There has been renewed fighting in Afghanistan as the Taliban returns to the fields and cities. Beaten back during the original military reaction to 9/11, the Taliban was considered a mainly vanquished foe. Throughout the country, Afghanis felt the first breath of open life in many years. Women walked the streets unmolested, some even casting off the burqas that the Taliban had demanded, and traveled alone, another “scandalous impropriety” the fundamentalists had prohibited. Radio and television stations proliferated, and Western rock music filled the air in cities. Men even began cutting their beards, an action the Taliban had prohibited under their rule. All of these facts, examples of Western influence were “crimes” under Taliban governance.

Much of the combat that beat back the Taliban and al Quaeda was borne by Special Operations units, operating in clandestine fashion, scouting for armed groups of Talibani and then calling in conventional forces, both ground units and Air Force fighter bombers, to bring the terrorists to action. When necessary, these Special Ops units, the Army’s Deklta Force, Special Forces and Rangers, and the Navy’s elite SEALs took on the enemy forces themselves. As the Talibani were beaten back, pushed away towards the Pakistani border refuges, there was a sense of accomplishment, of a battle being won. Cities were held by American ground units, as well as those of Allied nations. Elections were held and new mayors and governors were chosen to lead this war-torn country. Great Britain, Canadian and German troops all helped in this battle.

But Mr Bush’s decision that Saddam Hussein, and Iraqi oil, were greater threats to US security than the Taliban changed everything. As the special ops units were withdrawn to begin their reconnaissance and interdiction work in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion the Taliban slowly began to filter back through the Afghan countryside. Allied troops found themselves once again confronted by armed groups in traditional combat as well as guerrilla warfare.

One very remarkable recent attack was reported by CBC News earlier this month:

Lieut. Trevor Greene, a journalist and former navy officer from Vancouver, suffered a serious head wound during the meeting near the small Canadian outpost at Gumbad, about 70 kilometres north of Kandahar.

Capt. Kevin Schamuhn, the commander who was leading the expedition, told CBC News that the Canadian troops had already visited several villages during the day to attend shuras, or meetings with village elders.

He said all of them had been peaceful events where they shared lunch or tea and introduced themselves.

One of the classic strategies of counter-guerrilla warfare is to gain the trust and co-operation of the populace, thereby depriving the guerrilla of the ability to hide among them. Though they might fear the guerrilla, a populace that trusts the peacekeeping military will work with them, advising them of where and when guerrillas and terrorists can be found.

Mao’s quote “The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea” is particularly apt, because if the guerrilla is trusted more than the peacekeeping military, the battle is lost. Guerrillas fight not for land, but for people. It is the people that provide the food, shelter, and safety to the guerrilla. Withot this support the guerrilla is only an outlaw.

Schamuhn said the last shura of the day started off well as the troops sat down with about 30 villagers, including many children.

The Canadians took off their helmets and put down their guns as they usually do to reassure villagers that they were friendly.
'There was no gut feeling that something was about to go down'
A few minutes before the attack, someone moved all the children about 20 metres away – but none of the Canadian troops noticed anything unusual, Schamuhn said.

"There was no weird feelings. There was no gut feeling that something was about to go down. Everything was very calm and similar to the previous meetings."

A minute later, a man who appeared to be less than 20 walked up behind Greene and pulled a half-metre-long axe out from underneath his clothes.

"He pulled an axe out from underneath his clothing and lifted right above his head, standing right behind Trevor," said Schamuhn, who was sitting only about a metre away.

As he lifted up the axe, the man shouted "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is great" in Arabic.

Then, said Schamuhn, "he swung the axe into Trevor's head."
More assailants fired shots, grenade at troops
The Canadian soldiers reacted instantly, the military says.

"The Canadian soldiers who were by him, his security force, killed the assailant immediately following the attack," said Col. Tom Putt, the Canadian deputy commander of Task Force Afghanistan.
Militants then started firing at the Canadian and Afghan soldiers from a nearby riverbank and they fired back.

Another militant tossed a rocket-propelled grenade at the soldiers but no one was hurt.

The Canadians did everything right in this meeting. They took off their helmets; to remove your head covering is a sign of respect. They laid down their weapons, a sign of peacefulness and trust.

But the Canadians were perceived as weak on the ground and thus vulnerable.

Schamuhn said it seems apparent that the attack was well-planned and not the spontaneous act of a madman. During the chaos, he said, all the young men and elders who were at the shura disappeared. "There's a lot of people who knew what was about to happen. I'm sure of it."

This is one of the lessons of warfare: when your enemy is trapped, make sure he is eliminated as a danger. When you are engaged with one enemy, do not turn aside to pick a fight with another.

As with everything George Bush has done in his life, the battle in Afghanistan was dropped before it was over because he lost interest, distracted by some other bright shiny thing.