Taliban Ready to Seize Power in Afghanistan After NATO Pulls Out

Great, just as the Obama administration confirmed that the U.S. will end its combat role at the end of 2013.

The news is at London's Daily Mail, "So is it all worth it? Secret files reveal Taliban will retake control of Afghanistan when NATO troops withdraw":

The Taliban is set to return to power in Afghanistan when British and Coalition forces end their combat role in 2014, a damning leaked confidential report reveals.

Despite 10 years of fighting by NATO forces and their huge sacrifices - 397 members of the British military alone have been killed and thousands wounded - the report says that in the past year there has been unprecedented interest, even from within the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban.

And it points accusingly at Afghanistan’s neighbour Pakistan, a key ally of NATO, where powerful elements in the security and intelligence services support the Taliban and describes how insurgent leaders maintain homes within the heart of the capital Islamabad.

Based on 27,000 interviews with over 4,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners, the detailed report effectively questions the Coalition’s own assessment that it is winning the war in Afghanistan.

The report - The State of the Taliban - was described as ‘devastating’ yesterday (W) by former soldier Ian Sadler, whose son Jack, a 21-year-old reservist serving with the Honourable Artillery Company, died in a roadside bomb blast in Helmand in December 2007.
‘It has been a waste of time operating in the way that the British have,’ he said, ‘Hearing details of the report makes me wonder why our soldiers were sent there in the way they were and the cost that has been paid.’

The report compiled by US forces describes how weapons and vehicles given to Afghan forces have in turn been passed on to the Taliban and says that Pakistan’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) is actively colluding with the insurgents by actually directing attacks.

Continue reading.

I can't help but think that we're screwed.

Secretary of State Rice, upon leaving office, warned that if we wanted another 9/11, all we had to do was abandon Afghanistan. Let's hope she was wrong.

I'll have more later.