Posted on 05/04/2017 9:04:53 AM PDT by ColdOne
The U.S. military said on Thursday it will offer recommendations on the war in Afghanistan to President Donald Trump within the next week, amid expectations of a request for thousands of more troops to break a stalemate with Taliban insurgents.
Theresa Whelan, acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations, low-intensity conflict, testified to the Senate that the Pentagon was completing its review of potential adjustments to U.S. war plans.
"I expect that these proposals will go to the President within the next week and the intent is to do just that, to move beyond the stalemate," Whelan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Why are we still there?
What’s the mission? If no clear objective, then you are pissing away American lives.
Adding NATO troops to train and support the Afghan military, especially their nascent air force seems like a cost effective way to whittle that number down.
To call it a war is a misnomer. We are assisting the Afghan administration in order to keep the Talliban from coming back into power. Obviously all of that training of the Afghan military has not gone so well.
You can never defeat a guerrilla insurgency by just fighting the guerillas. You have to go to their bases, the places where they are trained and supported.
And for the Taliban, that is Pakistan.
Go there, shut the madrassas, and smash their radical islamic sipport, and there won’t be any more Taliban guerillas.
Everything short of that won’t end the Taliban, and is just a waste of time.
“Obviously all of that training of the Afghan military has not gone so well.”
In WWII we armed the Free French, and several other armies.
In Vietnam, we created a credible army, navy, and air force; marines and paratroops. Plus (by late in the war) a credible supply backup system.
After 15 years in Afghanistan, we haven’t even gotten to that stage yet. (Ever see the Afghan army on parade?)
The entire policy was mistaken from the start. Pakistan, not Afghanistan, was the place to fight radical islam.
That, and cutting off their Saudi money.
Are we EVER leaving Afghanistan? Why are our men still taliban targets? What are we accomplishing?
Stop wasting American lives and treasure on a country that will NEVER change
Afghanistan will always be a tribal fighting hell hole , that is all the people know .
Most of all stop bringing these lunatics into this country.
The next they decided to hide someone like Bin Laden you drop a big boy like Nagasaki .
KTA...come home and have cake and ice cream...
• Communist coup (1978)
• Uprisings against PDPA government
• Soviet intervention (1979)
• Resistance against Soviet intervention
• Soviet withdrawal (1989)
• Collapse of the PDPA government (1992)
• Establishment of the Islamic State of Afghanistan (1992)
• Inter-factional fighting
• Establishment of the Taliban Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996)
• Resistance to the Taliban Emirate by the United Fron
t • NATO invasion (2001)
• Fall of the Taliban government and establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2001)
• Taliban insurgency
What is the reason to waste another drop of American blood or $$$$ in this Islamic country, making war-lords wealthy and the poor there even poorer. Islam hates all other religions especially Christianity and Judaism. Training a Muslim to "work" with Americans is tantamount to digging our own graves.
To defeat the indigenous culture and replace it with western values
To pick several tribes from among hundreds who have been warring since prehistory, to try to dominate the entire faux nation created by the British empire
Sounds like a cause to die for if you have sons and daughters from middle America, right?
Meanwhile the poppies bloom and the heroin labs grow and ISIS has now moved in to challenge the Taliban for control of the trade
No one in the world is honest about what’s going on in Afghanistan
Except maybe the Russians who are assisting the pakis and the Taliban to fight ISIS because they are the lesser of 2 evils
Exactly. Why do we need boots on the ground to wipe out ISIS?
Well said.
Amen!
With eight years of Obama all he did was to keep a stalemate in Afghanistan. Obama did not want to win but for political purposes he did not pull out our troops. Same thing in Syria and Iraq. He tied our troops hands with “his” rules of engagement.
I believe President Trump wants to win this thing in the shortest time and with minimum casualties. He stated repeatedly during the campaign that he wanted to wipe out ISIS. This should come as no surprise to those who have been paying attention to President Trumps speeches.
The plan I want to see is the exit plan.
No one has ever tamed Afghanistan and no one ever will.
It was foolish for us to try and we have wasted enough lives and money.
Yup. Pakistan. I think sanctions might be in order FIRST.
And napalming the poppy fields.
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