What a crock of SH1T. How can a local defending his country from the illegal US invasion and occupation be labeled an "insurgent"? The US applies such names to demonize people who are fully entitled, indeed OBLIGED to resist the invasion of their country.

This is a war of resistance by the Pashtun people who constitute the largest tribal grouping in Afghanistan, and whose traditional homeland was artificially divided by the Afghan/Pakistan border. They number about 40 million in total and are fiercely independent and tribal, following a pre-Islamic honor code - Pashtunwalli. This proud, hardy mountain people will never bow to the invading US of A.

Now I'm not defending the brutality of some of the Taliban "war lords" but it's up to the Afghan people to sort that out, not the uninvited, unwanted US of A.

For some great insight into what is happening in Afghanistan, see this article by Malalai Joya at the Guardian UK:


The big lie of Afghanistan

In 2005, I was the youngest person elected to the new Afghan parliament. Women like me, running for office, were held up as an example of how the war in Afghanistan had liberated women. But this democracy was a facade, and the so-called liberation a big lie.

On behalf of the long-suffering people of my country, I offer my heartfelt condolences to all in the UK who have lost their loved ones on the soil of Afghanistan. We share the grief of the mothers, fathers, wives, sons and daughters of the fallen. It is my view that these British casualties, like the many thousands of Afghan civilian dead, are victims of the unjust policies that the Nato countries have pursued under the leadership of the US government.

Almost eight years after the Taliban regime was toppled, our hopes for a truly democratic and independent Afghanistan have been betrayed by the continued domination of fundamentalists and by a brutal occupation that ultimately serves only American strategic interests in the region.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/25/afghanistan-occupation-taliban-warlords