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 VOA. Rather, it was distributed using military surface radios, which is not very effective. It exhorts the Taliban troops to not fear death, to die like Muslims, and indicates that Omar is still confident of victory.It's the speech of a loser. It is uncannily like what Tokyo radioed to its troops in WWII when the situation was beginning to go very badly against the Japanese. You find announcements which say that insufficiency of materiel was no excuse for losing, and that spiritual superiority and the warrior spirit would conquer all. And the Japanese front line soldiers obeyed these orders, went out and died in droves -- and lost anyway; they just lost with a horrific body count. They wanted to die in combat rather than to surrender, and the American troops were willing to accomodate them. If you read between the lines, Omar's speech indicates that things are going very badly; it's an attempt to shore up morale as the situation deteriorates. It acknowledges that US air power has been and will continue to inflict serious casualties on Taliban forces. It says that the Taliban will be victorious but doesn't say how; there is no concrete plan for victory, simply confidence in it. It means that the Taliban leadership are in deep trouble, and know it. (discuss) Update: Taliban discipline is breaking down. I think the end is near. This kind of thing can start to cascade. |
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