Official: Taliban better financed than al-Qaida

Day after day the Taliban looks to be gaining strength in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region. How long before they expand their operation to other parts of the World? We went from President Bush who they hated but were afraid to President Obama who wants to make friends. You don't make friends with people who want to kill us and change our way of life. Shame that Obama didn't spend more time listening to the Intelligence Community instead of going around the World apologizing for the United States and giving comfort to the terrorists especially to the Taliban who he said were not that bad.

History will show Obama on the wrong side of this as he has been on almost everything he has done since taking office. This update article shows exactly who the Taliban are -- terrorists who enjoy killing people. Yet Obama wants the Taliban to become part of the Afghan Government. Is Obama this naive or does he have a different agenda in that part of the World that is detrimental to the interests of the United States? Only time will tell.

UPDATE:
Pakistan says 41 killed in market bombing
By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer Riaz Khan
10/12/09 5:20 PM EDT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide car bombing targeting Pakistani troops killed 41 people Monday, the fourth grisly militant attack in just over a week, as the Taliban pledged to mobilize fighters across the country for more strikes.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for the 22-hour weekend attack on the nation's heavily fortified army headquarters, saying a cell from Pakistan's most populous province carried out the raid.

Excerpt: See Washington Examiner for Full Article

We are now learning that the Taliban is better financed then al-Qaida, but yet this Administration wants to bribe Taliban to come over to the NATO side?

Meanwhile, the White House may have a better idea than the trial balloons it has floated lately. In a strategy taken directly from the surge in Iraq, the US may simply outbid the Taliban for native security services : Via Allahpundit at Hot Air:

(snip)

However, that success in Iraq did not come by implementing this policy alone. General David Petraeus applied this strategy along with a large increase in troops and aggressiveness against insurgents, combining the power of all tactics into a successful counterinsurgency. Even with these payments, we would still need substantial increases in troop strength in Afghanistan in order to make sure that, well, our Afghans stay bought.

This actually makes a lot more sense than the silly notion that we can peel the Taliban away from al-Qaeda or that the Taliban are really moderates interested in power sharing. If the White House pursues this idea, they will find a lot more success in working with Congress than in attempting to either partner with or ignore radical terrorists in the hope that they use that encouragement to lay down their weapons.

That would never work if we don't put the necessary troops on the ground not to mention this is Afghanistan not Iraq -- huge difference. Iraq even with Saddam was a much more modern country then Afghanistan. Every day that goes by without a decision to add my troops puts the troops in Afghanistan in more danger. Obama is still voting 'present' and even members of his own Party like Sen Diane Feinstein are asking for more troops.

Is this why Norway awarded Obama the Nobel Peace Prize to stall any more troops for Afghanistan because how do you deserve a peace prize if you are going to add troops to fight the Taliban and other terrorists in Afghanistan. Terrorists from other groups are flocking to the side of the Taliban who have sensed a weak American President.

Our military in Afghanistan deserve better then a Chicago community organizer who believes that same philosophy will work in Afghanistan if only they had walking around money to convert the Taliban. It didn't work in Chicago the way crime has escalated in the Community Organizer's area so why would it work in Afghanistan.

Official: Taliban better financed than al-Qaida
AP on Yahoo 10/12/09
Richard Lardner - ap

WASHINGTON – The Taliban are in much stronger financial shape than al-Qaida and rely on a wide range of criminal activities to pay for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a senior Treasury Department official said Monday.
David Cohen, the department's assistant secretary for terrorist financing, said the extremist group extorts money from poppy farmers and heroin traffickers involved in Afghanistan's booming drug trade. The Taliban also demand protection payments from legitimate Afghan businesses, he said during a speech at a conference on money laundering enforcement.
...

According to Cohen, al-Qaida is a cash-strapped organization that is losing its clout. That condition is the product, he said, of a long-running effort by the U.S. and its allies to cut off the terror group's sources of funding by targeting its deep-pocketed donors and interfering with its ability to move money.
In the first half of 2009, he said, al-Qaida's leaders made four public appeals for money to bolster recruitment and training.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com