Ongoing US-Taliban peace negotiations, designed to end the 18-year
Afghan War, has a new proposal, with the Pentagon having finally offered
a formal plan for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan.
As with the usual Pentagon plans, there seems to be reticence toward
actually doing this in a timely fashion. The plan reportedly would have
half of the 14,000 US troops leaves Afghanistan within a matter of
months, but then the rest would stay for as long as five years.
The end of the five years would see not only all US troops out of Afghanistan,
but also NATO troops. It is said to enjoy support within NATO and among
administration officials. It’s not clear what the Taliban’s position
is, however.
And that might be a tough sell for the Taliban. After resisting a US
occupation for 18 years, the Taliban’s demand is to get the US out of
the country, and while the logistics of that might take awhile, five
years is a very long time.
If anything, such a long time is likely to raise fears that the Pentagon
is dragging its feet specifically to give officials time to change
their minds and dishonor the deal, and keeping thousands of troops
inside Afghanistan means Trump, or his successor, could end up resuming
the war.
… Well, this means invading Venezuela is out then….
Five years is plenty of time to arm, fund, and train another “terrorist” group to sell weapons to while simultaneously serving the illegal drug funding arm of the CIA.
They dont have to create another terrorist group. The Taliban is doing just fine. They keep overtaking Afghan military positions, grab their US made weapons and the US sells new weapons to the Afghan army. No need to disrupt the current system. All is well.
Here ya go. https://news.antiwar.com/2019/03/01/taliban-overrun-south-afghan-military-base-killing-25-soldiers/
They’ll change the name, hire some new thugs and or old enemies, make up a new bio, etc. They won’t chance losing their gig by insisting on keeping anything the same.
I’m sure they will but perpetual war and status quo is identical to these war mongers.
Are we expected to be happy about it? Are those good news?
It means (after filtering out wishful thinking) that in the next five years (at least) US troops will stay in Afghanistan.
The military industrial complex is certainly happy.
Are we expected to be happy about it? Are those good news?
It means (after filtering out wishful thinking) that in the next five years (at least) US troops will stay in Afghanistan.
The military industrial complex is certainly happy.
In other words, the war continues for at least another 5 years. Hopefully, the Taliban tells us to go f**k ourselves.
The MIC and DC warmongers just figure they can keep on extending the date forever. We’ve already seen that “leave” doesn’t really mean leave anyway. Excuses will be made on one side based on “national security” and on the other side “humanitarian responsibility to protect”. Both excuses are lies of course.
Both “sides” want permanent wars. It makes them more powerful …… and richer. They are never going to give those up. To believe otherwise is self deception.
That ain’t gonna do no good either.
The only “good” scenario is our unconditional withdrawal. The Taliban would be foolish to accept any 5 year plan.
Five years is longer than WW1, and longer than the US was in WW2, and much longer than the Korean War. That isn’t getting out. That is staying in.
They’re re-arranging chairs on the Titanic. What I read into those plans is a massive increase in mercenaries/contractors to fill the gap. To think that the Pentagon will do anything other than exacerbate the situation would be a bit too optimistic. I personally think they won’t last 5 more years at the current rate. For decades the Taliban amounted to not much more than a bunch of angry, well armed, hillbillies. Now they have Taliban Special Forces.
Taliban Special Forces…
Is this a sign of anything other than a complete failure? In all this time and trillions of dollars later, they’ve managed to create a Narco state that is being overrun by High Tech Rednecks. The Karzai brothers have been telling people that if the US would have spent those trillions instead on putting the Taliban through Harvard, they’d not only have a 1,000 year American Raj, but they’d have lots of money left over.
Five years!!!
It’s a first step. It’s not much, but it’s a start. Getting the military — and Congress — to accept defeat is going to take a bunch more flogging. But the people are way ready. So let the flogging — and the bitching and moaning and stalling — begin.
The haven’t really accepted defeat or they wouldn’t be setting a 5 year timetable. Losers don’t set the terms.
The political class figure the resistance to interventions will not have legs and it will just go back business as usual.
PATHETIC!!!
After 17 years of warfare, hundreds of thousands killed, the country destroyed…..the US needs 5 years to pull out.
The US might as well say…..we will never leave.
Uhh, ok…..https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2016/08/afghanistan-controls-160823083528213.html
They can get out tomorrow if they want to. Suckling on government titi for endless cash is hard to let go.