Appointed as the latest in a long, long line of US commanders of the Afghanistan occupation earlier this year, officials say Lt. Gen. John Nicholson is putting the finishing touches on his 90-day assessment of the situation in the country, and expect that he will recommend troops levels to remain flat.
The US currently has about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan, and while the plan initially was to get that number to 5,500 by year’s end, the drawdown plan had already been on hold even before Nicholson took over.
In that sense, the news could be worse, as Nicholson was previously talking of “right-sizing” the number of ground troops, which most saw as a euphemism for a new round of deployments bringing the troop levels back over 10,000.
That is apparently not going to be the case, though along with expectations of keeping troop levels flat, Pentagon officials also added that they don’t see any chances of new peace talks any time soon with the Taliban, suggesting that the drawdown is unlikely to be revisited any time soon.
Jason Ditz, isn’t the real message the fact that Iraqis aren’t interested in fighting to support the US in their country? Isn’t it clear that they would drop their weapons on the battle field and go home if the pay cheque would keep coming?
When the next president who will be Clinton or Trump, as the long shot, takes over from Obama, this will become obvious when it’s seen as necessary for American soldiers to go in and win the war.
There is no “winning” in the accepted definition of winning. The more invaders/occupiers we put over there, the more resistance will be generated. Not only from the locals, and their co-religionists, but from their regional allies too.
Just more death and DEBT….. The big winner will be atrophy…. Just like in all past such conflicts from, at least, korea onwards. The more we win, the more we lose. And, no, it’s not any zero sum game, Not when we pay interest on trillions of debt….. Not as we are being invaded by mobs from the whole feckless world. Not when America’s heartland is an ever expanding blighted wasteland. Not when more than half of Americans cant afford a $400.00 dollar emergency repair. Getting tough will only lose what few friends we have, if any. What we have are nation states welfare queens sucking us dry.
May 19, 2016 The Imperial Empire: The Sun Never Sets but the Mote remains in the Emperor’s Eye
Post-colonial empires are complex organizations. They are organized on a multi-tiered basis, ranging from relative autonomous national and regional allies to subservient vassal states, with variations in between.
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