Taliban Turns To Terror Due To Conventional Battle Failures
Washington
The success of Coalition and NATO forces in Afghanistan have caused the Taliban to turn to other means, according to a speech given by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. According to Gates, the insurgents have had to turn to terror tactics because they have been soundly and repeatedly defeated in conventional battles.
Secretary Gates spoke to reporters at a joint news media affair with Herve Morin, the Minister of Defense for France. One reporter questioned about how different NATO operations in Afghanistan have perhaps failed to prevent terrorist attacks.
“Speaking militarily, NATO has done very well, its been a very successful, a very good year for NATO in 2007,†Secretary Gates said. “There is no territory in Afghanistan that is occupied by the Taliban in Afghanistan at the current time,†said Gates.
“We do have a reoccurring security issue that we are taking very seriously, but it is due to the Taliban resorting to terror and terrorist activities. They have failed utterly and totally in standard and conventional conflict with military forces with U.S. Forces, and our NATO allies,†said Secretary Gates.
“We are viewing more IED usage, more suicide bombers, and more terrorist activities,†said Gates. The NATO soldiers and their role in the war in Afghanistan is among topics that Secretary Morin and Defense Secretary Gates are discussing during a series of meetings over the last several days. This was the first visit by the French Defense Minister to the Pentagon.
This was the second visit between the ministers; the first was last June in Paris to commemorate the D-Day anniversary in Normandy. That visit was the first in a decade of a United States Defense minister to France.
