RWE @23:
I agree with your statement about our problems with Islamism being an existential one involving most of the Muslim world instead of a problem with a few hundred, thousand, or tens of thousands of Jihadists in the Afghan-Paki theater. Yes, the core of the problem is in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and a few other gulf states. Yes the left continues to ignore such problems. If progressives admit that Islamism is an existential threat to liberty, western civilization, and the U.S. in particular, then they are clearly cowards for refusing to deal with the situation like the adults they claim to be. Even an apathetic electorate like the U.S. has today tends to vote cowards out of office. Besides, it’s nearly impossible for most progressives to comprehend how anybody except gun-clinging, redneck, crackers in flyover country can take religion seriously, much less take it seriously enough to contribute a tenth or more of all pre-tax income to supporting religious causes. All we will continue to see from them is deny, deny, deny!
As for mining the “passes” throughout the Hindu Kush between Pakistan and Afghanistan, It’s not realistically possible. I once wondered why something like this wasn’t attempted by the Soviets when they were in Afghanistan. Then I got to see the terrain! God knows they planted enough mines down in the fertile valleys! The answer is that a fair amount of the equipment is carried in a Talibs hands or on their backs, or on small pack animals. Many of the “trails” they use are really goat paths. Literally goat paths! We’ve been finding seasonal caches way up above the winter snowline. If we mine the easy ways, they’ll resort to steep and rough paths where air dropped mines wouldn’t stay. If the mine landed on the path it would slide off into the valley below! The same thing happens with snow and rock slides, which is a designed feature to some of the paths. The other issue of course are the goats, gazelles, and sheep, and herdsmen who traverse the paths on legitimate business. With our current administration setting ROE so that Taliban can attack with near impunity so long as they hide amongst civilians, do you think they’re going to go for indiscriminate mining of large swaths of the countryside?
Mining huge swaths of terrain consisting of steep rocky mountains isn’t the answer.
