President Biden formally announced on Wednesday his plan to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan. While the new plan pushes back the May 1st deadline set by the US-Taliban peace deal, Biden said the withdrawal process will begin on May 1st, and the goal is to have all troops out by September 11th.
“I’m now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth,” Biden said. “I’ve concluded it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.”
Since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in Doha last year, no US troops have died in Afghanistan. The Taliban has warned that it will start attacking US and other foreign troops again if they remain in the country beyond May 1st. It’s not clear if Biden’s plan will be acceptable to the Taliban. After the news broke on Tuesday that Biden was pushing back the deadline, the Taliban said it was boycotting peace talks until the US left.
“The Taliban should know that if they attack us as we drawdown, we will defend ourselves and our partners with all the tools at our disposal,” Biden said in his announcement.
Biden said the US will continue to provide “significant” assistance to the Afghan government after the withdrawal, something he also told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a phone conversation on Wednesday.
As part of his justification for the withdrawal, Biden claimed there were more “terrorist” threats facing the US in other parts of the world, like Somalia and Syria, a sign that the War on Terror will continue. He also cited the need to confront China, which the Pentagon recently identified as the top “threat” to the US. Considering Afghanistan’s location in central Asia and the fact that it shares a small border with China’s Xinjiang province, there will undoubtedly be a continued CIA presence in the country.
The US officially has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, although the number is believed to be closer to 3,500. On top of the US presence, there are 7,000 other coalition troops in the country, mostly NATO forces. Biden said the US’s NATO allies will be leaving too. “The plan has long been in together, out together,” he said.
The US also maintains a heavy presence in Afghanistan in the form of contractors working for the Pentagon. The latest numbers released in January said the Pentagon has over 18,000 contractors in Afghanistan.
I wont hold my breath long enough to choke on it. As far as I can tell, the only thing Biden did for peace in Afghanistan was give the chickenhawks six more months to f**k it up.
For all the costs and risks of six more months of war, what does the US get? Nothing.
It is just self serving politicians, unwilling to make a hard decision because some people won’t like it. Nobody wants to be holding the hot potato when the music stops. But he ran for President, so it is his. This is chickenshit.
That’s what we get in a non-democracy, where the weak corrupted ones get to make the decisions and the citizens can go fish.
Oct. 15, 2015 – NYT
WASHINGTON — President Obama halted the withdrawal of American military forces from Afghanistan on Thursday, announcing that the United States will keep thousands of troops in the country through the end of his term in 2017 and indefinitely prolonging the American role in a war that has already lasted 14 years.
In a brief statement from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Mr. Obama said he continued to oppose the idea of “endless war.” But the president, who once traveled to Afghanistan to declare “the light of a new day on the horizon,” said Thursday that a longer-term American presence there was vital to the security of the United States and a country that is beset by the Taliban, their allies from Al Qaeda, and militants from the Islamic State.
“While America’s combat mission in Afghanistan may be over, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people endures,” said Mr. Obama, flanked by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and top military leaders. “I will not allow Afghanistan to be used as safe haven for terrorists to attack our nation again.[sic]”. . .here
American War Lords, i.e., Industrial War Complexes earn billions in profits from Wars which keep their Terrorist Genocidal War Businesses in operation, doesn’t care, how many human lives are taken & properties are destroyed, they also get rebuilding contracts etc., etc.,
. . .from US State Dept, April 8: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s Visit to India and Meetings with Prime Minister and Top Officials in the Government of India — Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry traveled to India this week and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They discussed U.S.-India cooperation on addressing the climate crisis and . . blah blah
Well that’s a lot of hooey IMO. India (besides the US) is currently the big loser with the ongoing US surrender in Afghanistan and former SecState Kerry was needed to work out some details with India, a large important country which has had close ties with the US puppet Afghan government since 2001. That started in in 2001-2002, when the so-called Northern Alliance set-up that seized Kabul following the Taliban’s removal from power, and India was needed for the transition to to the interim government under Hamid Karzai.
Since then, India with US support has been very active in Afghanistan with soft power, in contrast to Pakistan’s hard power military support of the Taliban. India has spent billions in aid to Afghanistan including foodstuffs, power lines, dam construction, highway improvement, and construction of the parliament building. Also heavy private investment and soldier training (but no Indian troops).
One main reason for Pakistan’s support of the Taliban has been to counter India’s involvement on its western flank, as General McChrystal reported to Obama in 2009. But the US continued to support Pakistan, and it has paid off for Pakistan. There is no current danger of Pakistan becoming an India sandwich.
So the US has maneuvered India, a supposed US ally, in the Quad and all that, into a weak position so Kerry had to be sent for “climate talks” with India’s Modi. What did Kerry promise Modi? We’ll look for indications.
“What did Kerry promise Modi?” Why, what else but the enviable chance to join with the United States in …
Another Catastrophic Success
With their tails tucked proudly ‘tween their legs
Advancing towards the exit march the dregs
Of empire, whose retreat this question begs:
No promised omelet, just the broken eggs?
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2011
Well let’s dig into the eggs a little deeper. Senator Feinstein’s hubby comes to mind, collecting truckloads of eggs (i.e. dollars) in the Afghan highway construction biz. Every backward, mountainous, dirt poor, illiterate medieval country must have a modern highway system! (and the Taliban run the toll booths).
. . . duibùduì ?
Duì!
Modern Day Hitler, Fascist Terrorist Butcher Coward Indian PM Narender Modi, his HMS, RSS Goons & Forces can only do Genocide, Heinous Atrocities, Crucify Unarmed Innocent Christians, Sikh Nation, Muslims, Dalits, Low Caste Hindus & Other Minorities with The American & West Eureopeans’ Blessings, and will never send Her (Indian) Forces to Afghanistan as India Considers it to be Committing Suicides. So, India just want to enjoy West’s Goodies.
The Terrible Worm in his Iron Cocoon
The terrible worm in his iron cocoon:
The knight in his armor enclosed,
Has gone off again on a global Crusade
Which has left his own country exposed.
His lines of supply girdle heaven and earth;
Expenses grow terribly huge;
While folks back at home find themselves unemployed,
Yet they shrug, after them the deluge.
Or so they suppose as the flood of lost jobs
Washes over their living room floors,
While off in Iraq, and Afghanistan, too,
Their troops break in through the front doors,
Then haul off the males in the household to jail
For “being of age” to resist:
A “crime,” we insist, ‘cause our saying makes “law,”
Enforced by the gun and the fist.
The troop in his tank behind sunglasses blank,
In his man-from-mars uniform finds,
That grabbing the native oppressed by the balls
Beats winning their hearts and their minds.
Now bankruptcy rules in the land of the fools
Where the terrible worms got their start
Then charged off to do what the world would soon rue
As not worth the tiniest fart.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2009
What I do not understand is that, if Biden had this power, why didn’t Stumpy? And why couldn’t this have ended way back during O’Bomber’s term? They make me sick, these people we call our “leaders.” They never had a f’ing strategy for what “victory” might have meant in Afghanistan to begin with. And dragged their feet every step of the way. They are disgusting. Bring All our troops home, now, from everywhere. All we ever do with them is make more enemies.
Putin has already sized up this administration. He will roll tanks over Ukraine and knows Biden won’t do anything about it.
Troops to train Afghan forces? Troops to provide them recon and other help? Bases for “helpful” drones. Or just money for awhile?
These weasel words make me wonder if there is anything real in this at all.