarily fight them with our hands tied in other, and "supposidly" less militarily problematic areas?

I'm becoming more convinced that an all-out offensive against the mullahs in Iran will not only solve the nuclear issue, but Iraq and Afghanistan will grow into their newfound freedom by leaps and bounds. If Iran gets nukes, the problems our efforts have encountered in the region are going to mulitiply. Choking the rat-lines will help, but I think killing the Big Rat that is breeding the little rats running up and down the rat-lines is the ultimate solution.

Do we have the resolve and the stomach left for another push to win this war? Can the West put partisan politics aside to make what could be the most important push in this war against Islamic-expansionist fascism?

I hope the sickness in my stomach resulting from my perceived answer to these questions is just a case of me being far too pragmatic...

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* My scare quotes around "successful" have to do with the fact that the insurgency has been anything but "successful" in Iraq. They've managed to delay and project the appreance of real power through disinformation in the media, but on the ground they have done little to change the course of establishing an elected government in Iraq. The quagmire that is projected by the information channels in the West exists more in their heads than in actual reality.