Lashkar Gah (Afghanistan), Oct.5 (ANI): With the Taliban controlling the hours of usage for mobile use, defying the government's authority, in more than half the provinces in Afghanistan, it exemplifies its new and more subtle ways of assertion.
Even as NATO generals portray the insurgents as a diminished force less able to hold ground, according to the New York Times, tactics like the cell-phone offensive have allowed the Taliban to project their presence in far more insidious and sophisticated ways, using the instruments of modernity that they once shunned.
The shutoff sends a daily reminder to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Afghans that the Taliban still hold substantial sway over their future.
It is just one part of a broader shift in Taliban strategy that has focused on intimidation, carefully chosen assassinations and limited but spectacular assaults.
While often avoiding large-scale combat with NATO forces, the Taliban and their allies in the Haqqani network have effectively undermined peace talks with the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai and sought to pave the way for a gradual return to power as the American-led forces begin scaling back military operations in the country.
Assaults like the rocket attack on the American Embassy in Kabul on September 13, for which American officials blamed the Haqqanis, effectively shift the fight to cities, where it is harder for NATO to respond with air power for fear of harming civilians.
They also allow the Taliban to capture the airwaves for hours, especially in media-saturated cities, and fuel an aura of crisis.
Likewise, the assassination on September 20 in Kabul of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the head of Afghanistan's peace council, dominated the news and reopened dangerous fissures between the country's Dari-speaking north and the Pashtun south, in a single calculated blow.
The new Taliban do not aspire to kill a lot of people, it seems, just a few in the right places and in positions of power.
The Rabbani assassination not only demonstrated the insurgents' rejection of the peace process, but it also reminded people of their ability to shape the next chapter in the country's history as the Americans prepare to leave.
The Taliban have sought to remake their image this year as a way of positioning themselves to play a prominent role in Afghanistan's future.
It is a two-track strategy. Interviews with dozens of Afghans suggest that throughout the country the Taliban have married locally tailored terrorist campaigns with new flexibility on issues like education and business development.
The combination plays on the uncertainty gnawing at Afghans about the looming American withdrawal, while making the most of the insurgency's limited resources.
The aim is to undermine the Afghan government by making people question whether it can protect them, while trying to project the image of a group that is more open to the world than when the Taliban ruled the country in the 1990s. (ANI)
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