A number of foreign media are reporting that the United States and Britain, along with Russia, are preparing to attack the Taliban regime in the next few days. (Here's one such report from the Times of India.)

I'm not sure whether they will or not. One technique often used by the military is to feint, feint, feint, feint, and only attack when the enemy has relaxed his guard. "Is it another false alarm, or is this the real thing?" No one can stay at battle stations/general quarters 24/7 without a loss of efficiency.

(And you fellow patriotic types who might think that posting this article, or discussing military tactics, might "aid" the enemy: (a), I doubt the Taliban reads this forum, (b), it's being widely reported overseas, so it's hard to believe that the Taliban isn't aware of the reports already, and (c) -- on the "feint, feint" strategy, the really neat thing about it is, knowing that the enemy will do this does no good, anyway.)

(If anything, it makes it worse, because you want to believe that the incoming attack is a feint, and not the real thing.[g])

Most observers believe that we'll have to act soon, because once winter sets into the Afghan mountains, it'll be almost impossible to launch an offensive before spring of next year.

We'll see.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2001

Answers

We read this, infidel. We are everywhere.

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2001