After their press conference was cancelled yesterday over “security concerns,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai finally met with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel today, albeit in private. Hagel put a brave face on the situation after the meeting, downplaying differences with Karzai, who has accused the US of “colluding” with the Taliban.
But even putting aside that rhetorical issue, Hagel’s visit has coincided with a series of incidents that suggest the US occupation, nearing its 12th full year, is flying apart at the seams, with insider attacks and popular opposition once again on the rise.
Yesterday, Afghan university student Abdul Qayum detailed his kidnapping and tortured at the hands of an apparent CIA strike force, while protesters in the Wardak Province today blasted US special forces for ignoring a deadline to withdraw from the province after being caught in a series of “disappearances” and murders of their own. Some villagers are threatening an outright revolt if the troops remain, while the US seems opposed to removing them.
The dirty war behind the Afghan occupation has always been smoldering just under the surface, but is becoming more and more obvious and ugly, with US commanders openly refusing to ever hand over detainees held without charges unless the Karzai government promises never to give them trials. Officials maintain the detainees are “dangerous,” but concede they don’t have the evidence to ensure them being convicted in an actual court of law.
Death tolls also seem on the rise today too, with a pair of US soldiers killed in an insider attack in Wardak, and then another five killed in a helicopter crash.
Each of the issues and many more have been brewing for a long time, but with so many coming to a head at once, it seems that official claims of “progress” in the war are getting more and more farcical, and the sustainability of the war in serious doubt.
A Roundup of today’s Afghan stories
- Afghan Villagers Threaten Uprising if US Special Forces Don’t Leave
- 2 US Troops, 3 Afghans Killed in Insider Attack
- US Troops Attack Truck, Kill Two Afghan Civilians
- Despite Pledges of ‘Handover,’ US Troops Still in Afghan Province
- SOF Troops Still in Wardak as Joint US-Afghan Probe Continues
- Afghan Commander Blames Air Strike Ban for High Troop Casualties
- Five Coalition Troops Killed in Afghanistan Helicopter Crash
- Afghanistan a Minefield for the Innocent
Oh yes ! DO come apart at the seams, and go home, USA.
Oh yes ! DO come apart at the seams, and go to hell, USA.
US Military policy might be likened to a Fire Department that goes around spreading napalm and then turns round and says "look everyone, fires, it's a good job you have us".
The Afghaniscam War was a catastrophic blunder from the git. Shrouded in the vapors of 9/11/01, the Bushco posse went a stormin' in to get them bad guys and wow, the white hats STILL can't "get" the bad guys.
Wrap it up boys and get out. History will prove the Afghaniscam misadventure as the beginning of the decline of Amerikan Empire. Fall? Either or…
For 2000+ years Afghanistan has been known as "the graveyard of soldiers and of empires" – it remains so!
Its kinda amazing how we are still pretty much following the timeline of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Its almost like they've done this before and know what they are doing.
Did you ever notice that enemies the US claims to be "fighting" almost always grow stronger as long as they're "fought"? It's true for:
-drugs
-the taliban
-"al quaeda" (yeah, it's a phantom anyway)
So actuall Mr. Karzai is right. Right?
Doesn't work. Hasn't worked. Really hasn't ever worked, as I've always like the Ghandi quote about such regime always fall. Its not like we live in a two millennium old Roman Empire, or even in the first century of a thousand year reich.
It does however make some people rich with big government contracts before it eventually crashes down.
Oh, it's worked great for the war profiteers who are still making a killing off this war. These blood suckers can't live without a war, so when this one finally winds down, they'll simply start another one.
"caught in a series of “disappearances” and murders…."?
Isn't "disappearances” and murders" the USA's brand these days… American products now cum complete …..with free blood of murdered children included…… Aren't "Christian" soldiers from thoz Christian Countries wonderful….??? Even NATO has piled on this bandwagon, why not with the U.S. paying 72% of the NATO assessments…. So hurry up and get your blood soaked American stuff….. Quick before someone sane ruins all the macho fun….
Did you ever get the feeling that the United States has been deliberately attacked; and is being deliberately destroyed?
911 and the anthrax attacks (inside job), never investigated, leading to police state laws passed in the dead of night without review. Illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan based on unsubstantiated allegations of WMDs and the 9/11 (inside job) Muslim patsy. Economic war against China, wars of plunder funded through massive budget deficits…owed to China, that only made China stronger; including out-sourcing our middle class jobs to China.
The Katrina hurricane ethnic cleansing of New Orleans. Massive tax-cuts for the rich, post-911 de-regulation of Wall Street and the oil companies. A contrived banking crisis based on toxic mortgage CDOs, predatory lending, and credit default swaps that led to the looting of western nations, reducing us to paupers when the public bailed out the privately owned banks, banks, and foreign countries. Hedge funds creating food hyper-inflation, leading to rioting and the "Arab Spring" and OWS.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill that has created a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, destroying the fishing economy of the Gulf. The HAARP/Stuxnet Fukushima Daiichi radiation debacle covering the northern hemisphere, polluting the Pacific Ocean, and eventually poisoning the planet, except for pockets of South America and, interesting enough, Asia Minor (Israel), leading to the internment of the American populace. A nightmare scenario leading to The demise of once great constitutional republic.
My concern is the treatment of the Vets.It's bad enough,the way they are being treated whilst the war is ongoing.As soon as it is out of the headlines,and the troops are home,then as happened with Vietnam Vets,they will fight an even bigger battle for help at home.
Neck deep in the Big Muddy, and big fool says press on.
How load does one have to say YANKEE GO HOME, to get yankees to go home.