Taliban

As a female doctor from Pakistan, I am disgusted by the assassination attempt against 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani blogger and women's rights activist ("Outspoken teen shot," Oct. 10). In my view, this attack was actually directed at the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, who declared that "seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman. " He added that believers should "seek knowledge even if you have to go to China. " Aisha, the prophet's wife, was a learned woman who imparted knowledge to both men and women.

From media accounts, the war in Afghanistan has hit a disturbing snag which was precipitated by President Hamid Karzai's recent remarks following the U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit, when he accused the Taliban terrorists and America of being in cahoots with each other ("Hagel's shaky Afghan debut," March 12). This should solidify President Barack Obama's plans to withdraw our troops from this area by the end of 2014, and I would suggest even sooner after hearing Mr. Karzai's stinging remarks.

American officials are welcoming a Taliban statement that the Afghan insurgents will set up an office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The move is being seen as a first step toward peace talks aimed at reconciling the Taliban and the Western-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, something the U.S. has long sought to broker. A serious offer to negotiate would mark not only a departure from the group's previous refusal to engage in talks but also ease concerns over the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the country by 2014.

Gens. John Allen and David Petraeus have been stupid in their misuse of technology, for a flirtation in the case of the former and an affair in the case of the latter ("Pieces of a puzzle," Nov. 14). As philanderers, these two men are abject failures, and if discretion is the better part of valor, they have shown none in their flings with two married women. Those who argue that dalliances should be perfectly fine among consenting adults and American puritanism is a rude intrusion in the private lives of public figures are wrong in their approach to this widening scandal.

It is quite obvious that the U.S. and NATO are being outsmarted by the Taliban, who are wearing fake Afghan soldiers' uniforms to kill our soldiers and sow discord among the alliance. Moreover, the restrictions placed on our peace keeping forces prevent them from fighting a more aggressive conflict, which is absolutely a hindrance to our assisting the weak Afghan government and military. Quinton D. Thompson, Towson

WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan topped the agenda at the recent NATO summit in Latvia. President Hamid Karzai faces many major challenges: weak governmental institutions, rampant corruption, lagging economic reconstruction, a booming drug trade, too many warlords, and a resurgent Taliban. Over time, with sufficient and sustained international support, and Afghanistan's own efforts, all these difficulties can be addressed - except for the Taliban. The Taliban pose a different type of threat. They can lose every firefight with superior NATO, U.S. and Afghan National Army forces and still turn southern and eastern Afghanistan into a "no development" zone and stir insecurity in Kabul and elsewhere.

After a day of meetings and government threats, a group of Taliban fighters grabbed their guns Friday, jumped into their trucks and headed back toward the Swat Valley. But residents of the Buner district, the object of the Taliban expansionary push, remained badly shaken, well aware of the militants' record in neighboring Swat of burning schools, beheading policemen and beating unmarried couples walking in public or holding hands. "I can't think of going back to Buner," given the security situation, said Afsar Khan, 40, a municipal council member, who fled to Peshawar with his family.

KABUL, Afghanistan --A large springtime offensive by Taliban fighters has turned into the strongest show of force by the insurgents since U.S. forces drove the Taliban from power in late 2001, and Afghan and foreign officials and local villagers blamed a lack of U.S.-led coalition forces on the ground for the resurgence. U.S. forces are handing over operations in southern Afghanistan to a NATO force of mainly Canadian, British and Dutch troops, and militants have taken advantage of the transition to swarm into rural areas.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani authorities said yesterday that they had captured a senior Taliban commander, critically wounding him in a shootout after he crossed into Pakistan from southern Afghanistan. Mansoor Dadullah, whose more prominent brother Mullah Dadullah was killed by U.S. forces last year in Afghanistan, was captured after he and a small band of fighters encountered a contingent of Pakistani troops in the southwest province of Baluchistan, the Pakistani army said. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Dadullah was captured alive but was badly wounded in a firefight.

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, said yesterday that he would guarantee the safety of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar if Omar agreed to negotiate for a peaceful settlement of the worsening conflict in the country. Omar, a fugitive with a $10 million American bounty on his head, has been in hiding since the Taliban were toppled from power in 2001 and is believed by Western intelligence agencies to be living somewhere in the region of Quetta in western Pakistan.

Both GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. appear to be totally ignorant of the complexities of the Middle East in the 21st century, and, indeed, of U.S. history in general ("The Obama doctrine: Passivity where leadership is needed," Oct. 14). In the 1980s, pursuing a "contain the USSR at any cost" policy, we armed and trained the Afghan insurgents fighting Soviet occupation. These "freedom fighters," we now know, were the Taliban, who perpetrated some of the most horrific cultural and humanitarian crimes of the late 20th century and enabled the rise of al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 Americans on 9/11 and continues to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

As a female doctor from Pakistan, I am disgusted by the assassination attempt against 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani blogger and women's rights activist ("Outspoken teen shot," Oct. 10). In my view, this attack was actually directed at the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, who declared that "seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman. " He added that believers should "seek knowledge even if you have to go to China. " Aisha, the prophet's wife, was a learned woman who imparted knowledge to both men and women.

As a Muslim, I am appalled by the Taliban's recent attack on the Pakistani teenager Malala Yousefzai, a blogger and female education rights activist ("Outspoken teen shot," Oct. 10). Islam is not only opposed to such senseless violence but obligates all believers to acquire knowledge. The Prophet Muhammad said "seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim man and Muslim woman. " Moreover, the education of women is emphasized in his teaching that "if a man brings up his daughter, gives her a good education and trains her in the arts of life, I would stand between him and hellfire.

A week after Malala Yousafzai was shot and gravely wounded by Taliban militants for insisting on the right of girls to get an education, the 14-year-old blogger and Internet activist has become a worldwide symbol of resistance to the extremist views of her attackers. Over the weekend, mass demonstrations in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan were called to demand the government crack down on Taliban operating in the Swat Valley near the border with Afghanistan, where Ms. Yousafzai lived.

The attack by Taliban fighters this week on a major Pakistani air base where nuclear weapons allegedly were stored offered a dramatic example of what the U.S. fears most about its unstable, nuclear-armed ally. Though Pakistan claimed its forces repelled the attackers and denied that nuclear weapons were even present on the site, the incident inevitably revived long-standing U.S. concerns that terrorists could get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction. The attack on the Minhas air force base and aeronautical college in Kamra, 37 miles north of Islamabad, was carried out early Thursday morning by gunman armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

It is quite obvious that the U.S. and NATO are being outsmarted by the Taliban, who are wearing fake Afghan soldiers' uniforms to kill our soldiers and sow discord among the alliance. Moreover, the restrictions placed on our peace keeping forces prevent them from fighting a more aggressive conflict, which is absolutely a hindrance to our assisting the weak Afghan government and military. Quinton D. Thompson, Towson

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - U.S. forces have begun a large-scale operation in the Shahikot Mountains in southeastern Afghanistan, returning there to flush out rebels from the scene of a two-week battle against the Taliban and al-Qaida last year. Afghan security officials reported last week that Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Taliban's chief of staff, together with several Arab fighters, had returned recently to the area, where they fought U.S. troops last spring. Seven U.S. soldiers died and 11 were wounded after the Taliban brought down two U.S. helicopters on March 4 last year in what was the American military's deadliest day in its war against the Taliban.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban movement suffered a significant setback with the death of its top operational commander, Mullah Dadullah, but the brutal tactics he pioneered have likely left a lasting imprint on the insurgency, military officials and analysts said yesterday. Dadullah, one of the most senior Taliban figures to be killed by Western forces in more than five years of fighting, died Saturday in a U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, said American and Afghan officials.

In his address from Kabul, President Barack Obama said that the war that began in Afghanistan will end there because it is necessary to "finish the job" even though many Americans are tired of war. To my mind, the president's trip was a selfish political ploy. The U.S. has no choice but to fight when our enemies include groups likeal-Qaidaand the Taliban, whose aim in life is to annihilate every freedom-loving individual from the face of the earth. Quinton D. Thompson, Towson

No doubt millions of Americans will regard it as great that 10 years after the start of our involvement in Afghanistan and one year after the elimination of Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama signed the accord with President Hamid Karzai affirming the withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014 ("Obama: U.S. to 'finish the job,' May 2). So far, so good. But wait, as Paul Harvey would have put it, "the rest of the story" is the U.S. has made a commitment of another 10 years of aid and advisors and undoubtedly more billions of dollars than the administration cares to estimate publicly.