Comments on: Remarkable http://registan.net/index.php/2008/10/20/remarkable/ All Central Asia, All The Time Fri, 25 May 2012 20:24:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Joshua Foust http://registan.net/index.php/2008/10/20/remarkable/comment-page-1/#comment-378731 Joshua Foust Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:46:50 +0000 http://www.registan.net/index.php/2008/10/20/remarkable/#comment-378731 Alex, You're actually right. I've been searching for any follow up on this story. In fact, from what I can find, officials will only admit to finding six severed heads -- not 30. The mea culpa would highlight this, as well as copping to my own laziness in not using whatever acronym signifies "insurgent groups" this week (ACM, AAF, AGE, et al.). So I not only need to follow my own medicine (i.e. getting it right), I need to be more careful in how I describe things. Alex,

You’re actually right. I’ve been searching for any follow up on this story. In fact, from what I can find, officials will only admit to finding six severed heads — not 30. The mea culpa would highlight this, as well as copping to my own laziness in not using whatever acronym signifies “insurgent groups” this week (ACM, AAF, AGE, et al.).

So I not only need to follow my own medicine (i.e. getting it right), I need to be more careful in how I describe things.

]]> By: Alex Strick van Linschoten http://registan.net/index.php/2008/10/20/remarkable/comment-page-1/#comment-378730 Alex Strick van Linschoten Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:25:53 +0000 http://www.registan.net/index.php/2008/10/20/remarkable/#comment-378730 The events in Maiwand are more complicated that you reduce them to. Saying that "the Taliban [have] decide[d] to start beheading migrant workers" is a gross exaggeration. Firstly, what do you mean by 'the Taliban'. Secondly, this is an isolated incident. Thirdly, there is still considerable confusion as to whether these were actually migrant workers or really recruits from someone's personal militia who were travelling to Herat to a police training academy. I agree that it is an isolated event and that as such it could be portent of something much bigger. But it is equally possible - and I have a hunch that I'm looking into on the ground down here - that there is something else at work here, perhaps intra-Taliban rivalry or some other story like this. The events in Maiwand are more complicated that you reduce them to. Saying that “the Taliban [have] decide[d] to start beheading migrant workers” is a gross exaggeration. Firstly, what do you mean by ‘the Taliban’. Secondly, this is an isolated incident. Thirdly, there is still considerable confusion as to whether these were actually migrant workers or really recruits from someone’s personal militia who were travelling to Herat to a police training academy.

I agree that it is an isolated event and that as such it could be portent of something much bigger. But it is equally possible – and I have a hunch that I’m looking into on the ground down here – that there is something else at work here, perhaps intra-Taliban rivalry or some other story like this.

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