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Return of the Taliban

[Times-UK] Editorial - Over the past 48 hours the last vestiges of government control over the world's most impenetrable refuge of Islamist extremism have been quietly withdrawn. That refuge is Waziristan, the mountainous borderland between Peshawar and Afghanistan from which President Musharraf of Pakistan has pulled all his remaining troops after losing 700 of them in three years of inconclusive fighting. It leaves the Taliban and what remains of al-Qaeda's high command free to restock their arsenals and plan future operations unmolested by a national army. The case for invading Afghanistan and removing the Taliban after 9/11 was iron-clad. The moral case for maintaining the military presence necessary to rebuild the country remains as strong as ever, and the practical one for preventing the return of medievalism and state-sponsored terrorism is even stronger. NATO's current mission in Afghanistan is, in fact, a major counter-insurgency effort in which defeat is not an option, and those leading the campaign must be given the resources they need to prevail.
2006-09-08 01:00:00
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