Kabul Attack

Day before yesterday in Afghanistan three heavily armed men attacked a luxury hotel in Kabul. (I suppose part of what boggles me here is the concept of a luxury hotel in Kabul. I have to wonder if it is really new or if it is “luxury” by some different standard than expected. I certainly didn’t know of any such thing when I was there) Several people were killed and several were wounded. Various witnesses reported that one or more explosions took place followed by lots of gunfire. It seems that guards killed one of the attackers before being slain themselves and at least one of the attackers blew himself up. A Taliban spokesman said that there were four attackers wearing explosive vests and they were going to take the building out.

Now, I haven’t looked around the blogs of despair (as I call those bewailing our imminent defeat everywhere but I am sure they will cite this as a sure sign that we are doomed in Afghanistan. I will again decline to join them in their wailing. Four guys attacking a hotel does not constitute our defeat. In fact, if they were all wearing suicide vests as the Taliban spokesman said, this really reflects poorly on their dedication since only one of them apparently blew himself up. (And I have to wonder if he was an Afghan or a foreign fighter. Afghans generally seem to be more of the “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day” style than the “I’ll take a few with me when I go” type.) Four heavily armed suicide attackers, one of whom gets killed, two of whom change their minds, and only one who succeeds in his mission of dying for his cause; and the hotel is still standing. Not the most successful attack I have seen.

Now of course it is quite possible that more information will come out abut these attacks and we will see this whole thing in a different light but that is how it stands now.

I’d still be willing to go be a tourist in Kabul. There is some nice shopping to be done there.