Kill My Donkey If You Must, But Don't Screw With My Cellphone

KILL MY DONKEY IF YOU MUST, BUT DON'T SCREW WITH MY CELLPHONE....Laura King reports that Afghans are getting pissed off at the Taliban:

For the last two months, Taliban fighters have been blowing up telecommunications towers, with the aim of preventing NATO-led forces from hunting them down via cellphone signals. It could hardly have been a worse public-relations move for the insurgency.

...."I'm so, so furious about this," sputtered businessman Rahim Agha. "Why do they have to do this to us? Why can't they just turn off their phones?"

But this does sort of perplex me: what's the point of blowing up the towers? If the Taliban fighters do that, they can't use their cellphones either, can they? So what's the point? For that matter, why not buy up lots of cheap cellphones and use them to confuse the NATO forces? Seems like there must be something more to this story.

In any case, this is another example of how both sides in a guerrilla war have the same problem of fighting hard enough to win but not so hard that they lose the surrounding populace. It's a tough balancing act. King continues: "The Taliban, though, may be reconsidering its highly unpopular campaign. Commanders have been quoted as saying they are aware of the angry public backlash and may allow the resumption of normal service."