PDA

View Full Version : Do the Taliban military train silat?



Daedalus
10-08-2001, 06:59 PM
If they do, I would not want to have to fight one of them hand to hand. I'd rather be shot than cut. Especially by someone who could probably skin you alive. :(

origenx
10-08-2001, 07:29 PM
Ha, I doubt it. They seem to fight primarily from "sniper range."

Daniel Madar
10-08-2001, 07:31 PM
I used to knife fight with some silat guys. They were pretty good, but not invincible.

Merciless is Mercy.

SLC
10-08-2001, 07:33 PM
I'd be very surprised if the Taliban military had much of anything on its training schedule.

MonkeySlap Too
10-08-2001, 08:00 PM
Who cares?

I am a big beleiver in luck. The more I work, the more luck I have.

Snake
10-08-2001, 08:24 PM
Right now they are mostly studying the "Duck and Cover" method of self defense. It seems that the Taliban are more of a mob or gang and not really a standing army in the modern sense. In other words, I think that outside of some practice on the firing range, I don't think they have much training at all.

Snake
"The Tree of Liberty
must be refreshed from
time to time by the
blood of patriots and
tyrants." -Thomas
Jefferson

thekuntawman
10-08-2001, 08:31 PM
we should never underestimate the opponent, even when we think his weapons are inferior. the US felt this way in the 1920s about the philippines and the 1960s with vietnam. and it hurt the effort to take over both times.

i dont belive the bombing will cripple the taliban. they do not mourn the dead like we do. plus one advantage is the enemy is invisible. many of them live here in america. not even to say "just watch arab people". there are caucasian muslims asiam muslims, and african muslims, and they are also enemies of the US. many arabs can change his name shave his beard and he will look like any white boy you can find.

and like i said these people are willing to die.

JasBourne
10-08-2001, 09:09 PM
Neither pro, con, neutral, or wingnut seems to have any specifics on whether or not the Taliban trains in silat:

"Having received permission from his uncles to join the militia, Khan said he drove to Kabul with some friends and enlisted. He spent the next 40 days at a Taliban training camp near the capital, learning to shoot AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and machine guns." (From http://www.afghanradio.com/news/2001/may/may13h2001.html)

"At the end of the three-week course we had examinations. Each "brother" had to learn 15 surats by heart and answer questions. Anyone who failed had to repeat the whole course. Those who passed could progress to the second phase, military training. This involved the study of hand-to-hand combat, the use of a various firearms including antiaircraft guns, and mountain-combat tactics." (from http://www.bu.edu/iscip/vol11/Roshchin.html)

"Biazon quoted Arcilla as saying that the recruits are being taught how to attack electrical power grids, airports, railroads, large corporations, hotels and military installations. The recruits, he added, also learned how to track down and assassinate political figures now retired from diplomatic posts." (from http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=21791)

"There is a ramified network of international terrorist training centres in Afghanistan's Taliban-controlled part. Arab, Central Asian, Chechen and other paramilitaries study martial arts and sabotage there. The Afghan lawful top is absolutely sure of the facts, says Dr. Abdullah, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is on a routine visit to Moscow. " (from PRAVDA in english, at http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/2001/07/06/9453.html)

"He said that he had been trained in Britain, but also in the Islamic camps in Pakistan: 'In Islam, when we say training, we mean military training. The camps inside the UK prepare people with physical training and martial arts, and if they can obtain weapons they use them for training. 'When we talk about jihad, we are not talking about harsh words, we are talking about training in bomb-making and strategy.'" (from http://www.apocalypsesoon.org/orient.html)


A really excellent analysis of the Afghanistan socio-political climate by the South Asia Analysis Group can be found at http://www.saag.org/papers/paper78.html

Janes.com has a very good extract on Taliban forces and power preceeding the hostilities at: http://www.janes.com/defence/news/misc/jwa011008_2_n.shtml

Snake
10-08-2001, 10:02 PM
Jas, thanks for the links that was highly informative as to what the Taliban are up to. They obviously have more training than I was giving them credit for. Very Interesting.

thekuntawman: I don't think anyone here was underestimating the Taliban people. They are certainly battle tested and hardened to war. Most reports I have seen have repeatedly used the words "tough" and "determined" to categorize the Afghan people. The bombing of the Taliban is not meant to punish them in the senses of retribution or to make them mourn the dead. It is the first stage in securing the air ways so that we can make other strikes as needed with as little rish as possible. We struck at airports, SAM sites, radar stations and other government and intelligence locations. These were strategic hits to pave the way for future operations.

Snake

atsai
10-09-2001, 07:48 AM
Thanks for the online resources, Jas. Study showed more women oppose military strike; I think I'm in love w/ you... :D :p

Anyway, like what they say, "it never pays to underestimate your enemy."

The hijackers alleged had trained in bin laden's training camp. But if their h2h combat instruction is so good, then they wouldn't have to attend self-defense course here in the states.

btw, careful reading online articles from unfamiliar sources. One example is this one: www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24831 (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24831) I can't figure out why China want to get their hands dirty..., likey they're just sending troops to protect the boarder. Later I found out DEBKA is been known for inaccurate reporting. It's like tabloids w/ an agenda. There're other dubious articles like the "gun industry" selling Barrett .50 BMG sniper rifle to al qaeda while negelecting the even more powerful weapons they have in their arsenal.

<TABLE BORDER="3" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="1"><TR><TD><form><INPUT TYPE="button" VALUE=" Art Tsai " onClick="parent.location='http://people.we.mediaone.net/arttsai/home.html'"></TD></TR></table></form><HR Width="97%">"You fight like you train." --Motto, USN Fighter Weapon School (TOPGUN)

JasBourne
10-09-2001, 07:27 PM
Most people (many of whom are women) fail to educate themselves on specifics of a situation, preferring to fall back on a visceral response to the primary perception.

In English: Most folks do a knee-jerk based on whatever rattles their cage first. Most guys wanna blast everything in sight. Most girls react to that reaction, and don't wanna blast everything in sight.

As to the Taliban, I think that while they do have some armament, and at least a rudimentary training system, for the most part the entire operation is much too disjointed to sustain conflict against US forces.

I think the only way we will not be able to wipe 'em out quickly is if we fall into the trap the Russians did, and allow the fight to be run on the Taliban's terms. We should have learned our lesson from 'Nam, never fight the other guy's fight.

atsai
10-10-2001, 01:37 AM
I hope these people don't watch Oprah. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-dreher100801.shtml

A lot of anti-war mentality that sprung up after the attack might originated from fear. The peace wagers here in LA are chanting, "we don't want your racist war"..., I think it's pretty clear who's spreading the hate. These people need to pick up a history book and look up the word, "appeasement".

<TABLE BORDER="3" CELLSPACING="1" CELLPADDING="1"><TR><TD><form><INPUT TYPE="button" VALUE=" Art Tsai " onClick="parent.location='http://people.we.mediaone.net/arttsai/home.html'"></TD></TR></table></form><HR Width="97%">"You fight like you train." --Motto, USN Fighter Weapon School (TOPGUN)