Which one, left or right, is the war banker?
Taliban Adhere to
'Banker's Hours,' Senior
Pentagon Official Says
By Richard Carreño
[Writers Clearinghouse News Service]
As the US rings of up a trillion-dollar debt in its ongoing 10-year war in Afghanistan, Taliban warriors are also 'draining' American coffers by fighting when they want, where they want, and how they want. They engage American troops sporadically, following 'banker's hours,' a senior Pentagon-based military strategist told The Junto.
The strategist, who recently returned to Washington after his second tour in the Afghan war zone, said in an interview that Taliban tactics are frustrating to American forces since, unlike NATO troops, the Taliban is unwilling to fight at in the early morning, since they like to sleep in, usually awaking by noon, and curtailing direct military contact in the mid-afternoon. At night, the fighters recede into the darkness.
Any military movement at night is highly suspicious, and usually is met with American force as a defencive pre-emptive measure.
The Junto source declared as untrue protestations by high-level NATO and American officers cooperative training efforts with Afghan native forces are succeeding. Suspicion by American senior personnel runs high, given the numerous incidents in which Afghan troops have killed their American counterparts. As a result, American commanders are increasing wary to associate with Afghan soldiers and government officials without being armed.
The Junto source said recent advisories stated that all military personnel, both NATO and Afghan, should remove their side-arms in joint meetings. But many American officers kept their guns at the ready, defying the order. When one Afghan officer questioned the Junto source whether he would remove the weapon, he said he told his Afghan counterpart,' 'No, just in case I have to shoot you.'
The source said that the American cover story regarding the US's nation-building efforts was humbug. The role of the military, he noted, was eliminate the enemy with lethal force, not build roads. 'We're not the Army Corps of Engineers,' he declared.