Taliban Victory - And the endless war keeps going

Officers of the 10th Hussars at Jellalabad - 1879
South West of Jellalabad in North Eastern Afghanistan.
The wars go on and on without end.
See The Battle of Futtehabad.

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
But when we are gone
It will still burn on and on and on and on

Billy Joel

Editor  -  How many decades are we supposed to fight in Afghanistan? and for what? Afghanistan has been a crap-hole for 4,000 years. But I am just a crazy Blogger. What do I know?


(Long War Journal)  -  While much of the reporting from Afghanistan has been focusing on Taliban offensives in Kunduz and Helmand, the jihadist group has been active in other areas of the country. Both Taliban and Afghan officials said that the district of Ghormach in Faryab province has fallen to the jihadist group over the past 24 hours. 

From the Taliban statement at Voice of Jihad:

At around 8:00 pm local time on Monday heroic Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate launched coordinated attacks on Ghormach district administration center, police station and other installation. 

Attacks of heavy and light arms left the district administration center, police HQ and other installations completely overrun, inflecting serious casualties to enemy, the details of which will be updated later.

According to Afghan officials, Afghan forces abandoned the district’s administrative center. From Khaama Press:

The Taliban militants have captured Ghormach district in northern Faryba [sic] province of Afghanistan, local officials said Tuesday. 

The officials further added that the control of the district fell to Taliban after the Afghan security forces retreated from the area 

A provincial council member Syed Abdul Baqi Hashemi confirmed the Taliban militants captured the district after heavy clashes with the security forces.

Ghormach has changed hands before. In October 2015, the Taliban seized the district center and held it for a week before Afghan forces regained control. The district has been contested ever since.
The situation in Ghormach is not unique in Afghanistan. 

Scores of districts routinely switch between the Taliban and Afghan forces, which are struggling to fight the group on multiple fronts. The Washington Post noted last week that Afghan commandos, who have been trained to hunt jihadists leaders, have been pressed into service as regular infantryman and are fighting the battles that regular Afghan units can’t or won’t fight. 

The Afghan commandos are in short supply, and once they retake a district, they are redeployed to put out the next Taliban fire. The Taliban then moves back into the areas liberated by the commandos. This pattern erodes the legitimacy of both the Afghan government and its security forces.

Read More . . . .

 Pashtun Warriors Anglo Afghan War (1878–1880)
.The British fought three Afghan wars.  It changed nothing, Afghanistan stayed the same.  But it did make the politicians and companies that make weapons feel better.
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But don't worry, either next year or in ten years the politicians will find some "vital" issue and go into another war somewhere.  The dead and wounded vets from the old war will be forgotten as our leaders seek glory on some new battlefield. 
Read More: Anglo-Afghan War

Maiwand, Afghanistan 1880
British Officers with Captured Cannon, Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1880.  
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
See The Battle of Maiwand.