SMALL WARS JOURNAL
smallwarsjournal.com
A Strategic Perspective on Taliban Warfare
Ehsan Mehmood Khan
“You have the watches, we have the time. We were born here. We will die here. We
aren’t going anywhere.”
– Taliban Warfare Narrative
1
Introduction
Photographed by the author along Afghanistan border
Taliban Warfare has occupied news headlines in the global information expanse for over a
decade. It is also a topic of choice for academics and scholars. However, the subject is often
viewed and analyzed in a subjective rather than objective manner. It is mostly looked at across
the prism of terrorism - atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by a group of non-
state, though not stateless, bandits. Seldom has a theorist or practitioner picked up the pen to
draw on the military aspects of the war so as
to reach correct conclusions as to how could
this war come to an acceptable-by-all end.
This line of thought and reasoning might hold
good for a given category of politicians but
the students of military strategy and those
involved in kinetic operations in a
counterinsurgency campaign remain
bewildered on the nature of the war. There is
a need to understand Taliban as people, not
monster, and as warriors not gangsters.
Likewise, Taliban Warfare is required to be
understood in correct military perspective
rather than a mere act of crime, terrorism or
banditry.
1
Sami Yousafzai, and Ron Moreau, “The Taliban in their own words.” Newsweek (September 26, 2009).
