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(Tiny) crack in Taliban messaging?



It's not much, but it jumped out at me. Usually, Taliban propaganda references to Afghan troops or government officials use the term "puppet". For example, from today:

.... In another news, the NATO and U.S invading terrorists backed by their Afghan puppet terrorists, after having faced ten days of hardship and hunger in Marjah ....

This latest interview attributed to the Taliban's spokesperson for southern Afghanistan, Qari Muhammad Yousuf, (Scribd.com version) includes the usual exaggerated stats about ISAF and Afghan casualties. How they referred to Afghan security forces, though, is different:

Destroyed tanks 78 Foreign troops killed 382 Destroyed ranger vehicles 4 Domestic soldiers killed 36.

Could this be part of what some see as a "kinder, gentler" Taliban campaign while NATO is paying kinetic attention to Marja (more here and here)? The Arabic version of the same interview refers to "customer" casualties (a variation of the "puppet" messaging), so it could also be a translating glitch on the part of the Taliban Info-machine (Scribd.com version in Arabic here, and Google English translation of Arabic here).

Still, nice messaging or not, I'm going to bet my buck on the Taliban staying nasty once NATO leaves the area (unless Afghan security forces are strong enough to hold the area credibly).



READER COMMENTS: "(Tiny) crack in Taliban messaging?"

Posted by Long Time Reader at February 26, 2010 10:33 AM ET:

And this is why I read your website multiple times a day, Bill. Great insight into something that may become a significant trend in the future.

Btw, how come there is little reporting about Marjah in the main article section? Just curious. Thanks!

Posted by Gerald Anthro at February 26, 2010 1:43 PM ET:

taliban web masters are now using auto responders on their emails, now in Pastho and in English....

Change to 'service' paradigm?

Gerald
Anthropologist

Posted by C. Jordan at February 26, 2010 5:57 PM ET:

Good catch... its almost as if they are experiencing blow back.