With Afghan security forces suffering record casualties, and their already tenuous control slipping all the time, things are looking dire in Afghanistan. But from the Taliban perspective, all these same stats add up to things looking pretty good.
The Taliban is getting stronger all the time, and now controls more of Afghanistan than at any time since the 2001 US invasion. That control is extending in all regions of the country, with them contesting substantial portions of even vital provinces, or controlling them outright.
That’s true even in the capital city of Kabul. According to the most recent SIGAR estimate, 12% of Kabul is under direct Taliban control, with another 32% of the city considered at the very least “contested.”
All of this adds up to a Taliban able to contest virtually any part of Afghanistan they choose, able to make a serious run at seizing almost any city in the country, at least temporarily, and can carry out so many simultaneous offensives that the Afghan military can’t react to them all.
Here is an article that looks at America’s greatest failure in Afghanistan:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2018/10/americas-biggest-failure-in-afghanistan.html
Washington seems to be incapable of understanding that there are always unintended consequences to its nation-building exercises.
Sounds more like America’s greatest success story to me. The CIA drug trade was one of the reasons we are there in the first place. It certainly wasn’t 9/11 and some dude holed up in a cave there. Get real, USA!
The DC (Deluded Createns) crowd don’t seem capable of understanding much of anything. Then again, as it’s said, it’s pretty hard to get someone to understand something when their paycheck requires they don’t understand…… And there is a LOT of money floating around the beltway paying off a lot of politicians, staffers, lobbyists, political generals, and assorted other cronies.
The trick is removing the cash incentive from DC.
Of course the war in Afghanistan is going badly and will continue to do so.
First, the Afghan people don’t want the United States and its puppet government occupying and running their country. It’s a simple tribal country full of harsh terrain and illiterate but independent people who don’t want anyone telling them what to do, much less the smarmy non-believers from the West. Who can blame them? We’d do the same.
And then there is Pakistan supporting the anti-US forces. General McChrystal in his 2009 assessment pointed out that Pakistan doesn’t want an India-influenced government on its western flank, as is now the case. Stupid Obama escalated anyhow with 70,000 more troops, all for naught. So who can blame Pakistan? It doesn’t want to become an Indian sandwich.
Trump has ordered a huge increase in aerial bombing on suspected Taliban incursions into highly-populated areas, citing the destruction of Mosul as an example. I suspect that will continue. Destroying cities and civilians is a US specialty. But not to worry, all the bombs are “precision-guided.”
“Precision-guided” to deliver profits 100% of the time.
There has been infighting between Taliban factions as reported here. The Taliban has been supported by Pakistan, but now Iran is responding to US economic attacks by taking a larger role in Afghanistan. This includes sending Taliban insurgents on six-month training run by Iranian special forces as reported here and here.
“Mission Accomplished???”
Hey, at least there is no shortage of opium poppies to supply the CIA’s global heroin distribution network.
For America & Allied Forces, it is the best time to run away from Afghanistan to avoid worse than Viet Nam type humiliating defeat.