Posted on 03/29/2017 5:01:22 AM PDT by huldah1776
The Taliban is continuing its offensive in Afghanistan, taking another district center in the southern Helmand province on Thursday while an undercover Taliban spy turned his rifle on sleeping colleagues, killing nine Afghan policemen, according to the Department of Defense.
The district's police chief, Mohammad Rasoul, said the Taliban took Sangin center early Thursday morning.
"The seizure of Sangin is a major tactical triumph for the Taliban," Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the U.S.-based Wilson Center, said Thursday. The insurgent group "has taken over a major urban space in one of its major stronghold provinces, amplifying the major threat that the group poses to Afghanistan nearly 16 years after it was removed from power."
In September, the Taliban stormed into the capital of Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province, sending all U.S. trained forces fleeing from the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/taliban-sangin
Title: Taliban take Sangin in Afghanistan; 9 killed in north
Sad day for me.
In honor of LCpl HD Hogan [although it's Facebook you can hit not now and scroll through]
https://www.facebook.com/Honor-Our-Fallen-Soldiers-120202994789991/
Oh, by the way, the Russians are “allegedly” supporting the Taliban.
“Now American military officers see a growing Russian effort to bolster the Taliban’s legitimacy and undercut NATO’s military effort there, seemingly disregarding the harsh lessons of its previous invasion — or perhaps seeing a chance at ironic form of revenge for America’s Cold War efforts.
“America’s top military officer in Europe, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, said Thursday that Russia had increased its support to the Afghan Taliban, including potentially the provision of supplies.
‘”I’ve seen the influence of Russia of late, increased influence in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban,” Scaparrotti told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Scaparrotti, who is also NATO’s top military commander, did not specify what kind of war materiel the Russians might be supplying to the Taliban.”
Excerpt from CNN yesterday by Ryan Browne
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/28/politics/russia-afghanistan-libya-syria/index.html
Is scarporotti a holdover from obama? I wouldn’t trust anyone with a star given in the last 8 years. The Russians are coming.. it’s getting old.
Don’t know what he thinks of the progressive military agenda, but he’s been commanding for a long while.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Scaparrotti
Our real problem is our central strategy, trying to impose a central government on a country where most of the population are loyal to their tribe, and oppose any central government. It’s the same problem as we had in Somalia, and the result will be the same once we leave.
Our real problem is that we are there at all.
My thoughts exactly — probably another Obama general carrying the water & talking points of the ‘RATS.
Alexander the Great sent Afghanistan soil to his mother as a means of describing to he why it was taking so long to conquer the Afghans.
“Alexander’s mother, Olympias, wrote him a letter, getting on his case for taking so long to knock off these primitive, poverty-stricken Afghans. So Alexander captured three tribal chiefs and sent them back to Macedonia, each one carrying an offering of soil from his own tribal homeland; they were supposed to deliver these tokens to Olympias as a gift from her son. But waiting outside the queen’s palace door, the three chiefs got into a fight and killed one another. Alexander’s Mom wrote back: ‘Now I understand, my son.’”
Alexander the Great sent Afghan soil to his mother as a means of describing to her why it was taking so long to conquer the Afghans.
“Alexander’s mother, Olympias, wrote him a letter, getting on his case for taking so long to knock off these primitive, poverty-stricken Afghans. So Alexander captured three tribal chiefs and sent them back to Macedonia, each one carrying an offering of soil from his own tribal homeland; they were supposed to deliver these tokens to Olympias as a gift from her son. But waiting outside the queen’s palace door, the three chiefs got into a fight and killed one another. Alexander’s Mom wrote back: ‘Now I understand, my son.’”
We’ve been there 16 years, and they have an a successful offensive going? And I keep hearing about our amazing generals and COIN.
The Afghan war is not designed to keep America safe from terror. It has one and only one purpose, to spend 12.9 billion a year that goes into the right pockets.
It’s obvious he supports the progressive military agenda or he wouldn’t BE a general and wouldn’t have that position. Ill bet a paycheck he’s a nwo globalist, loves europe, thinks we aren’t at war with Islam, thinks America has critical national interests in Africa, thinks Libya was good, thinks Assad must go and it’s ok to support “moderate” rebels. And he’s all in for a new cold war with Russia and wants to bring Ukraine into nato, and thinks we need to pressure Russia to leave Sevastopol.
It’s cookie cutter predictable. I’d ignore him.
The issue to me is that it’s apparent that this war is not intended to end...ever. if we depart in 30 years, the government is going to collapse a week later.
The war sure won’t stop while there is still 12.9 billion to dole out.
We had good reason to go, we couldn’t just let AQ stay there unmolested. And at first we did great. We sent special forces and Marines, and played one group off against another. Our guys showed them pictures of 9/11 and told them we only wanted revenge on Al Qaeda. Afghans understand and respect the notion of vengeance, and we were simply a powerful “tribe”. They understand making alliances with powerful tribes. Then Bush decided it was our obligation to “fix” the place, and bring “liberty” via a central government. But the Afghan idea of “liberty” is their tribe runs it’s own affairs and everyone else leaves them alone. They aren’t interested in schools and democracy. Doomed to failure.
Stephen Pressfield’s novel “The Afghan Campaign” about Alexander’s war there is a great read. Very relevant to our situation too.
My view of the war on terrorism is Biblical, so what we do here morally will have consequences. He still rules the nations.
I am sure Mattis has read the book, and Alexander probably head an influence on Petraeus, too (they worked together on the COIN strategy), but I am not sure what Mattis’ plan is and really shouldn’t know. The only thing I do know is God will bless the nation that stands with Israel. Do the Afghan tribes care about the Jews or infidels?
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