Islamic terrorists growing a conscience?

The inestimable Bill Roggio from the Long War Journal is reporting on an announcement from the Caucasus Emirate* terror group's leader Doku Umarov that directs the CE's operatives and fighters to stop deliberately attacking Russian civilians. This is progress of a sort, assuming of course that the CE's leader's order was sincerely made and that he can and will enforce it.

"Doku Umarov, the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate," says Roggio, "has ordered an end to attacks that deliberately target Russian civilians. The move is a shift in strategy after his suicide bombers deliberately attacked civilians inside Russia over the past two years, including in the capital of Moscow."

The Russian state and its political leadership, bureaucracies, military, intelligence, and police are all still considered fair game for attacks though.

* The Caucasus Emirate (Imarat Kavkaz) website.

No kidding!

From Bill Roggio at the Threat Matrix blog:"How many times do 75 percent of al Qaeda's top leaders need to be killed before the terror group is dead?" You really can't win this game of whack-a-mole like this in my opinion.

Would the Army let itself be used against us?

Up until recently I would have said no, but today I'm not so sure. Neither are some others who have a better handle on this than I do. Starting a few decades ago the armed forces started becoming its own class that has different goals, values, and loyalties than the rest of the population. A bad omen to be sure.

Why you shouldn't do a land war in Asia

"On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, the Taliban have issued a defiant statement saying the US does not have the 'stamina' or the 'weapon of belief' to remain in the fight in Afghanistan. The Taliban also claimed that unlike the West, it possessed 'endless stamina for a long war.' " (h/t: Bill Roggio @ The Long War Journal)

As Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery (Lord Alamein)  noted in a 1962 speech before the English Parliament:

"The US has broken the second rule of war. That is, don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don't march on Moscow. I developed these two rules myself." (Wikipedia) [emphasis added]

Taliban facing its own "uprising"

In areas of Afghanistan that the Taliban control the local non-Talib tribes are ginning up their own anti-government uprising. What makes this an interesting occurrence is that where this is happening the Taliban is the government. So says the NY Times so these reports are somewhat suspect barring independent confirmation and it may just be the usual tit_for_tat kinda stuff that tribal cultures are  known for. But it's a development worth keeping an eye on. (Long War Journal, NY Times)

Sign of the times...

A lot of those-in-the-know just love the Long War Journal website. It does have some good article links about the US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. But they also have this stupid running list (updated continually) of Al-Qaeda, Taliban, and other Islamist paramilitary commanders that are killed, wounded or captured. And which is both morbid and idiotic to my mind. The constant lists of "senior commanders killed by a drone strike in Waziristan" is likely about some purported local big-frog-in-a-small-pond that the US has iced at the cost of millions of dollars and often with serious collateral damage resulting. And for all the boasting, bragging and strutting, is soon replaced in their hierarchy rather quickly by the next in line. Just as it is when a USMC or Army NCO or officer is killed, wounded or captured by them. And it's just poor form.