Afghan War Resembles ‘Tom and Jerry’ Cartoon

By Tamim Hamid
TOLOnews.com (Afghanistan)
January 3, 2011

In an interview with TOLOnews, a US military commander described Afghan war as non-stop “Tom and Jerry” cartoon, but life-claiming and hazardous

Excerpts

… A US military commander told a TOLOnews reporter in southern Helmand province that he has come to know that Afghan war is more like “Tom and Jerry” cartoon which never ends. The only difference is the cartoon does not claim lives, but here we lose men every day.

But what hurts is that we are not able to capture sanctuaries where they sketch attacks against us, the US military commander said on condition of anonymity. …

General Hamid Gul, the former head of [Pakistan’s] Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) said during an interview with TOLOnews that the withdrawal date of US forces from Afghanistan is a sign of Washington and Nato’s defeat in their mission.

“The US is losing war and this is totally clear. President Obama has said in the new review of war strategy that US forces will start leaving Afghanistan. The beginning of withdrawal process makes the defeat feasible,” Hamid Gul said. …

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Related report

U.S. Military Commander Compares Afghanistan War to Neverending ‘Tom and Jerry’ Cartoon

By Amanda Terkel
The Huffington Post
January 3, 2011

WASHINGTON — The war in Afghanistan is like a nonstop game of cat and mouse, according to a U.S. military commander in Afghanistan.

The commander made the comments to a reporter in southern Helmand province with Afghan news agency TOLOnews.

“A US military commander told a TOLOnews reporter in southern Helmand province that he has come to know that Afghan war is more like ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoon which never ends,” reports Tamim Hamid. “The only difference is the cartoon does not claim lives, but here we lose men every day.”

In the classic cartoon, Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse are engaged in a violent rivalry, with Tom often using everything from explosives to axes against Jerry.

The U.S. military official, who wished to remain anonymous, added that what is hurting the coalition effort has been limited because troops are “not able to capture sanctuaries where they sketch attacks against us.” …

The comments follow the grim announcement that 2010 was the deadliest year in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001. A total of 711 coalition forces were killed in Afghanistan last year, including 499 U.S. troops, and the Afghan Interior Ministry reported that 2,043 civilians were killed and 3,570 were wounded during that time.

The United Nations has put the civilian death toll even higher, at 2,412 killed and 3,803 wounded between January and October — a 20 percent jump from 2009. Sixty-three percent of the U.S. public now opposes the war effort, according to recent polling.

TOLOnews bills itself as “the first news and current affairs channel in Afghanistan” and is run by the Moby Group, which the New Yorker described as the country’s “preëminent media company.”

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6/6/2011 Update

Insurgents regrouping and fighting to retake key cities and towns (AP, June 6, 2011) – In the southern province of Helmand, the world’s leading opium producer and the Taliban’s profit center, NATO officials say insurgents are regrouping and fighting to retake key cities and towns they lost during clearing operations by U.S. Marines during the past year. In Sangin, where nearly a third of all British Afghan war casualties have taken place, Taliban insurgent commanders have retrenched and are answering U.S. Marines’ latest offensives with stiff resistance. … Full report

FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — January 4, 2010

CIA Zawahiri Team Decimated

Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, AKA Abu Dujanah al-Khurasani
(Photo credit: Al Jazeera)

One year ago today, I reported that the suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan was carried out by a Jordanian doctor, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who was an al-Qaida double agent.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — January 4, 2009

Farhana Ali (RAND Corporation) and Jerrold M. Post, M.D. (George Washington University) discuss the emerging trend of female suicide bombers at a counterterrorism panel in 2008. (Photo: Aubrey Immelman)

Iraq: Female Bomber Strikes Again

Two years ago today, on Jan. 4, 2009 I reported that a female suicide bomber, in what has become an emerging pattern in Iraq — the  mujahidaat — killed at least 38 and wounded 72 in an attack on pilgrims at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, Iraq.