3/27/2008

The Taliban Learn An Important Lesson

We've all heard about the Law of Unintended Consequences. It appears the Taliban is learning the lesson in Afghanistan.

Taliban attacks on telecom towers have prompted cellphone companies to shut down service across southern Afghanistan, angering a quarter million customers who have no other telephones.

Even some Taliban fighters now regret the disruptions and are demanding that service be restored by the companies.

[T]the cutoff is proving extremely unpopular among Afghan citizens. Even some Taliban fighters are asking that the towers be switched back on, said Afghanistan's telecommunications minister, A. Sangin.

That dissenting view shows how decisions made by the top-ranking Taliban leadership can have negative consequences for lower-ranking fighters in the field, the minister said.

Even though Taliban fighters have been tracked and targeted by NATO forces by tracing the signals on their cellphones, the disruption of cell service has made it difficult, if not impossible for those same Taliban fighters to communicate with their upper level commanders or their subordinates. So by shutting down the cell towers they've also left themselves with no means of rapid communications.

Way to go, Taliban!

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