It seems apparent that the US won’t meet its Christmas goal of having troops home from Afghanistan. Officials are still talking 2,500 troops being there on January 15, and they are detailing what that will mean to the ongoing war.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley says that the US will retain two of its main bases in Afghanistan, and will also retain several smaller satellite bases. There is no word of further drawdowns.
Milley, however, seems to be averse to the idea, saying that the troop levels will be up to the incoming Biden Administration.
Plans have reportedly been submitted, based on the troop levels, for how many troops will end up where, and which bases need to be closed. The plans were submitted to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, with no word from his office on where they’re going from here.
The plan recommends itself for multiple strategic reasons:
1. Sit massively armed right atop of the Silk Road.
2. Forward base against China & Russia.
3. Dissuade Iran’s pan Shia-ism, protecting the fake sheiks.
4. Dampen Iran’s support for Syria, Hezbollah, and Palestinians.
5. Maintain market for merchants of death.
Notice neither this article nor the Reuters article saw fit to mention what the US has committed to the Taliban regarding troop levels, when we discuss the number of US troops who will be based in Afghanistan going forward (BTW, the promise was “none”).
“19 years of war…has long been stalemated, with neither side able to defeat the other on the battlefield… the United States had ‘achieved a modicum of success’ in Afghanistan.”
Stalemate as success… interesting definition of goals there. Permanent pointless warfare = good.
The long Afghan War has always been about large permanent bases in the region. Nobody with real power much cared about the Afghans, as witness the lame puppet government that was tolerated and used to serve the basing desires that did motivate US power.