Robert Spencer

Why shouldn’t they be confident of victory? Their opponent doesn’t consider them the enemy and doesn’t want to fight them:

“Last year, during my visit to Washington, in a very important briefing a day before I met U.S. President [Barack Obama], his national security adviser Tom Donilon, and senior White House officials, generals, and intelligence officials, the national security adviser met with me. He told me: ‘The Taliban are not our enemies and we don’t want to fight them.’” — Hamid Karzai, November 26, 2013.

The Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, seemed to have two aims in his BBC interview – to urge the claim that the Taliban are winning the war and will soon return to power, and to deny any divisions over April’s presidential election.

The Taliban, he insisted, refused have anything to do with the various candidates in what he called “this fake process”, and he strongly denied that some Taliban figures were keen to have talks with the government (though the government insists that this is the case).

If the April election is won by a weak figure suspected of corruption, the Taliban’s chances will definitely be boosted.

This was the first full interview with the Taliban for 18 months, but it shows that their public relations instincts are as strong as ever.

In December 2013, the head of the British army warned that the Taliban could retake some lost territory after troops leave.

General Sir Peter Wall said the Taliban would fight for land which Nato forces had “suffered significantly” to capture, and that with UK combat forces due to withdraw by the end of 2014, it would be “quite bad news” if some areas changed hands.

Earlier, the US National Intelligence Estimate predicted Afghanistan would descend into chaos if Kabul failed to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement with Washington, which would keep a contingent of US troops in the country after 2014.

‘Everywhere is Taliban’

Interviewed by the BBC’s John Simpson, Zabiullah Mujahed said in remote parts it was “everywhere”, and foreign troops were scared to leave their bases.

He added that “vast swathes” of Helmand province, where UK troops are operating, were under Taliban control.

Read More: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/01/afghanistan-taliban-confident-of-victory-over-nato.html

CLARK KENT @ americasfreedomfighters

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