Airstrip One

Re-match or new Fixture

So there's heavy fighting around Gardez. Now this is odd as there was heavy fighting there a month ago. This time its supposed to be remnants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, last time it was merely disaffected local chiefs. So one of the following three scenarios must apply:

1) That we are being told the truth and that two bouts of heavy fighting a month apart in the same neck of the woods had nothing to do with each other. How likely is that?

2) That the Taliban was not really dead as we were breathlessly informed in November and has merely gone into retreat, as sources such as Stratfor predicted they would. This means that British troops had better be getting used to Pashtun food long after they've been forgotten by the government and the media.

3) That the allies are wary of any domestic opposition to the use of American or British troops to enforce Karzai's centralised rule and are therefore saying that every insurrectionist is a Taliban fighter. (A strong Pashtun-led central government backed by foreign muscle, now what recent regime tried to pull that off).

Now while either point 2 or point 3 may sound more plausible it overlooks one massive stumbling block. We are told that the two events are unconnected, so they must be. Got it?