Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the ruthless Taliban leader in charge of the militia’s campaign against NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern and eastern Afghanistan is fast becoming what Abu Musaib al Zarqawi had become for US forces in Iraq.

He shares many traits with Zarqawi, though unlike the slain al Qaeda Iraq chief, he is disabled, having lost one of his legs after stepping on a landmine in Herat in eastern Afghanistan in 1994 while battling the Ahmad Shah Masood led Northern Alliance.


Zee News - Mullah Dadullah- America’s new Frankenstein in Afghanistan


It would appear we are creating our worst nightmares. Thoughts?

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This Mullah Dadullah Akhund sounds like a ruthless bastard, but it's like swatting flies where terrroist leaders are concerned.You kill one and 2 more crawl out of a cave.

I'm not so sure that we created these guys as that we don't seem to have the resources to deal with them.

I get the impression a lot of folks have forgotten we are still fighting a war in Afganistan. The only time we hear about that war is when troops get killed.

We seem to be losing ground there as well.

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Military might doesn't make up for political stupidity.

LOst ground and no one seems to notice. How long can this continue?

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According to the NATO commander (the US really sucked them into this one), about six months and the level of hatred for outside invaders will equal the level of Russian occupation of Afghanistan and US occupation of Iraq. Poppy production reached an all-time high in 2006, providing plenty of arms money for tribal chieftains and the Taliban.

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Yep. I mean when Yamamoto was killed, 2 more Japanese leaders of equal quality popped up. It's why we didn't win that war. Oh, wait a minute.

Oh yeah, it's an insurgency, so conventional rules don't apply(as if insurgencies have unlimited numbers of effective leaders). Well, when we captured Aguinaldo, it was the nail in the coffin of the Filipino resistance.

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chicken butt

If you are speaking of the Filipino leader of the early 1900's, he captured did not end the rebellion it was carried after his capture for sometime. Becsides the man was a traitor to his country, his people and the rebellion. After capture to save his ass he pledged loyakty to the US and then when the Japs came he did it again and became a collaborator. He was no rebel.

Yamamoto was not a rebel either, so that analogy does work.

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INsurgencies are not the same as conventional armies, but they are not exempt from basic rules of reality. Not just anybody can be an effective insurgent leader any more than just anyone can be a great general. YOu kill off leadership and insurgencies lose their effectiveness. In fact, I'd say history shows that insurgencies tend to be much more dependent on the leadership of a few men(sometimes just one) than armies, which have institutional systems that efficiently promote leadership. Unlike insurgencies, where the most charismatic or scariest person takes charge(and often eliminates some of his internal enemies as his first order of business).

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chicken butt

IN today's insurgencies, the make up is with cells and each cell has a leader and only a hand full of people within the organization know who all are, in the case of a prominent leader, you are looking at a spokesman more than the all powerful; leader. Yes, he may show his face and yes he may make some of the decisions but the final say is woith the CO of the cell to care out the wishes. If an insurgency has been formed properly, then the elimination of a "head" will only bring another "head" to the foredfront. Zarqawi died, insurgency continues.

The only way to destroy the insurgency, at least for awhile, is eliminate all "cell" leaders at once. That will not work since they are never all in the same place at the same time.

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And most of those cells are incompetently led and not very effective. 99% of the damage is probably done by 10% of the cells. And since Zarqawi has been knocked off, we've seen much fewer spectacular suicide attacks. It's not worth a whole lot considering the overall level of violence has gone up, but you can definitely see what Zarqawi's death accomplished.

Hamas is a better example. Israel has decimated their military wing and they are a shell of what they were. But then you could say that Palestinian militants are far more centralized than Iraqi insurgents or Al Qaeda terrorists. There are probably dozens of Iraqi insurgent groups and Al Qaeda cells, but only a few Palestinian organizations. Kill off their leaders and the footsoldiers are directionless.

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I do not think that Zarqawi's death ended the suicide attacks and more people are being killed by the IEDs, huis death has not lessened the insurgency.

As far as Palestinians go that is a unique situation, Hamas , right now, is not in a good mood with the whole peace thing. Finally, some of the leaders have seen that the civilians pay the price of attacks and some are searching for a way to stop the civilians deaths. And as long as someone gives them aid to fight Israel they will always find fighters, mostly thanks to the living conditions that they have.

So are you saying that the insurgency in Iraq is winding Down because of the lack of leadership?

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