The Taliban are set to retake control of Afghanistan with Pakistan’s help once NATO forces withdraw from the country, according to a secret U.S. military report apparently leaked to the Times of London.
The leaked document, reported to have been “highly classified,” was put together last month by the U.S. military at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. “Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban,” the report was quoted as saying. “Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable.”
Much of the information for the report was gained from interrogations of some 4,000 detainees at Bagram allegedly members of the Taliban or al-Qaeda. Bagram is well known as a Guantánamo-like base for US forces in Afghanistan; the information may have been gained through torture.
The Pakistani government, and more specifically its intelligence agency ISI, has denied previous accusations that they support the Taliban. But the report says Pakistan is helping the Taliban strategize and direct attacks against U.S. and NATO troops.
It’s possible that the renewed U.S. efforts to negotiate with the Taliban is in part a recognition that they aren’t going away and a concession that they will likely hold power once NATO withdraws. The talks, however, have shown no signs of constructive progress, much like the rest of Washington’s mission in Afghanistan.
Yeah, right .. A leak of course from the US military that makes it to the press and that argues for never ending war and never ending taking of our tax dollars to pay for more and more war.
Got $5 that says this leaker gets promoted instead of a cell next to Bradley Manning.
Even though it is probably true. Ten years of military occupation has undoubtably made our opposition politically popular. We've made theTaliban into the Afghan equivalent of George Washington. And, after years of drone strikes into Pakistan, its not a real shock that the Pakistanis wouldn't mind helping the forces that are both our enemies and thier traditional allies in Afghanistan.
Nonetheless, this leak is all about politics and budgets. Trying to keep our tax dollars flowing into their pockets.
Afghanistan will be a major battleground in WW III.
Russian and Chinese tanks will be welcomed by the Taliban.
If it came from the Times of London it is probably a fabricated report or something that has been deliberately leaked by the Israelis or US. Rupert Murdoch knows who his friends are.
Any adventure, that starts with lies and without any direction, seems to fail misrably.
Also, history show us. No country on Earth can ever rule Afghanistan.
End of the story.
Obama pulls all the tricks for his next presidential campaign. What a shill!
US troops in Afghanisatn in the year 2071? __That's the number of years in the future equal to the number of years US troops have been in Korea, with no end in sight.
I sure the Taliban will be better friends to the Pakistanis than the Americans have been – to begin with, they don´t have drones.
It's been obvious all along that the Taliban will return and rule Afghanistan again once the occupiers leave. The corrupt quislings who prospered under US occupation are weak and unpopular. They've probably already got their bags packed.
What? We're leaving Afghanistan without completing a Tans-Afghan Pipleline? That's what the war was all about.