Taliban commander captured

[Travis]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan_taliban

ISLAMABAD – The Taliban's top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Pakistan in a major victory against the insurgents as U.S. troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's No. 2 leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, two Pakistani intelligence officers and a senior U.S. official said.​

Great news! I expect ridiculous partisan snipes to commence immediately.

Can we go at least one page without mentioning country ______ or bringing up _____________?

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I blame it all on ______.

And another thing, what about _____________?

 

[Darth Rotor]

ISLAMABAD – The Taliban's top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Pakistan in a major victory against the insurgents as U.S. troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Great news! I expect ridiculous partisan snipes to commence immediately.

Can we go at least one page without mentioning country ______ or bringing up _____________?​

Until they find and grab Mullah Omar, I ain't impressed. He'll find another New Number Two soon enough, or well will ...

Prisoner: Who are you?
Number 2: The new Number 2.
Prisoner: Who is Number 1?
Number 2: You are Number 6.

Rinses and repeat ...​

 

[One Skunk Todd]

Until they find and grab Mullah Omar, I ain't impressed. He'll find another New Number Two soon enough, or well will ...


Rinses and repeat ...

CNN is saying Baradar is probably a more important capture tactically, that Omar is mostly a figurehead.

 

[Travis]

More importantly he is supposedly talking. Or at least they say he is. That may be a ruse to get Omar nervous and flush him out of his hidey hole.

 

[headscratcher4]

Omar...while the spiritual leader...did not have much of a reputation as a military leader...so this potentially is a big deal. However, as we all know that Obama is secretely looking for America to fail in its war on terrorism, capturing the Taliban's number two is obviously part of a bigger chess game designed to hide American lack of resolve in the afghan theater.

 

[Darth Rotor]

CNN is saying Baradar is probably a more important capture tactically, that Omar is mostly a figurehead.

Respectfully, I disagree. The nature of this "figurehead" and his charisma is worth a few dozen combat leaders. The Taliban don't just operate in the world of kinetic kill, its motive force is ideological.

To make a rough, possibly too gross, analogy, we will note that the Apostle Peter was finally caught, and then crucified upside down. His related charismatic and hard to pin down spiritual leader, (hit R & P forums to see that some folks aren't convinced he existed ...) Jesus, seems to have had a few millenia of staying power ... with profound consequences.

As for the infamous Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi ...

DR

 

[theprestige]

Until they find and grab Mullah Omar, I ain't impressed. He'll find another New Number Two soon enough, or well will ...


Rinses and repeat ...

Good point. It's hard to imagine how losing a competent, experienced person in a senior leadership position could have a negative effect on an organization. And it's not like we've ever seen an organization falter because it replaced one such person with another less qualified...

 

[headscratcher4]

A leader is only as good as his generals. Look how well Stalin did at the beginning of WWII having shot all of his seasoned commanders. Look where listening to his own genious got Hitler . Yes, it would be nice and is essential to target and get Omar...but taking out a knowledgeable field commander is no small accomplishment...and I don't think anyone on the ground or in the White House is claiming that the war will now be won...just that this is potentially a very important trove of information on tactics, strategy, personel, etc.

 

[MikeMangum]

The operational leader is going to have more operational knowledge than the spiritual leader, no? Capturing a spiritual leader is effective at demoralizing an enemy, potentially reducing the organization's cachet. Capturing an operational leader (assuming he talks) can help roll up whole sections of the organization, which coincidentally reduces the organizations cachet.

This is chock full of win.

Notice how the US didn't take custody of him?

 

[brantc]

You actually believe they caught somebody....... important?

 

[Vic Vega]

You actually believe they caught somebody....... important?

Do you actually have a point to make? Is this person unimportant? Do you know something that our government or the Pakistanis don't?

Please don't hold out on us.

 

[MikeMangum]

You actually believe they caught somebody....... important?

Well, the only person more important was Baitullah Mehsud, who was never captured but fortunately achieved parity with room temperature in 2009.