Afghanistan - Taliban plan to fight through winter to throttle Kabul

Cheers the Guardian!! And the Guardian relays the Taleban's war aim.

Militia fighters are operating just an hour's drive from the capital's suburbs, confident of undermining Western support for the war.

Now how does the Guardian know that the Taleban are "confident of undermining Western support for the war"? Because the Guardian is working with the Taleban to do just that.

Here Brigadier Butler calls the Guardian out for lying.

Your front-page story (Iraq war cost years of progress, October 18) paints a misleading and mischievous picture of what I said at a media briefing on Tuesday. It omits some of my comments and extrapolates meaning and intention from others which is completely false. I did not say the operation in Iraq had cost "years of progress" in Afghanistan; I did not say it had left "a dangerous vacuum"; and I did not say that British soldiers faced a tougher task now because of it.

The Guardian flat out lied.

When I first read the Guardian's headline, I thought it sounded familiar and here's why. This is from two weeks ago.

NATO also said it was launching a new countrywide military operation with Afghan forces to maintain pressure on the Taliban over the fall and winter, and pave the way for long-promised development after the bitterest fighting in five years.

The Guardian wants to get the Taleban's message out so if we start taking casualties over the winter, the Guardian can claim it's due to a Taleban "offense".

The Taliban are planning a major winter offensive combining their diverse factions in a push on the Afghan capital, Kabul, intelligence analysts and sources among the militia have revealed.

Which intelligence analysts the Guardian does not say. Probably Fisk or Pilger. No wait, they would be the sources among the militia. Or would that be the Guardian?

The thrust will involve a concerted attempt to take control of surrounding provinces, a bid to cut the key commercial highway linking the capital with the eastern city of Jalalabad, and operations designed to tie down British and other Nato troops in the south.

You mean thrusts like like this.

"Initial battle damage assessment indicates that up to 55 insurgents were killed," NATO said. One Afghan soldier was also wounded.

A 55-0 kill ratio in our favor.

I'm not going to waste my time "Fisking" the rest of this bird cage liner.