Bennett Carroccio

In preparation for our Role Play earlier this week, I watched a Frontline video called “Behind Taliban Lines” when Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi was given permission to video tape the Taliban Central Group for fourteen days but was kicked out after ten. In these ten days he videotaped virtually everything- making roadside bombs, regular interactions between the insurgents, how they went about their days, how they communicated to one another during missions and even interviews Afghan village people from towns run by the Taliban. He even went with the insurgents on a mission where after road side bombs would go off the men would raid the vehicles right on the main road. The plan fell apart when the remote for the roadside bomb was not working. What worried me most, for NATO’s sake, is the insurgents’ commitment towards their cause.

How do we beat armed militants who think that fighting foreign countries is a task given from God in order to clear their land of the corruption and rottenness brought by the Western thinking, non-believing countries, like America. These men do not only seem willing to die, but also seem as if they want to die in efforts towards martyrdom. A group of men before a mission were telling the camera that they expect to die within the next couple of days, but then when referring to why they were dying one proudly asked: “What more do you want?” Later during that mission, things seemed to not be going well, so the commander at the base stated over the phone:  “Stop acting like you are caring about your life.” The men also believe that since they drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan, they could also do so with America, which seems to them to be a weaker enemy.

Not only are these men dangerously committed, but they also seem to have the support of the people from the small towns that Kabul has no power over. The insurgents obtain a great majority of their weapons from the townspeople, who buried weapons from when Afghanistan was fighting the USSR. The people, who are providing the terrorist groups with weapons, according to an interview with a townsman, prefer the Taliban over the Afghan rule. The man expressed that he, along with the others, felt that Kabul would “abuse” them that the Taliban provided a stable government and treated the people better.

How should the United States h0andle these men, who are virtually fighting martyrs? On a much personal level, how does a soldier fight someone who has little regard for his own personal wellbeing?  It seems almost unfair for the American soldiers to be fighting such enemies if they are, in fact, as committed as they claim they are.