Source: Reuters
(For full coverage of Afghanistan, click on [ID:nAFPAK])
KABUL, Dec 25 (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban on Friday issued a new video tape of a U.S. soldier captured this summer, which was condemned by the U.S. military as propaganda, and the decision to release it on Christmas day as cruel.
Private Bowe Bergdahl appears in the video wearing sunglasses and a U.S. military style uniform including a military helmet.
He gives his name, hometown and other personal details before saying he is a prisoner of war of the Taliban. It is not clear when the video was made.
He goes on to attack U.S. leaders for their treatment of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and warns that the U.S. military is no match for the Taliban.
"I'm afraid to tell you that this war has slipped from our fingers and it's just going to be our next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," he says.
But a military spokesman said the statements should be considered coerced, and condemned the timing of its release.
"This is a horrible act which exploits a young soldier, who was clearly compelled to read a prepared statement. It reflects nothing more than the violent, deceitful tactics of the Taliban insurgency," said U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, director of communication, with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.
"To release this video on Christmas Day is an affront to the deeply-concerned family and friends of Bowe Bergdahl, demonstrating contempt for religious traditions and the teachings of Islam. We will continue our search for Bowe Bergdahl," he said in a written statement.
In the video, Bergdahl tells his fellow soldiers they are facing a well-organised and patient enemy -- perhaps a reference to a statement made by the White House last month saying the United States would not be in Afghanistan in nine years' time.
"To all you soldiers out there who are getting ready to come over here for the first time because of the stupidity of our country and leaders ... you are fighting very smart people who know exactly how to kill us and are extremely patient."
A spokesman for the Taliban also urged the U.S. government in the video to make a prisoner swap deal for Bergdahl.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has demanded and still demands release of a limited number of prisoners in exchange for this American prisoner, Bowe Robert Bergdahl."
The soldier, who was 23 when he was captured by the Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan in late June, was in good health, Zabihullah Mujahid said.
The man in the video looked healthy and said he had been well-treated, contrasting his fate to that of prisoners held in U.S. military prisons, including the infamous Abu Ghraib.
the man said.
"I bear witness I was continuously treated as a human being, with dignity, and I had nobody deprive me of my clothes and take pictures of me naked. I had no dogs barking at me or biting me as my country has done to their Muslim prisoners in the jails that I have mentioned,"
In July, Bergdahl appeared in a video urging the U.S. government to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, which was denounced by the Pentagon as Taliban propaganda that violated international law.
The capture and detention of the soldier comes amid the bloodiest period in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
To try and quell mounting violence, Washington has begun the gradual dispatch of some 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan, before starting to pull them out in July 2011.
There are about 110,000 foreign troops, more than half of them Americans, fighting the militants.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin and Jonathon Burch; writing by Emma Graham-Harrison, editing by Sugita Katyal)
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
(sayed.salahuddin@thomsonreuters.com; Kabul newsroom: +93 799 335 285))
If you have a query or comment about this story, send an e-mail to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)
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If educated people continue to promote violence then there is no hope. What is the use of having thousands of Universities and millions of Graduates if we basically remain as Barbarians with polished words and sophisticated weapons.
If educated people continue to promote violence then there is no hope. What is the use of having thousands of Universities and millions of Graduates if we basically remain as Barbarians with polished words and sophisticated weapons.
Aside from intellectuals, left-wingers and fellow travellers, the majority of Americans are God-fearing and down to earth idiots. Why on earth they fight and die in a country like Afghanistan? The Afghanis are devout Muslims and super-patriots albeit being illiterate and to a certain extent primitive. The Americans will never win their current anti-Islamic crusade, assuming they know what is winning.
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