The U.S. military is readying itself for the Afghan insurgency’s annual blitz of increased violence for the spring months, calling what is clearly a defensive posture on the losing side an “offensive” against the Taliban.
Insurgents mounted spectacular coordinated attacks over the weekend that set off an 18-hour battle with NATO forces, an emphatic indication of their annual spring offensive and a public relations embarrassment for the U.S. at what seems to be the lowest point in the war.
Months of successive high profile failures, including the protest-inducing burning of Muslim holy books and the unprovoked massacre of 17 Afghan civilians, have brought public support for the war to all time lows, with a number of NATO countries like France and Australia planning to withdraw early. The Obama administration has also had to give in on several sticking points in negotiations with the latently defiant Kabul government as it prepares to withdraw combat forces in 2014.
Of the weekend’s onslaught of coordinated insurgent attacks, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “These are isolated attacks that are done for symbolic purposes, and they have not regained any territory.” Right, the symbolic purpose of ousting the American occupiers from Afghanistan with their heads hung low.
“It’s going to be a very busy summer,” Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. and NATO commander, said recently. “The campaign will balance the drawdown of the surged forces with the consolidation of our holdings in the south, continued combat operations” and an effort to push Afghan security forces into the lead.
But these are tactical goals the U.S. hasn’t been able to achieve for over a decade, and which the Obama has failed miserably at since 2009. To present this spring’s increased violence as a last strategic push to win the war – which is how its being presented – is really an embarrassingly transparent attempt at war propaganda.
Afghaniscam – the quagmaire gets deeper ever deeper and the US is stuck neck deep in bloody bullsh*t.
However as the BillyGraham.org advert on the Antiwar.com right hand side of this page reads – "Commit to Pray for our nation in 2012." Whatever. Maybe we should pray that the boneheads in Babylon-On-The-Potomac can cop a clue.
GET THE SCREAMING F*CK OUT OF IT!!!
U.S. Army staff Sgt. David P. Nowaczk, 32, died Sunday, April 15, in Kunar province, Afghanistan,
from an IED attack. U.S. Army Sgt. Tanner Higgins, died Saturday, April 14, in Logar province from small arms fire. These are the latest of twenty U.S. soldiers who have died in combat within the last three weeks, (since March 21, 2012). There has been no mention of any U.S. combat losses on all the major news networks in that same time period.
How pathetic. This is like Napoleon putting out a press release and saying that the slow destruction of his retreating army was in fact a victory.
Soon we will hear of that these are "acts of desperation" on the part of the Taliban and that we're on the verge of creating a viable "Afghan Army". I would contend the real Afghan Army is doing quite well…as shown this past weekend by pinning down the occupying forces in the capital. The Quisling Brigade on the other hand, not so much.
I guess we know where "Baghdad Bob" went, he's now working for the 5-sided looney bin.
Actually the Taliban is in last throes, Cheney dixit. Lol.
I've been in someone else's house for a while now. The cops finally came. They're shooting through the door. I guess I win.
DOD predicts the up and coming successful ofensives by the enemy, but declares them last minute acts of desperation, which translates in DOD speak to mean that successful offensives by the enemy proves DOD´s stategy is working. Didn´t we hear the same crap during the Vietnam war?
We will of course lose this stupid war, but the enemy will probably not permit our troops to depart without fighting their way out, and certainly not leave with their toys.
What are we going to win?
More people who hate us?
I remember that right to the very end of WW2 the Nazi propaganda via their news media and huge posters plastered all over towns and country were proclaiming that Germany was 'victorious on all fronts'. Retreats were called 'elastic fronts'. Imperial loosers will never admit they are loosing. The things we experienced while living under occupation still aplly to this very day..
Pentagon: Afghan Offensive Sign of Victory
Isn’t this the second or third time some government flunky has made this sort of proclamation?
It's at least the third time…this year!
Does this remind anyone of the Tet offensive? A lot smaller so it can be easily dismissed but an indicator of worse to come. I seem to recall that the writing was on the wall for the Russian occupation once the mujahideen could launch attacks at will into Kabul.
Billions of dollars worth of opium and heroin get out of Afghanistan annually. Just how much arms and munitions come in annually to support armed resistance of all brands and sizes — who knows. The bottom line is, where exactly are NATO forces, and what exactly are they doing? If they do not know what is coming/going out of the country — while they themselves are negotiating with half of the world to get their own supplies in — what do they know/control? It seems to me that the only REAL mission is to insure that the friends of friends in Congress and other bottom feeders can till doomsday "supply our troops" with whatever one can imagine. The money is made in "supplying", so why quit the money making scheme? So, they will just "have to stay" longer, and be supplied longer. Nice, costly gas, food, military gear supplies, military bases and all the appurtences — let the imagination be your guide. What if we ask them to continue "supplying" them with goodies, but let the troups come back to empty bases and empty commercial spaces all over US? At least, the money would be spend at home, and give a boost to OUR economy.
"…where exactly are NATO forces, and what exactly are they doing?…"
It's not what little we are being told, you can count on that. They are not securing the borders into/out of Pakistan – they've sublet that task out to…the Taliban. And they're not protecting those supply convoys (that aren't moving from the port in Pakistan) – they've outsourced that task to…the Taliban/Haqanni. So, what? Remember all those combat engineers/construction brigades that were building all those massive airbases/FOBs in Iraq? They're busy building airbases in the southwest provinces (along the Iranian border) and in the ****istans along the Chinese border. This is why the warmongers do not want the US/EU/NATO to vacate the AO anytime soon – at least not until they've achieved regional domination.
They are complete idiots, of course. We cannot afford to continue the PNAC plan of world domination, morally or financially. What we really need to do is prosecute those responsible for the place we are now in…going back as far into previous Administrations as we need in order to send a message that will sink in…yeah, and I'll now pass the pipe…
Lets me wonder: does Mr Karzai already own a house in Florida?
Is there still a place next to the former South American dictators?
Maybe he should hurry up?
W9
The fascist amerikan empire IS the big loser ! The collapse of the empire is firmly in place !
Sounds like Gen. Allen is channeling Dick "The Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes" Cheney.
Just imagine the Pentagon PR release in a few years: "American and allied NATO forces completed a brilliant strategic repositioning of their troops in Afghanistan today" — as the last chopper bugs out of Kabul.
LOL! The Pentagon should change its motto from whatever it is to "War is peace, freedom is slavery and knowledge is strength" – may as well make it official.
This war should be reffered to as Pipelineistan. We had no honest motive or rationale for waging war in Afghanistan. The Afghans never attacked us. No Afghan participated in 9/11. The Taliban made numerous attempts at allowing the extradition of Osama bin Laden to FBI agents posted on the Af/Pak border, but were rebuffed at every turn by the Bush Administration who clearly wanted war. During the summer of 2001 at a conference in Berlin, Bush officials told Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Niaz Niak, that we would "attack Afghanistan before the snow flies in October." Also in 2001, Taliban emmisary Hashemi while in Washington was told by State Department's Christina Rocca when deliberating over the pipeline deal to stretch from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan, "accept our carpet of gold or we will bury you in a carpet of bombs." This war is illegal and based on fabricated intelligence. This is a war for regime change to facilitate the pipeline deal for the American/Saudi consortium, UNOCAL.
Don't forget the opium…
"I guess we know where "Baghdad Bob" went, he's now working for the 5-sided looney bin. "
Thanks for that!
You're quite welcome…comedy, farce…Republican, Democrat…as Breaker Morant said, "Live every day as though it's your last; for some day you're sure to be right."
I only trust the Iranian press.
Australia is not a NATO countryl
Australia and New Zealand are now planning to withdraw their contingentsat the earliest this and otherwise early next year, initially scheduled for 2014. They apparently already see the writings on the wall.
This sounds like one of those fairy tales about how the fact that you have no evidence that something exists is proof that it exists but is undetectable.
The correct phrase is "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." – D. Rumsfeld Feb. 12, 2002 DoD news briefing(that's their term, not mine)