Another Afghanistanian Embarrassment

On Tuesday this week, the Haquani 'terror network' of Pakistan orchestrated the efforts of a handful of fanatics to disturb the peace in Kabul. To-day we're being told that that 19 hour rootin'-shootin' sideshow was only a small part of a massive 'sonderaktion' the enemas of freedom had planned to upset the 9/11 retrospective weekend.

The fact is that 10 'heavily-armed criminals' could bring downtown Kabul to a standstill for most of a day before the forces of decency got some targetting data and blew the last 4 bitter-enders out of a concrete skeleton, which they had been using to 'fire at' the US embassy - among other things. We're told that they 'only' succeeded in killing 8 Afghanis - including three children - and wounding another 17. The reponsory barrage,  of all arms gunfire, we're supposed to believe, only succeeded in killing the 10 evildoers and didn't hit anybody else.

We are told the attackers used "heavy weapons" after breeching a skyscraper under construction. This gave them access to firing positions overlooking the US embassy and ISAF HQ some half- kilometer away. 6 PRG rounds are reported to have been discharged in the general direction of the embassy, but at that range they were ineffective. Maybe those heavy weapons would have worked better. The attackers are also said to have "targetted" and destroyed an 'empty' bus, full of schoolchildren. It is reported that they were able to make their way through stringent security zones because they looked like 10 burkah-clad women on their way to work at daybreak. Eventually their vehicle was fired-upon, at whch time they all ran away to hide. Two others mounted fruitless suicide attacks on Afghan police stations and that, in large part, is  what defines the attack as 'complex'.

Video shows a robust response from Afghan police and military including strafing runs from an Air Force Mil gunship helicopter. As if all the ammunition the Afghans were firing wasn't enough,  ISAF rent-a-troops manning the ramparts at HQ were also busily engaged firing at the criminals from inside the danger zone, i.e. a crossfire.

The results of all the 'bang bang' can be described from two perspectives. The Afghans are concerned that Kabul is no longer 'safe'. ISAF's 'take' is that it could have been worse, the Taliban did it because they've been 'weakened' and that that gunfire is a harbinger of freedom.

So if the Pakistani's would take some responsibility for what goes on in their tribal zones, or at least allow the forces of light to tackle the Haquani criminals, that promised dawn of freedom might only be another decade away.

So yeah, and only because the media went nuts, the terrorists scored a PR point or two. But hey, look who's still top-side and how little damage was done! What we think were their plans were thwarted. Or maybe that's what inspired to-day's news that what was really supposed to happen was very 'skeery'.

It's a good thing nobody warned Kabul,  like they warned New York, and anywhere else, about the potential for  9/11 payback'. At least there was no potential threat to be warded-off, at least in the public's mind, until to-day. But if BS works in America, why shouldn't it work in Kabul? Saying something's always better than dummying up.