As Taliban resume their offensive, Pentagon
downplays US airstrike in response to
deadly attacks
Washington Examiner,
by
Jamie McIntyre
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
3/5/2020 10:33:34 AM
‘MIXED RESULTS’: Five days into an agreement with the Taliban, and five days before peace talks are supposed to begin between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the United States is trying to keep the warring parties on the path to peace.“This agreement ... lays out a framework by which we could proceed toward an eventual intra-Afghan negotiation,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Congress yesterday. “It was supposed to happen at this point five days from now, and the results so far have been mixed.”On Tuesday, the Taliban mounted 43 separate attacks against government checkpoints in Afghanistan’s restive Helmand province, according to Col. Sonny Leggett, the chief spokesman
Reply 1 - Posted by:
kono 3/5/2020 10:48:09 AM (No. 337548)
It was presumptuously optimistic even to imagine that the recent announcement of ceasefires and peace talks with the Taliban had better than a snowball's chance in hell of having any meaningful effect.
Like if NeverTrumpers acted like they were about to endorse Trump, the NeverInfidels in Pashtun territory are hell-bent on expelling every invading army, without exception and without end. (And once the foreigners are driven out, the remaining forces can resume fighting each other over who gets to oppress the people who live there.)
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
mobyclik 3/5/2020 10:49:32 AM (No. 337549)
I have to agree with #1. Centuries of killing one another is ingrained into their T-Rex brains. If they're not killing SOMEONE, they're not happy. To hell with all of them.
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
bamboozle 3/5/2020 11:00:31 AM (No. 337570)
What then should be our stance if ISIS should establish Caliphate v2 in Afghanistan and begin destabilizing neighboring Pakistan? Neanderthals killing neanderthals is one thing but one of the neanderthals is a nuclear armed neanderthal.
11 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
bad-hair 3/5/2020 11:09:29 AM (No. 337586)
Then when ISIS 2.0 becomes a threat to Pakistan we'll deal with it quickly. Until then GET OUT.
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
GO3 3/5/2020 11:56:10 AM (No. 337637)
Let's back the tank up up a minute. The Taliban IS a creation of Pakistan's ISI. Pakistan needed them to secure routes of commerce to the rest of Central Asia. Then ultimately, we paid them to do the same thing to ensure supplies reached our forces. In effect, the Taliban is a proxy of the Pakis, so we have been indirectly negotiating with Pakistan, and maybe directly under the table. We should get out as quickly as possible. I also don't think the Taliban will destabilize their former (current) boss and risk losing money and their sponsor. If they do, the Pakis will not hesitate to take care of matters and not in a nice way, which is good for them if we are out of harms way.
7 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 3/5/2020 11:58:31 AM (No. 337640)
Nuke it flat and leave.
7 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
bighambone 3/5/2020 12:23:50 PM (No. 337662)
President Trump knows all that. It is readily apparent that his objective is to get most US troops out of Afghanistan while still retaining the tactical capability to strike at dissident elements in Afghanistan if militarily necessary. Trump has been talking all along about keeping that campaign pledge.
The different barbarian factions in Afghanistan have been fighting among themselves for hundreds of years, and you would have to be a moron to believe that they are suddenly going to stop fighting and become best buddies. Trump has it right, as long as the Afghans fight among themselves inside their borders it should not be the business of the USA to police that fighting. It is time to bring as many US troops home from Afghanistan as is politically possible.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
chumley 3/5/2020 12:33:22 PM (No. 337670)
Moslems like killing. They also like dying. I guess life as a Moslem is so horrible that death is preferable. If they were ever happy or stable or secure they wouldn't know what to do with it and start killing again just for the familiarity.
Best to give up this silly Mideast peace foolishness and let them get back to it. We have accomplished nothing and spent gobs of money, which may have been the goal all along.
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 3/5/2020 12:35:01 PM (No. 337672)
Well that wasn't a surprise...talks are breaking down before they even start.
its not a matter of if, but a matter of when will terrorists in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere plan new attacks on the United States. We can get out, but never be surprised if we end up going back in. If they pose a threat, we have to deal with it. Otherwise we face the prospect of another massive attack like we suffered on 9/11.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
valinva 3/5/2020 1:00:48 PM (No. 337700)
The Taliban is not ISIS. The Taliban is trying to regain the control of Afghanistan that they had previously before the US kicked them out. They are also Muslims who cannot be trusted because their strict interpretation of Islam tells them that they can lie to infidels (that's Pompeo) So, the cease fire agreement/peace treaty is not worth the paper it it written on.
2 people like this.
Taliban...Afghan government...have at it.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
msjena 3/5/2020 3:24:00 PM (No. 337840)
Way back in 2001, we attacked Afghanistan because they had been (and presumably still were) harboring terrorists who planned the 9/11 attacks. It was not to free the Afghan people from the Taliban. If that happened, it was a bonus. Bin Laden is dead as are other 9/11 masterminds, or they are in Gitmo. So what is our reason for being in Afghanistan? Are they still harboring terrorists? If not, what is our reason for being there?
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bighambone 3/6/2020 1:54:40 AM (No. 338159)
The USA does not have to police Afghanistan to keep Islamist terrorists from getting into the USA to perpetrate terrorist attacks, as if the USA were to effectively police competent immigration laws it would be very hard for Islamist terrorists of the 9/11 caliber to get into and stay in the USA to carry out terrorist planning and attacks.
President Trump is using “a peace deal” with the Taliban as a crutch to withdraw as many American troops as is politically possible and after that as far as Trump and the USA are concerned the many Afghan factions can go on killing each other to their heart’s content as they have been doing for hundreds of years.
0 people like this.
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