Venerable.

This is coolbert:

"we want to pause to share a fresh look at some of the Taliban’s weapons,

based on the battalion’s recent captures from slain Taliban fighters

or caches, as a means to understanding more fully how the Taliban fights."

Well, you can understand that this catches my attention right away. The Taliban, fighting against U.S./NATO forces in Afghan, using a melange of weaponry, to include the British SMLE rifle. Knock-off copies of the original - - but still very potent.

Captured weaponry, the assorted types as you would find among an insurgent force, on display for reporters, including those of the New York Times.

"Taliban Gun Lockers: The Rifles of Rural Ghazni Province"

"Within the assortment, two of these rifles were particularly eye-catching: a pair of apparent Short Magazine Lee Enfields, known among those who follow firearms evolution as S.M.L.E.’s, that were captured"

"We’ve seen aged Lee-Enfields in Afghan service in the past . . . and their use by a better breed of Taliban marksmen in Helmand Province . . . the officially obsolete arms of old empires still find their way to war, and can be put to effective local use by insurgent cells."

The bolt-action, ten-round rifle [SMLE] that served the British Empire so well for so long, a marked contrast to the modern assault rifle.

Almost exclusively, the Taliban and those Afghan guerrillas before them during the communist occupation, primarily used captured Soviet type weaponry, the AK, The PKM, the RPK and the RPD! Taliban under certain circumstances preferring the OLD BUT STILL VERY EFFECTIVE SMLE!

The SMLE first issued over one hundred years ago now but still going strong. As currently used by the Canadian Rangers of the far arctic north, the Maoist rebels in Nepal and perhaps at this very moment the forest guerrillas of India?

Some times the old ways are the best ways - - most assuredly so if the old weapons are used too!

coolbert.