Can you say "Cu Chi" in Pashtun?

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

[Wonder if the linguists at the US Army know how to say
"Cu Chi" in Pashtun. Perhaps the better-educated SAS specialists
can teach them how. -- NY Transfer]

 
Mirror (UK) - 16 November 2001
http://mirror.icnetwork.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11422778&method=full

'WE CONQUERED KABUL IN ONE HOUR;
FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS WE LOST THE WAR'
 
By Ex-KGB Colonel Vladimir Ivanov
 
THE sudden speed at which the Northern Alliance grabbed Kabul is
probably a surprise to the Americans and the British.

But I caution you not to believe that the war is now over. In many
ways, your problems are only just beginning.

From a military point of view, the capital of Kabul is next to
useless and I can well understand why the Taliban did not even try to
defend the city, instead retreating to fight another day.

Like many of those who served in Afghanistan for the Soviet military,
my view is hardened by years of bitter experience in this unique and
inhospitable land, literally a graveyard for invaders.

I know the stench of war here, having served for five long years with
the Spetsnaz special forces of the KGB during the decade of
occupation by the USSR.

At that time, I was engaged in the kind of operations which your SAS
will now be mounting as they seek out terrorist mastermind Osama bin
Laden.

When our troops went into Kabul at Christmas in 1979, it look less
than an hour to grab the presidential palace.

We then spent the next 10 years seeking in vain to control the
country - and it is here that the West can learn from our mistakes.

I can well guess where the Taliban's most elite troops are now,
having pulled back from Kabul.

Some will have gone west to what we euphemistically called, in the
old days, the Kabul Metro or Underground.

This is a multi-layered system of hundreds of miles of subterranean
tunnels, known as Karez, interlinked with each other and going as far
as the mountains where the Taliban will have key bases in
heavily-fortified caves.

Some of them we knew about. Others, even after 10 years, we never
managed to discover.

Such locations are ideal for guerrilla warfare against both the
Northern Alliance and any US or British troops in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have plainly decided to let their foes control the main
cities and airports which, in any other country, might be a strange
military strategy.

In Afghanistan, what they have done makes sound sense. From their new
vantage points, they will strike suddenly and ruthlessly where the
Americans and British, as well as the Northern Alliance, least expect
it. For a decade, the Soviet army sought to clean up and clear the
Karez tunnel system as we attempted to root out mujahedeen leaders in
the way you are now searching for bin Laden.

It was fruitless and in the process we lost many good men.

Even the Soviet army's most modern and sophisticated weapons were
useless here.

Bin Laden is probably sitting in his cave and laughing that the West
thinks it has scored a victory in Kabul.

But even before the serious search can get underway for him, the fall
of the capital presents another immediate problem.

It means that the Americans and their partners now bear some
responsibility for governing this benighted land. This can become a
major headache.

The Northern Alliance are unlikely to listen to reason and may seek
both to settle scores and also to govern through ethnic minorities
from the north of the country - Uzbeks and Tajiks - and not Pashtuns.

Yet it is clear to anyone who knows Afghanistan that the only hope of
a sane future is with a coalition government of all the various
ethnic groupings.

As the war develops, there will be a temptation to send in large
numbers of American and British troops in addition to special forces
operations. Our experience is that this can only lead to heavy
casualties without a real chance of success.

Bin Laden, I am sure, is hiding in the mountains somewhere in the
east. From here, he will be able to command his hitmen, snipers and
bombers, not only in Afghanistan but possibly all over the globe.

If the Americans and British are to find him, and it is this on which
the success of the campaign will above all be judged, it is most
likely to come from intelligence sources from inside or close to his
entourage.

This, rather than grabbing Kabul, will be the decisive factor.

 
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nyteeu-11.16.01-21:59:17-7905