Obama gives go-ahead to more US military role in Afghanistan

[robert99]

Obama gives go-ahead to more US military role in Afghanistan
PressTV-US okays extra army role in Afghanistan
Fri Jun 10, 2016 ... yes, the US is still in Afghanistan.

 

[Second Summer]

The NATO forces simply can't leave without there being credible Afghan government forces to take over that role. The power vacuum would soon be filled by the Taliban.

 

[ledboots]

What credible Afghan government is there at this point? NATO will choose some faction to back, train, finance, and arm, and then lose control of them, go back and find a faction to back, train, finance, and arm, and then lose control of them.....

 

[robert99]

It seems like after what ... nearly 15 years ... and countless billions or is it trillions now, things don't seem to be a lot different.
The Taliban resurge in Afghanistan — and ISIS also moves in
Near total failure of US military advisory and training

The US really needs to ask itself what the [bleep] are we doing in Afghanistan.

 

[robert99]

Boots on the ground - send in the JSOC goons!
US widens military role in Afghanistan to fight Taliban
The White House has announced the expansion of the US military's role in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, ratcheting up a 15-year conflict President Barack Obama had vowed to end.

Josh Earnest, Obama's press secretary, said on Friday that US forces will play a "more proactive" role in helping local troops "be more effective in the battlefield".

Earnest said US support will come in the form of "advice and assistance" to Afghan military, as well as "occasionally accompanying them in their operations".

 

[Mischief]

This is the kind of situation where there is no easy or good answer. If we (the West) pull out, there will be immense suffering for generations. And the status quo also results in suffering.

 

[robert99]

So long as there's a demand for opium, they'll be conflict.
Pentagon Expects Lull in Afghan Fighting for Poppy Harvest | Military.com
Trying to force Western style democracy on a country that never has been a democracy, or has any politcal parties or any culture of democray, is doomed to failure.

 

[ledboots]

So long as there's a demand for opium, they'll be conflict.
Pentagon Expects Lull in Afghan Fighting for Poppy Harvest | Military.com
Trying to force Western style democracy on a country that never has been a democracy, or has any politcal parties or any culture of democray, is doomed to failure.

THIS

 

[Mischief]

Afghanistan was destabilized long before the U.S. intervened.

I'm pretty sure that, if I were a woman in Pakistan, I would want intervention to keep the Taliban from regaining control. The situation of women under the Taliban wouldn't be tolerated by the international community if we were talking about a religious or ethnic minority instead of merely women.

And no, I'm not blind to the fact that we helped fund the Taliban when they were fighting the Soviets. If anything, that makes us more, not less, responsible for what happens if the Taliban regain complete control.

 

[ledboots]

Afghanistan was destabilized long before the U.S. intervened.

I'm pretty sure that, if I were a woman in Pakistan, I would want intervention to keep the Taliban from regaining control. The situation of women under the Taliban wouldn't be tolerated by the international community if we were talking about a religious or ethnic minority instead of merely women.

And no, I'm not blind to the fact that we helped fund the Taliban when they were fighting the Soviets. If anything, that makes us more, not less, responsible for what happens if the Taliban regain complete control.

Your first sentence explains why nothing we can do is going to stabilize the region. Nothing we are doing, anyway, is going to ever help jack ****.

Maybe try strengthening the people by ceasing blowing up their infrastructure, their homes, their lives. It isn't helping women by putting them into poverty and homelessness, carrying their children and their grief.

 

[robert99]

The situation of women under the Taliban wouldn't be tolerated by the international community if we were talking about a religious or ethnic minority instead of merely women.

We're pretty happy with it in Saudi Arabia ...

 

[robert99]

A young man is skinned alive. A sign of new Taliban brutality?
Taliban 'skins man alive' in Afghanistan as war takes increasingly brutal turn
Since 2001, the United States has invested more than $100 billion building Afghan military and police forces, a judicial system and schools in hopes of moving the country closer to normality. But all that spending appears to have done little to slow a cycle of rage and revenge that has made Afghanistan one of the world's most dangerous countries.

 

[robert99]

US to keep most troops in Afghanistan, Obama says - BBC News
The number of US troops in Afghanistan is to be reduced to 8,400 from 9,800 by the end of 2016, President Barack Obama has announced.

Under initial plans, all but 5,500 US troops were to be withdrawn from Afghanistan over the coming months.

The US ended major combat operations in the country at the end of 2014.

The mission of the remaining US troops is to train Afghan forces and support operations against al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

Mr Obama said the security situation in Afghanistan remained "precarious", with the Taliban still mounting suicide attacks in the capital, Kabul, and other cities.

 

[robert99]

USCENTCOM | Carter discusses 3 major decisions regarding Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Ash Carter discussed three major decisions that the United States has made regarding Afghanistan during a news conference yesterday in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Appearing with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Carter noted that his third visit to Afghanistan as defense secretary gave him the opportunity to discuss with Afghan leaders the U.S. commitments “to enhance the authorities of our ground commanders, … to maintain our financial commitment to the Afghan security forces, and third, to retain a more substantial U.S. force presence into 2017.”