Fighting the Taliban Creatively
Recently, U.S. officials who were meeting in Afghanistan realized that the largest area of insurgent control is the one that had the weakest cell phone coverage.
“We found that Afghans in the most-troubled, insurgent-held areas lived in information wastelands dominated by militant propaganda,” Mr. Holbrooke said. “We are fighting back with a revamped strategy that puts the people and their ability to communicate at the forefront of our effort.”
The Taliban, understanding that a lack of communication leaves space for propaganda and dominance by their group, has bombed or shut off power to phone towers that affect more than 200 of the 6000 towers monitored by the U.S. military.
The U.S. forces are trying to power up these disabled towers and construct as many as 50 more towers on Afghan and international bases.
Certainly, they know that the Taliban will resist these efforts. Afghan leaders like Hamed Wardak and American leaders understand that creative measures have to be taken to diminish the Taliban’s strong hold and to respond to propaganda and more.