It's Af-Pak competition time!

Since ISAF and the Pakistani forces are not doing so well at countering the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Tehreek-e-Taliban in Pakistan, it seems the two organisations have decided to compete with each other instead.

On Monday, the Taliban launched the kind of attack in Kabul that Pakistan has seen plenty of in recent months. Multiple attackers, suicide bombers, gunmen, co-ordination. Yep, it could have been Rawalpindi, Lahore or even Mumbai. The Afghans blamed the Pakistanis, as did the Indians. But amid the finger pointing, Londonstani is thinking that it's very possible that the groups carrying out these attacks are developing, deploying and then sharing tactics like its going out of fashion - even if they are officially meant to not like each other. This is all slightly alarming and suggests they aren't under the kind of pressure that ISAF forces and the Pakistanis have suggested. 

If Londonstani were a Taliban commander he'd be taking it easy right now (maybe figuring out how to run double agent operations). "The information operations are going well. The seeds have been planted and the vicious circle is rolling in the right direction. The Americans and the British are running in circles while throwing money in the air and the Pakistanis are increasingly seeing the errors of their corrupt, slave rulers. All the while, the Muslim world is seeing how we take on a regional power and a superpower all at the same time. Now what? volleyball? stolen humvee racing? I know, I'll show that annoying arse Hakimullah that he's not the only one that can make like the action movies."

UPDATE: The BBC's John Simpson sums it up well with this comment: "...there are other ways to win a war than simply fighting. And persuading the world that the Taliban can strike when and how they want is one of them."... Back to the communications and comprehensive approach discussion.