Taliban Commanders Hail McChrystal Firing as a Victory
Militant leaders welcome the news as evidence of disarray.
June 25, 2010 -- The Afghan Taliban has a saying: "Americans may own the watches. But we've got the time." As President Obama sacked Gen. Stanley McChrystal this week, replacing him with Gen. David Petraeus, Taliban commanders watched events unfold from afar, and then declared that this was yet another victory.
The change of leadership, they said, gives them even more time in their fight against U.S. forces.Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said that sending Gen. McChrystal home in the middle of the war, in such a inglorious way, was good news as it proved how troubled and divided the U.S. political and military leadership had become.
"Before Gen. McChrystal, many strong military generals suffered defeat," in Afghanistan, Ahmadi said. "The Americans know that Afghanistan is the 'graveyard of empires.' But even so, they invaded this country."
Senior Afghan Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said he and his men had been informed as soon as the story about McChrystal broke. When Haqqani heard about the disparaging comments that McChrystal had made, he knew straight away that the American commander in Afghanistan was in trouble, and would get fired.
"I was sure he'd have to face the consequences," Haqqani said by phone from an undisclosed location. That kind of insubordination, he said, "would have extreme negative impacts on U.S. and NATO troops in the field."
Haqqani was pleased with what he saw as disarray among the team of American top military brass and diplomats in Afghanistan, and said that it proved that the Afghan war had frustrated and divided the Obama administration and the military leadership.
"After the American invasion, my father… said that Afghanistan would become another Vietnam for the U.S. which is now gradually proving to be true," said the militant commander. Most Taliban fighters stay in the mountains, away from cities and towns, and keep themselves informed about what's going on in America and elsewhere by listening to the radio—mostly Pashto services of the BBC or Voice of America's Azadi Radio.
