A war with no point, no purpose, no goal. A massive waste of American lives and resources. And no accountability for those responsible. They remain in power and keep making the same policy mistakes, based on the same false beliefs, again and again and again.
“Afghan Taliban’s Reach Is Widest Since 2001, U.N. Says,” by Rod Nordland and Joseph Goldstein, New York Times, October 11, 2015:
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban insurgency has spread through more of Afghanistan than at any point since 2001, according to data compiled by the United Nations as well as interviews with numerous local officials in areas under threat.
In addition, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan over the past two weeks has evacuated four of its 13 provincial offices around the country — the most it has ever done for security reasons — according to local officials in the affected areas.
The data, compiled in early September — even before the latest surge in violence in northern Afghanistan — showed that United Nations security officials had already rated the threat level in about half of the country’s administrative districts as either “high” or “extreme,” more than at any time since the American invasion ousted the Taliban in 2001.
That assessment, which has not been publicly released but is routinely shared by the United Nations with countries in the international coalition, appears at odds with the assessment of its American commander, Gen. John F. Campbell, in his testimony to Congress last week.
“The Afghan security forces have displayed courage and resilience,” General Campbell testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. “They’re still holding. The Afghan government retains control of Kabul, of Highway One, its provincial capitals and nearly all of the district centers.”
Afghan officials in many districts currently under attack by the Taliban depict a significantly different situation. Even Highway One, a ring road connecting all of Afghanistan’s main cities, has long suffered repeated Taliban ambushes and roadblocks in southern Afghanistan; over the past two weeks the insurgents repeatedly cut the highway in the Doshi and Baghlani Jadid districts of Baghlan Province — long an uncontested government stronghold. Few government officials now use the highway along much of its route.
In many districts that are nominally under government control, like Musa Qala in Helmand Province and Charchino in Oruzgan Province, government forces hold only the government buildings in the district center and are under constant siege by the insurgents….
Don McKellar says
If somebody really wants to become the Republican front runner and put a lock on it, all they need do is announce that one of their first orders of business will be the arrest and prosecution of Barack Obama. Full investigations of all the debacles and treasonous activities, from the white-washing and tampering of FBI manuals in fighting Islamic jihad, to the entire Benghazi affair, to the Iranian nuclear debacle, to the infiltration of operatives from the Muslim Brotherhood — and many, many other charges. They should declare that from the very day Obama steps out of the White House he will held in Gitmo while the investigations begin.
Christianblood says
Syrian bishop: Ambiguous US policy favors Islamic state. Please read more below:
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Syrian-bishop:-Ambiguous-US-policy-favors-Islamic-state.-Fears-for-kidnapped-Christians-35543.html
Christianblood says
US military airdrops 50 tons of ammo for Syrian islamic jihadist mass-murderers so that could murder more innocent Syrian Christians:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/12/us-military-airdrops-50-tons-ammo-for-syrian-fighters-after-training-mission/?intcmp=hplnws
Don McKellar says
WHAT? They’re dropping 50 tons of ammo AFTER they’ve declared their training of these monsters a failure? This is insane. So they are arming the “Islamic State Lite”. Incredible. Why isn’t somebody doing something in Washington to stop Obama???
Jeremiah says
Exactly. Yo are right. Too much talk and not enough action. We need Obama in jail before he takes his family to Qatar for an early retirement for a job well done.
We need to pursue treason against anybody giving support to our enemies. Can you think of a few?
gravenimage says
Afghan Taliban’s reach is widest since 2001
…………………………
It has long been obvious that the Taliban would come surging back as soon as we pulled out of that godforsaken hell hole. Neither the “government” nor most Afghans really oppose these pious JIhadists.
Godwin says
Because the Taliban had learnt for the Vietnamese on how to kick the American in the ass.
Joseph says
How old are you Godwin?
You remind me of a smug little older fart of a human being who proudly said that he participated in the Vietnam war peace marches. I pointed a finger at him and said ” It was fuckers like you that got many an American killed. Ho chi Minh said “You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it.” and you cocksuckers NEVER listened. He saw what was going on in America and he knew all he had to do was wait. I hope you are proud of yourself for doing Minh’s dirty work and getting good Americans killed.
No Godwin our military was very capable of winning the war in short order, problem is that nobody let them.
Dr. Divinity says
The U.S.should never have tried to set up a democracy in any muslim country..stupidity in action!!!
Jeremiah says
Fighting Muslims is futile. Our enemy is the teaching of Islam. We need to destroy the teaching. Then we can set up democracies. It is impossible to set up a democracy while the population is loyal to sharia.
Godwin says
“A war with no point, no purpose, no goal. A massive waste of American lives and resources. And no accountability for those responsible. They remain in power and keep making the same policy mistakes, based on the same false beliefs, again and again and again.”
All because America wants to dominate other countries with its bumbling presidents at a huge cost. They feared to lose out to Russia n now China. Now Obama realizes Its limit n begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, Iraq n eventually Syria.
Wellington says
America, Godwin, does not want “to dominate other countries.” What America has traditionally wanted is for the rest of the world to work smoothly, but unfortunately almost all the world outside of the West, and even sometimes within the West (e.g., Nazi Germany), works anything but smoothly.
Look, most of the world is dysfunctional and authoritarian. Most of the world, in effect, doesn’t work. America traditionally has worked quite well and over the past hundred years has been drawn into numerous world conflicts and imbroglios precisely because so much of the world is so effed up. So, quit blaming America first and foremost. Look at how screwed up almost all the world is outside of America and the West.
Also, and respecting your response to gravenimage’s 4:05 P.M. post, the Vietnamese NEVER kicked the American military in the ass. The kill ratio in the Vietnam War was 11 to 1 in favor of the Americans. Even 3 to 1 is a devastating figure let alone 11 to 1. The American military performed superbly in Vietnam, never lost a single major battle (including the Tet Offensive), but it was the politicians in America who sold the American military short. My God, the American military wasn’t even allowed to invade North Vietnam. What kind of stupid military policy is that? Imagine if the American military had been told in WWII, defeat Nazi Germany but don’t enter German territory. America lost in Vietnam for stupid political reasons, not because the North Vietnamese “kicked American ass.”
Please, take your limited knowledge and Kick-America-First attitude and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. My God, I’m so sick of people like you with limited knowledge and a non-realization that a world without America would be a far, far darker world, and God knows it’s dark enough already. Done here.
gravenimage says
Excellent post, Wellington. Nothing I can add.
Angemon says
No surprise there – we know that the Obama administration likes to cook the data to pretend that all is quiet on the Eastern Front.
mortimer says
95% of Afghans apparently believe 95% of what the Taliban believes. There are few differences between the Taliban and the government, but they are nevertheless significant.
The Afghan government will retain the support of the majority only if they understand the importance of those differences.
vlparker says
All because of the stupid, suicidal political correctness that constrains cowards from honestly assessing the situation and naming the enemy.
Wellington says
It remains as futile as the proverbial rearranging of the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic to this very day, not just in Afghanistan but across the world, and with special resonance and urgency for the West, as long as the Great Pretend Game (GPG) continues, whereby Islam is not properly characterized for the longest-lived form of evil ever devised by man, which it surely is, but is actually treated as something positive, something worthwhile, something good.
Well, Islam is not a positive but a giant negative, it is worthless and not worthwhile, and it surely is not good. It’s this simple and yet this complex at one and the same time. Meanwhile, all the world, and not just Afghanistan, perilously drifts, courtesy of Islam and ignorance of Islam.
Enragedsince1999 says
Yes. The US cannot defeat jihad by bombing weddings, Canadian soldiers and hospitals. But as soon as my Old Country Russia stepped up to the plate in Syria, things started happening there.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, Enragedsince1999.
Wellington says
Things started happening? As in only good things? My God, man, see the article on JW this very day, the one with Daniel Greenfield (astutely commenting I might add) on Jaime Glazov’s program (and remember, Glazov was born in Russia back in 1966).
You are blinded by your hate for America and your unreserved approbation of Russia, which country I might add has never demonstrated any capacity for an understanding of liberty. And boy don’t the Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Czechs, et al. know this. As George Kennan, a keen student of Russian history, fluent in Russian, America’s Ambassador to the USSR (only briefly because Stalin had him recalled for telling the truth about Russia) and an adviser to many American Presidents, both Democratic and Republican, observed, “The Russians look upon their neighbors as vassals or enemies.”
How true, whether under Czars, First Secretaries or Putin. Anyone denying this is manifesting either their ignorance or their mendacity. Helps to explain why, when WWII was coming to an end, German civilians (and some nefarious Germans too) did everything they could to get to the American and British lines because they knew what would happen to them if the Russians got to them first.
With you, Enraged, it’s all Russia, all the time. I am an American and only too ready to criticize America for the wrongs it has done in its past, though while still denoting its greatness. When have you ever said anything negative about Russia (Serbia too)? I trust you see how I can come close to resting my case here. Not completely though. Yes, I’m still ready to argue “my point” for a while longer, say ten to twenty years longer. Maybe thirty.
gravenimage says
Enragedsince1999 wrote:
Yes. The US cannot defeat jihad by bombing weddings, Canadian soldiers and hospitals.
………………………………
The idea that the very civilized United States is targeting weddings, hospitals, and their own allies is simply calumny. In any long-term engagement, there are screw-ups during the “fog of war”.
The reason we don’t hear about such incidents re Russia is that Russia would never allow that kind of freedom of reportage.
More:
But as soon as my Old Country Russia stepped up to the plate in Syria, things started happening there.
………………………………
Unfortunately, those “things” included this sort of thing:
“Islamic State captures most territory in months, nears Aleppo”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/10/islamic-state-captures-most-territory-in-months-nears-aleppo
Now, this state of affairs is certainly not the fault of Russia–this basic trajectory predates their more robust involvement there. But it certainly gives the lie to the idea that things are hunky dory in Syria now that the authoritarian Russians have arrived.
Dave J says
Americans for the most part do not realize or appreciate the violent chaos and gangland mentality that rules most of the world.
We are content with our consumer abundance, peering at our smartphones and having pretend elections every 4 years where the majority of us don’t vote anyway.
The sheer volume of inane TV content, which exceeds intelligent content by 1000 – 1, shows how abstracted from reality most people are.
We ignore and dissemble at our peril.
keith says
… Islam is on the move… the radical elements on the battlefields being the tip of the spear, but the mainstream secretly yearns for the caliphate of Saladin, so long has it been since there was a Muslim empire… history repeats: 21st Century Islamic Nazi-ism… Also, I don’t really think our Prez is deliberately delivering us unto Islam… I just think that (A) He’s not very good at foreign affairs and strategic thinking, and (B) Being a minority, he is far more sensitive to political correctness than would be a non-minority… I can’t see a reason for him to have an Islamic agenda… seems illogical, unless he’s a Muslim, and his personal religious habits don’t reflect that…
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Obama is above all a globalist. That view of course implies world government, which in turn necessitates control by mandate from the elites. Obama went to a rich kid finishing school in Hawaii, then the same in California, then again (maybe) in Morningside Heights, and one last time in Cambridge. So that covers the socialism and globalism parts. Add to that his being a mulato born of a card carrying communist black, and the witch’s brew for disaster was complete.
And the disaster has come to fruition, as many knew it would when it became clear that the ruling elite had chosen to make him president over Hillary. I think that, if anything, now that he is publicly humiliated and is being openly sneered at by even his fellow globo-socialists, his only thought process now is to find a place to lay the blame and get ready to retire to Malibu and choose his country club.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
America’s longest war was doomed to failure from the start because the insurgents are in actuality activists, and the full population agrees with what is being acted on. The disagreements are only about focus and pace. The war therefore turned to the hearts & minds of the general population. David Petraeus’ ROE was a disaster for us, a relief for the Taliban. By the ROE we sacrificed many American lives and left tens of thousands handicapped by the ROE, yet we haven’t won a single heart & mind. There is no detectable movement in the Afghan population towards freedom and self-sufficiency. Our presence there has enriched many crooked politicians pretending to be in favor of democracy, but it has only helped impoverish our nation here.
The opium crop is the only value add in Afghan, and that hasn’t changed. When the free American money dries up, they’ll just increase production.
WC Crusader says
Alarmed Pig Farmer,
Here is a great statement by Ralph Peters from an article titled “The Hearts and Minds Myth”, with a subtitle of “Sorry, but winning means killing”:
“Mastering the languages, cultural nuances, beliefs and taboos that prevail in a theater of war, area of operations or tactical environment is vital to military success. It’s much easier to kill people you understand.”
Our biggest failure is not understanding Islam. Jihad Watch helps us understand the evil that is Islam.
Walter Sieruk says
The way actual way to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as how to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria, is by the use of many very strong powers of military might. That is hit them hard .Hit then long and don’t let up on hitting them. That is take them down ,keep them down and don’t let them rise up again. As Thomas Jefferson had so well stated “With every barbarous people…force is law.”