The American military senior people have indicated that THEY don’t agree….
There is still unrest between various Sunni and Shia Islamic factions AND the Taliban…
An unstable Afghanistan would mean that ALL of the efforts by America and its Allies over the last decade where for nothing….
At least 63 people died in Afghanistan’s capital when a suicide bomber linked to the Islamic State blew himself up in a crowded wedding hall in one of the most devastating attacks on civilians in the long conflict.
The Islamic State’s local affiliate issued a statement online Sunday claiming responsibility for the attack. The group has made a brutal name for itself for focusing its attacks on civilians.
The message included an image of a young man carrying an assault rifle with a text describing him as a Pakistani named Abu Asim saying he attacked a gathering of “rejecter polytheists,” which is how some extremist Sunni Muslims describe followers of the Shiite branch of Islam.
The awful scale of Saturday night’s attack on the wedding only became apparent in the morning when the Interior Ministry said that at least 63 had been killed and more than 180 wounded in a blow to an entertainment scene largely centered around weddings.
Enormous multistory wedding halls in Kabul will often hold several of these joyous celebrations in the course of a single night.
A spokesman for the Taliban insurgent group, Sohail Shaheen, sent out a tweet Sunday morning in the Pashto language saying the group had no connection to the bombing. “The attack on the wedding hall is a brutal act,” he said. “The Islamic Emirate condemns it in the strongest terms. We share the sorrow of the people.”…..
Supporters of an extended troop presence in Afghanistan are trying to remind Mr. Trump of Mr. Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. Iraq’s security forces were unprepared to fight on their own and, three years later, the Islamic State rampaged through the country, capturing major cities and plotting attacks against the West.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed article last week, David H. Petraeus, a retired Army general who commanded United States forces in Afghanistan under Mr. Obama, warned that a “complete military exit from Afghanistan today would be even more ill-advised and risky than the Obama administration’s disengagement from Iraq.”
“President Trump should learn from President Obama’s mistakes,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who often advises the president, said Friday in a statement. “Any peace agreement which denies the U.S. a robust counterterrorism capability in Afghanistan is not a peace deal.”…
Note….
President Obama ended up sending troops back to Iraq after hastily exiting too many, too soon….
When has there not been “unrest” in Afghanistan?
When the Talivan ruled?
Not true.
The Taliban mainly controlled the southern party of the country around Kabul.
The Northern Aliance composed of various warlords controlled the northern part and was waging a civil war with the Taliban.
In essence Afghanistan as been in a state of war for the last fifty years or so.
This rump group of stooges that the United States has put “in charge” of Afghanistan controls only Kabul and not even that securely.
The Afghan “army” has as much staying power as the notorious “Army of the Republic of Vietnam “ that disintegrated in 1975 after an all out assault by the North Vietnamese Army.
We Americans like creating out of whole cloth these “governments” and “ armies” and then try desperately to convince ourselves that we are “doing something.” What we are doing is creating chaos in these countries and then self righteously patting ourselves on the back.
If America withdraws from Afghanistan tomorrow,it will simply revert to form, perpetual civil war
And us?Well we will listen to these so called”military experts,”who ,rather than being listened to with some degree of respect ,deserve nothing but cold contempt for their ludicrous idea that just continually involving ourselves in these warlike nations does anything for the “security “ of the United States.
The country has had a history going back further of instabilityy…
To let it just stand on it own would put things back to where ISIS and it’s rivals would again terrorise its population while the world stood by…
And would have made past actions by America in vain….
Even Trump won’t let things slip back I’m gonna bet….
Vietnam is a emerging manufacturing base in Asia….
Afghanistan has no such ability…
And ur right Jack….
The region push/pull has and always WIULL be present in the country…
That is NO reason to just walk away from a breeding ground for terrorists who export their skills
As I point out about Obama and Iraq?
Once in?
In the Middle East u are NEVER out…..
Yeah we should just continue to send Americans to this meat grinder to “protect” us from “terrorism.”
Actually Jack?
Yes…
After Pearl labour and 9/11 EVERY military and intelligence boss KNOWS that by mounting a good strong offence off of American shores the enemy has to fight in their own backyard and does have time or the capability to come HERE…
THAT has been the major American Nation Security policy since….
It WILL continue to be either Donald Trump is in office or not….
A failure to follow this will endanger American lives at home…
And we have enough fucking problems with domestic/home grown terrorist’s….
We do NOT need well trained ones coming eager AGAIN…
And it has been strong headed.
Look we all know how you love wars and all this dumbass wasteful military crap (while lying and claiming you want to cut the military budget)
See James you can’t “cut” the military budget and at the same time promote this goofy military intervention that you crave.
The Iraqi military intervention was one of the worst foreign policy disasters in American history yet here you are essentially endorsing the aftermath of it.
George W Bush would be proud of you!
NO….
I DO NOT LOVE WARS….
They are barbaric and was the lives of those sent to fight them…
But The rational for sending American ‘troops’ around the world to sit in the front seat of conflicts and places where attacks COULD be created against America IS SOUND…
Back a few years ago we debated budget cuts…
I surprised you by agreeing in them…
I have posted that the pentagon had its first in-depth audit and was found wanting…
I even pointed to specific programs and polices that I thought should be cut….
Having knowledge of the military is NOT something to knock…
Having knowledge is being a smart tax payer and guy who does a blog…
I ALSO in this place said that Bush II’s actions against Iraq , was the cause for loses of life for American, Allied other lives….
I explained Jack?
That prior to Bush II’s actions, which I believe was also partly because there was attempted to assonate his father, and was based on bad intelligence shopped by Tenet to Poweell….Iraq and Iran had a balance fighting each other in the region…
Bush II upset that balance and as Powell predicted….
‘You break it?….You OWN it’…
Barack Obama inherited a fucked up economy before he got sworn in….
Bush II also left a more fucked Middle East….
And just because it seem simple?
American is NEVER gonna be able to walk away again….
Obama tried it…
It didn’t work…
It won’t work any better for Trump…
The naïveté Of that statement is so great,it begs rational discussion.
To imply that a few thousand troops in a country the size of Afghanistan has anything to do with stopping “terrorism” is the height of American hubris.
It’s obvious that you have bought into media soundbites, I e, any discussion of foreign policy realities should be shut down when some military “hack”starts jabbering about “terrorism..”
Why not station thousands of troops in every Middle East country and then very country in Africa?And then, when an inevitable terrorist attack occurs?Why send some more troops of course( after the obligatory media interviews from “military experts.”)
Ok Jack here’s how this goes as we have had this discussion many times….
The American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are primarily ‘advisors’….
They train , help, equip and direct the native troops…(This applies for Iraq and others countries around the globe)…
The American troop contrary to the media picies are NOT DIRECT combat troops as u are advertising….
Yes, there ARE special ops groups that CAN take on specifically directed missions and gather intelligence…
There are also intelligence units that work with American equipment and native advisors….
Finally?
There are chopper support units that can move native troops and provide transportation American military people…
In fact there ARE thousand’s of American military troops spread across the Middle East in bases….
There are also fighter jets, bombers, transports, choppers and drove ALL OVER the Middle East , Africa, Europe and Asia…
You might want to check this out…..
The Pentigon is gonna drag its feet on any substantial withdrawal…
Probably announce some movement…
But will NOT empty the country….
Even Trump’s buddy ur Senator Lindsey Graham is working to stop Trump form doing something stupid on this….
The Pentagon is the problem
Sure they’ll drag their feet.
They exist for perpetual war.
Hahaha You’re so damn funny.
None of that “Advisor” Garbage has anything to do with my point that you are obviously too dense to understood.
However, it is my fault.
I should never enter to anything resembling a serious conversation with the likes of you.
Gee we have troops all over the place!I need to “check this out!” Wow!What “insight!”
Nice try in playing this off…
But you got this wrong….
This isn’t just the Pentagon….
This National Security policy that affects ALL of us…..
The ‘troops’ will there after Trump leaves office….
And Imopposed to it.
Instead of informed debate (which we all know you are incapable of) we get goofy platitudinous faux patriotic gibberish about Pearl Harbor!
Come on James tell us how you want to “cut” the military budget.
Lies and the lying liars who tell them…
But wait!
As you’ve said all this military spending?
Hell it ain’t got nothing to do with all this “terrorism” stuff!
Nah it is really a “jobs program.”
You are clueless on some military and national defense issues Jack….
Yes the Military Budget IS A JOBS function…
The target cost for any organisation is people…
The US military budget is NO exception
US Defense spending is spread across the nation and the world….
The budget is said to be almost $700B…But it actually higher since some programs are actually in other departments and some are ‘off the books’…
Cuts?
Reduction in bases under-utilised here and abroad…
(The last time they tried that they had make up a commission so lawmakers could try to swallow any cuts in THEIR state or district)
Cut the number F-35 figures jets to be produced…
One less Aircraft Carrier…
Keeping large drone’s longer …Slowing replacement …
Better more up to date accounting on waste and fraud as pointed out in the audit…
The department does NOT know what some of it’s sets are , so there is money allocated for project that may NOT even exit anymore…
Better control and forcite on equipment sent to war zones that eventually is give away to other countries , captured by enemy forces or simple left to rot away…
Cut’s and slow downs in technology research …
Cuts in contracted services…
Modernisation with eye on cutting cost and unnecessary personnel…….
….
The problem is that the budget is just a BLANK CHECK …..
American MUST have a strong robust Defense …
But with a black check mentality and NO serious oversight and no REAL political challenges?
Money just gets voted on and moved around a massive Department the has 3.6 MILLION (listed ) uniformed employee’s and almost 900,000 civilians to pay worked in 163 countries….And pays veteran befits and healthcare benefits for employee’s and their families
Your simple answer is meaningless….
Cut to deployments and the Department are actually a complex military , foreign policy, national defence, and YES political question that America’s lawmakers will NOT take seriously…
Obama had a spending limit or a sequester dropped on him…
But with gone?
Republicans raised the defense budget by 10% and got rid of the sequester limits…
Democrats , mindful of coming elections did N OTHING to stop the increases…
Heck, the pentagon has admitted it doesn’t know where ALL the money IS and keeps funding project’s and places that are obsolete…
As I pointed out…
Your simple ‘cut’s NOTHING to do with the reality of where American ‘troops’ go or how much is spent on , or NOT cut from the military budget…
But thanks for helping me bring ALL this up again…
So now let’s see some more “logic” from you…
Ah yes,the Pentagon is right when they say we need troops here and there ,obviously we should do what they say because they know what they’re talking about ,even though they are inept.
Once again, who can argue with that!
Look your problem as usual is you just spout some much contradictory Bullshit that in the end you come off as what you are…
A guy who loves wars loves these endless foreign entanglements, wants a massive military ,then claims he wants to cut the defense budget ,and finally declares the Pentagon a bunch of idiots ,but is eager to have them conduct military policy abroad and in this crazy world you’ve created…
This tripe makes sense.
I’m much more simple, massive cuts in the military budget and bring the troops home.
I know you can’t stand this because you love all this war stuff and faux patriotic bs.
Nice cut and paste job.
What googled article did you get that from?
Being called clueless by the likes of you ,whose ignorance is daily displayed here daily,is an honor of which I am justly proud.
So let me see, you are for cutting the defense budget but increasing our defense burdens abroad.
Makes sense to me!