Posted on 07/12/2019 8:03:50 AM PDT by robowombat
Nominee for Top US General: Afghan Withdrawal Would Be 'Strategic Mistake'
July 11, 2019
President Donald Trump's nominee for the top military officer of the United States says leaving Afghanistan prematurely would be a "strategic mistake," as the U.S. and the Taliban are negotiating a potential peace settlement to end nearly two decades of war.
"I think it is slow, it's painful, it's hard. I spent a lot of my life in Afghanistan, but I also think it's necessary," Army Gen. Mark Milley, the current Army Chief of Staff and nominee for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers at a Senate Armed Services Committee nomination hearing Thursday.
Milley said he saw "progress" in the peace negotiations meant to bring the war to an end.
A deal between the U.S. and the Taliban has been expected to be centered on a U.S. promise to withdraw foreign troops in exchange for a Taliban pledge not to let Afghanistan be used as a base for terrorism.
Milley on Iran
When questioned on Iran, Milley said Tehran's "intensity of malign activity" has increased since the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, (JCPOA) that was signed in 2015.
Milley also pointed out that Iran has "always been a malign actor," and that Iranian-backed terrorist organizations have killed U.S. troops in Iraq.
His comments come as Britain said Thursday three Iranian vessels unsuccessfully tried to impede the passage of a British commercial vessel through the Strait of Hormuz but were turned away after "verbal warnings" from a British navy ship accompanying the vessel.
"We are concerned by this action and continue to urge the Iranian authorities to de-escalate the situation in the region," the British government said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has denied the allegations.
Iran and Iranian-backed forces have been blamed for several recent incidents in the region, including attacks on several tankers, attacks on a Saudi airport, an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline and a rocket attack in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad's Green Zone.
President Trump said Wednesday he would soon "substantially" increase economic sanctions against Iran, as the U.S. accused Tehran of "nuclear extortion" by breaching the 2015 international pact aimed at curtailing its nuclear weapons development.
Iran has acknowledged it is now enriching uranium beyond the limits of the accord Trump withdrew from last year and keeping a bigger stockpile than it was allowed.
Despite the war in Afghanistan and the increased tensions with Iran, Milley said his biggest concern was "modernization and recapitalization of the nation's nuclear triad."
The nuclear triad is the U.S. military's ability to respond to threats with nuclear weapons by air, sea and land via bombers, submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"There are many reasons why there hasn't been a great-power war since 1945. Clearly one of them is nuclear deterrence," Milley said, adding that the international order is "currently under the most stress since the end of the Cold War."
There have been no more 911 type attacks masterminded from Afghanistan since we sent in troops?
Nominating Obamite Milley is the real mistake.
Yes, but the British fought their ‘small wars’ and ,some not so small such as the Sepoy Mutiny, to win as thoroughly as possible.
It's time to huddle and come up with a different play. It's OK for the U.S. to carry the ball, as long as we have blockers. Unfortunately, our offensive line is attempting to tackle us.
Remember when the Democrats told us that Bush neglected “the real war” in Afghanistan? Obama had a “date-certain” to surrender and then he didn’t. Sure, we’ve been there way too long. That said, cutting and running always has the same result. Since we now hate “you break it, you buy it” nation-building, prepare for the Taliban to violate any negotiated agreement, take over the place and foster terrorist group like ISIS. The only strategy we can possibly have is go back every couple of years and thin the herd. The “give peace a chance” and the “none of our business” folk never have an answer beyond now, now, now. It’s not like America hasn’t cut and run repeatedly since the 50s. All American enemies know this and use it to their maximum advantage.
marktwain wrote:
Someone want to explain why afganapakistan is a place the U.S. wants to send our troops to?
There have been no more 911 type attacks masterminded from Afghanistan since we sent in troops?
.......Marktwain...The US has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan. As of July 27, 2018, there have been 2,372 U.S. deaths in the War in Afghanistan. 1,856 of these deaths have been the result of hostile action. 20,320 American servicemembers have also been wounded in action during the war.
Why kill American citizens in America ...when you can kill and wound American citizens right at ‘home’.....
....take a second and think about it.
I thought President Trump was going to put a stop to all this, no?
Or did I get that from fake news?
Burning and salting (or perhaps irradiating) Afghanistan so not one poppy ever grows there for a century would be an immense boon to the planet, and to future world history.
Upton Sinclair:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Said by the guy sending his kids to Sidwell Friends.
I care about OUR kids.
2.4 trillion dollars protecting the bacha bazi boy rape culture. In today’s dollars, WWII cost us around 4 trillion.
A few goat humpers in the hills have cost us more that half of the cost of defeating Germany and Japan.
I know when I’m being scammed. If this was to protect us against terrorism, we wouldn’t let them into America. We would maybe even freeze all Saudi assets.... if this was about terrorism.
What kind of insanity thinks Afghanistan will ever be anything other than what it is? The USSR went there and couldn’t tame the place. Their ROE were the ROE of the Soviet Union. And we think our pussified “respecting islam” approach will ever succeed?
We are there now because it’s good for our senior officers and the defense industry.
Bush listening to Colin Powell’s crap, you break it you own it nation building garbage doomed the Afghan mission when you throw in fighting a lawyer-PC war. No nation has ever been successful in this third world crap hole and Powell and the US military should have taken a lesson from history and fought a different kind of war with the Taliban.
We should have used air power and limited special forces, in and out. I wish this general could give me a logical reason for staying, so far I haven’t heard one yet. Take out their poppy fields, and be ready to hit them with airstrikes and limited special forces raids as needed but staying one more day in this PC war is beyond wasteful.
Initially our goal was to get bin laden and punish the taliban, we have certainly done these things. Declare victory and come home.
We should have used nukes after 9/11. One on Mecca and Riyadh, one in the are where the attack came from in Afghanistan. Don’t issue a statement about it, explain it, or help them rebuild. Seize all Saudi assets in America.
That was who attacked us, and nobody will admit it.
The world would have understood and drawn a powerful lesson.
It would be a better world today.
I would not necessarily have opposed a proper punitive expedition in October or November 2001 - 30 days or less, land, kill their leaders break their sh*t, and leave with a warning that they would be dealing with Ohio-class missile boats next time.
I was STRONGLY in favor of using nuclear weapons once OBL was confirmed in Tora Bora in December 2001.
Since January 1, 2002, it’s all been a tragic waste.
“The U.S. picked up the global ball after the British Empire could no longer carry it after WWII. “
And nobody gives a thought about why Britain went broke and no longer carry the ball. Socialism, an aristocracy, endless expensive wars in far flung possessions, followed by streams of third worlders from those colonies into Britain.
It was that way in Rome, and now we are headed down the same path.
Globalism and empire is a dead end. It will leave America broke, flooded with foreigners who laugh at anything America was always about.
+1
Not only that, they have a lot of otherwise sensible people believing that the main enemy of our "ally" Saudi Arabia must therefore be our enemy as well.
No more fighting other nation's wars.
Never again.
“Upton Sinclair:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
he copied that idea from Mark Twain (the one who hated wars). Twain wrote about corn pone opinions.
http://www.paulgraham.com/cornpone.html
Tell me where a man gets his corn pone, and i’ll tell you his opinions. Simple as that.
At one time is wasn’t!
Back in the 1960s it was a “roughing it” vacation spot. It was a particular favorite of European hippies (and some Americans!) because of the easy availability of drugs. You can find pictures on the web verifying that. The saddest part of those pictures are the ones showing the Afghani college students in Kabul, both male & female together! The young women are stylishly (though somewhat modestly) dressed in the latest European fashions. You find similar pictures from Beirut to Cairo to Tunis all show that Islam was if not dying but at least morphing into something civilized. Then Jimmy Carter breathed life back into the dying bacillus with his moronic Iran & Middle Eastern polices.
Interesting to speculate what could have been. It is possible it could come again. It will not by showing weakness or being “understanding”!
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