Speaking to state media outlet Voice of America, Capt. Bill Salvin, the head of public affairs for the US war in Afghanistan, announced today that the US is escalating their fight against ISIS in Afghanistan, and is determined to defeat the group in 2017.
The ISIS faction in Afghanistan is actively recruiting nationwide, but primarily holds territory in the eastern Nangarhar Province. The Pentagon was long loathe to admit the faction was even operational, but came around on that last year, with the first offensives against the group by the Afghan government.
“Defeating” ISIS in a meaningful matter in the country has proven difficult, however, with Afghanistan having claimed “total victory” and to have outright routed ISIS at least twice in 2016, only for the group to fairly quickly reemerge in the same areas they were expelled from after the offensive ends.
ISIS’ presence in Afghanistan, even in territory they nominally control, is always somewhat tentative, with the group seemingly always ready to relocate at the first sign of a serious offensive against them. This has allowed them to mostly escape the offensives, and despite gaudy numbers claimed killed by the Afghan government, to keep coming back more or less intact.
The US put ISIS in Afghanistan to begin with in order to fight the Taliban and to have an excuse to continue the war! If American troops withdrew ISIS would be gone in a week!
Interesting comment Sara! You don’t mean that the US literally put ISIS in Afghanistan do you.
“ISIS” is a term that needs a description, so can you do that first?
My best shot at it would be that ISIS is a faction that is representing one side in the fight in Iraq and Syria, or more correctly now, the Levant. That means to me that they are the Iraqi people and the Syrian people, with others originating in the Levant in general. And they are the side that is opposed to the US/Nato, or occupiers in general.
So in my opinion, the US didn’t literally ‘put’ ISIS is the Levant. What did you really mean?
In “Defeating” ISIS in a meaningful matter”, “matter ” should be “manner”, or better yet, “way”.
This is Trump speaking. This is Trump’s notion that he’s going to make America great again and he’s going to use convincing military force to do it.
I’m sure all of Trump’s supporters are quite confident he will succeed!
Others may be a little less convinced and also a little wary of the consequences of using convincing force from 30,000 feet. Will the civiilian population be taken into consideration by Trump?
Were the people of Vietnam taking into consideration the last time a president used convincing military force?