A major misjudgment

By Creature

A resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. A surprise visit and a warning to do more by the vice president to President Musharraf of Pakistan. A conveniently quick arrest of a Taliban leader soon after. These were the major news stories coming out of Pakistan and Afghanistan this week, but did you know that the Taliban leader captured had already been in custody back in 2001? Did you know the United States gave their "tacit approval" of his release? I certainly did not. The Independent [UK] fills us in:

If Mullah Akhund is as central to the Taliban insurgency as now appears to be the case, the fact he was in custody as long ago as 2001 is likely to prove an embarrassment to the Americans and the Afghan authorities. When he was released under an amnesty after surrendering to the Northern Alliance, officially the US military claimed it did not know about it. But according to reports at the time, the Americans gave tacit approval.

With the Taliban insurgency looking increasingly dangerous as time goes on, that decision now looks like a major misjudgement.

How many more major misjudgments can our troops, our country, our allies, and the world at large endure?

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)