Taliban Tries New Afghanistan War Tactic, Pens 'Open Letter' to Congress

In a rambling "open letter" to Congress, the Taliban's spokesman said he wanted to present American lawmakers with "a true picture of the ground realities" of the war in Afghanistan, which he insisted the U.S. can't win.

The spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, called on Congress to send a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, apparently ignorant of the fact that representatives and senators visit Afghanistan all the time. But American lawmakers rarely leave heavily guarded U.S. facilities, moving only in armored convoys, because of the danger presented by the Taliban.

The letter was e-mailed to news organizations Sunday, and it differed little from the countless statements the Taliban have released over the years. Many have been aimed at Americans, at times directly saying so.

But this was believed to be the first addressed to Congress, perhaps an indication of how closely the militants pay attention to the U.S media, which of course has been filled in the past week with stories about Congress—and what Americans are expecting of their many new representatives.

Ahmadi wrote that the point was to give Congress "another side of the coin, more different from the one which is submitted to you by your generals, time and again."

Much of the roughly 2,300-word letter, addressed to "Messers American Congressmen" and written in similarly problematic English, is stock rhetoric. It wasn't clear whether the letter was actually sent to members of Congress or simply e-mailed to news organizations.

Click here for more on this story from the Wall Street Journal.