Stardate 20011122.0614 (On Screen): In the negotiations for the surrender of Kunduz, it now appears that one of the terms that the Taliban are asking for is the ability to move at least some of the foreigners to Kandahar to aid the fighting there. They can't be serious!
But they are. And who? Well, officers, actually. In addition to the Afghans fighting there, who will be permitted to go home, and the "foreign guests', who mostly will be tried and imprisoned, the idea is that a handful of Taliban VIPs would be freed to go to Kandahar. This is another sign of the unprofessionalism of the Taliban army; the willingness to sacrifice the file for the sake of the rank is nearly guaranteed to sap morale -- and I'm inclined to let them do it. I can't think of a better thing (for us) to do to the forces in Kandahar, especially if we make sure to let the defenders of Kandahar know how the newly-arrived leaders from Kunduz sold out their forces to save their own skins. (discuss)
It's interesting how these "warriors", who are so concerned about honor, are willing to do something that no American officer would do unless directly ordered. McArthur did it in the Philippines in 1942 (when he was evacuated by submarine from Corregidor), but it took a direct order from President Roosevelt. McArthur wanted to stay and suffer the same fate as his men. In the Zulu war, an officer on horseback escaped a trap but left his men on foot behind -- and was court-martialed for it. (He's lucky he wasn't hanged.) I'm hard pressed to think of any other comparable case in the last 150 years in a western army. But I can think of numerous examples where high officers did stay with their men in the face of disaster: Wake Island, Singapore, Stalingrad after Kursk, Dien Bien Phu...
