Here we go: McKenzie and his colleagues are laying the groundwork to keep American troops there indefinitely, as expected. It will always be possible to make the argument that we simply have to keep troops there, because once we are gone, bad things will happen. So how long must we stay? Five more years? Ten? Fifty? And what is the goal? Does McKenzie think the jihad will end? He may, as he likely doesn’t have the first foggiest idea of what it stems from in the first place.
“CENTCOM general warns fighting terrorism will become difficult once US troops leave Afghanistan,” by Sarah Cammarata, Stars and Stripes, April 20, 2021:
WASHINGTON — The top general for U.S. Central Command told House lawmakers on Tuesday that it will be difficult to battle terrorism in Afghanistan without U.S. troops in the country.
Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie told House Armed Services Committee members that he is working with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to come up with a plan should a renewed terrorism threat from the Taliban emerge once U.S. troops leave Afghanistan.
“Some of the forces are going to remain in Central Command because we are going to look at offshore, over the horizon options,” he said during a hearing on national security challenges and military activity in the Middle East and Africa.
Throughout the hearing, McKenzie, the top U.S. commander for operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, said while it’s going to be difficult to conduct counterterrorism operations, it will not be impossible.
The general pointed out a MQ-9 armed drone can be over a target in a “matter of minutes” even if it’s based far from Afghanistan. However, McKenzie’s plans so far were scant on details.
His comments Tuesday come as Democratic and Republican lawmakers have voiced concern about President Joe Biden’s decision last week to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11….
McKenzie dodged a question from Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., whether he advised Biden to withdraw troops by Sept. 11.
“I can tell you that I had multiple opportunities to have a detailed conversation with the president and give my advice. He heard my advice. I am not going to be able to share it with you here this morning,” the general replied.
McKenzie’s comment came as multiple news outlets reported that top military leaders pushed Biden to keep a small U.S. presence on the ground in Afghanistan to counter the Taliban and prevent the country from harboring terrorists….
John says
Meanwhile Afghan young men are ‘refugees’ running around Europe and the USA/Canada/ Australia raping stabbing and practicing jihad. Most on the dole but have money for vacations back ‘home.’
Infidel says
Yeah, as Mark Steyn once noted, we’re fighting over worthless real estate in Helmand, while valuable real estate in the UK, Europe and elsewhere is being ceded to muslims. Will we ultimately see a 100% population exchange – every American in Afghanistan, and every Afghan in the US?
Viktor Smith (Ex-Christi@n) says
Can’t say much about Americans in Afghanistan thing, but yeah THOSE mediveal uncivilized b@sr@rds are taking over Europe and North America. And these westerners are sleeping! Look at the Rotherham grooming gangs for example.
Wellington says
Any higher American military personnel that cannot provide an exist strategy, an end game, a path to victory in any conflict has no business in the first place making any kind of recommendations. What compounds all this in this specific instance, as has been the case with America’s entire response to Islamic terrorism since 9/11—or even before with the first bombing of the WTC in 1993 or the takeover of Iran by Islamic zealots in 1979—is that the American military echelon doesn’t know or wants to know that the ultimate enemy against America in this ongoing struggle is Islam itself.
Sick of ignorance by people who should know better. Hell, Pope Urban II knew far more about the real nature of Islam than the American military brass and the American political world have for decades now. And there is no end in sight to this ignorance by Americans in charge, no end in sight at all.
Man again reveals himself as the collective idiot he ordinarily is, this time “courtesy” of certain fellow Americans. What a waste.
Savvy Kafir says
Agreed! At this point, it really is disgusting, and unforgivable, for so many of our “leaders” in the U.S., and throughout the West, to be so willfully ignorant regarding our Muslim enemies.
There should be NO American boots on the ground in ANY Muslim-majority country. (Unless maybe it’s a few guys slipping in and out to identify targets for airstrikes or naval bombardments.) Any issues that need to be addressed in those savage lands are best dealt with via airstrikes, cruise missiles, Predator drones, or naval guns. Our “leaders” need to wake the f**k up and stop wasting American lives!
mortimer says
If NATO troops leave Afghastlistan, then the Taliban will seize power and terrorist networks will again use it as a home base. All the advances in Afghan infrastructure and advanced organizations will be lost, due to fear of terror. The US and the rest of NATO will have to return at a greater cost.
Better to keep a smaller presence to be ramped up if and when needed. The US should be training and indoctrinating the Afghan military forces and US civilians should be there to develop help develop organizations, modern techniques and modern programs.
John says
I have to disagree with you. Afghanistan is a made up country by the British. It should be called the central Asia tribal region. The Taliban appeared to be the most ruthless of the tribes, and eventually they will control the other tribes who are not willing to fight. After 20 years if the less violent tribes cannot defend them selves without American help, then let the Taliban have the fucking place, but keep them out of the west and will stay out of their shit hole tribal region.
10 years ago three days after Osama bin Laden was killed, I spoke to a special forces sergeant. He said , “declare victory and get the hell out of there.” I asked him why he thinks that. He said, “I’ll give you example. We go to a village that wants to school. We build a school. We get a teacher. Word circulate from the Taliban that the teacher will be killed, and students that go to school will be blinded. The teacher flees, and the school is empty. Soon the windows of the school have been knocked out, and snipers are shooting at us through the windows. We blow up the school.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that grim account, John. I have heard of many others like it.
jule says
I think Get out of Afghanistan fighting on the ground but never stop fighting terrorism. There are better ways. We know there are better ways. I wish our weakness was not corporations, contractors and money.
Infidel says
John, not quite. In the early 19th century, after Nader Shah’s death, a Pathan warlord by the name of Ahmad Shah Abdali established a kingdom in Kandahar, and quickly conquered much of Afghanistan, seizing quite a bit of it from the rulers of Buqhara. As a result of this, Afghanistan was born for the first time in history
Central Asia – the Russians, due to depredations on their border and the capture and enslaving of their citizens on their border, invaded Central Asia and ended those slave trading khanates of Buqhara and Khiva. Where the Brits got involved was in trying to prevent the Russians from getting access to the Arabian Sea, for which they wanted Afghanistan to be a buffer state b/w Russia and British India. So this was one of the many islamophilic projects done by the Brits
You’re right about our presense there: President Trump once told Tucker Carlson about $80 million spent on building a gas station. We need to pull out of there completely. If the Chicoms wanna go in, let them, and then deal w/ whatever unrest they see in the same way they have in Xinjiang. Or get bloodied in the same way that the Soviets were in the 80s and we were the last 20 years
gravenimage says
Mortimer, Afganistan has pub *stoning* back on the books. How is this any sort of advance, and why should Americans have to die to defend this savagery?
mortimer says
‘Al Qaeda’ means ‘The Base’ and Afghanistan was the home of ‘The Base’.
gravenimage says
CENTCOM top dog: it will be difficult to battle terrorism in Afghanistan without U.S. troops in the country
…………………
Afghanistan cannot be civilized. Time to stop squandering American blood and treasure trying.
Dajjal says
Terror is at once ends and means, the condition Muslims wish to impose. Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy. We can not fight a tactic. We fight enemies. There are two ways to defeat Muslims, which do you choose to use?
We accomplished nothing in Afghanistan or Iraq and can accomplish nothing until we face realitysquarely and stare it down. We can only waste more blood and treasure.
Archie Bunker eulogized the wrong hero in his theme song, it shudda been Old Harry.
Infidel says
Here is a commentary that Mark Steyn did years ago on Afghanistan, and how they are all over the West, while we’re still bogged down in their country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua8KIbPuGtc
tgusa says
If you couldn’t get it done in twenty years general you might not be factoring in actual truths regarding the conflict you are responsible to oversee. You can fight so-called terrorists forever, defeating them in battles here and there, but never win that war. We see this “terrorism” happening all over the world but all we get from the generally clueless is, Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Afghanistan.
tgusa says
Throughout history we have set traps for the enemy using intellectual trickery. And today, the enemy sets traps for us using intellectual trickery. The Afghan taliban are well known to be world renowned intellectuals. It is not hard to do when your enemy has elevated the intellectually clueless to high positions. All refuse to take it for what it is. An all inclusive denial it is.
Andrew Blackadder says
US Troops defend the International Borders of countries like Japan, Korea, Europe, protect the people of Afghanistan and Iraq from their own people, young Americans are dying to protect a people that have nothing to do with America, and in fact have got themselves in the middle of Tribal Wars that have gone on longer than America has even been a country.
And yet to mention that the International Borders of the USA should be protected is thought of as a racist idea… Am I missing something here?.
Walter Sieruk says
Not just “difficult” but actually impossible. This is because those jihadists in Afghanistan ,by they other Taliban of some other violent jihad entity. This is because dedicated jihadist Muslims cannot and will not be reasoned with. They will not respond to either reason or logic .
The only lanuage that they are able to understand is the lanuage being on the receiving end of a strong might of military power.
As Thomas Jefferson had ,so wisely, written “With every barbarous people…force is law.”
Bazz says
The Afdhans have been given the opportunity to join the modern world but if they are not prepared to fight for it why should anyone else ?
Blurb1000 says
…”So how long must we stay? Five more years? Ten? […]”
What about forever?
OLD GUY says
How about instead of boots on the ground, we pound the useless ground over there with BIG MOAB bombs.
Right now the only one benefiting from our troops over there is the military industries that keep manufacturing the equipment used over there and that will be left behind when we pull out.
If you are at war with an enemy the only victory is the destruction of the enemy. The idea that you can change your enemies mind is hog wash. Islam is not going to just go away.
serialthinker2003 says
what do you expect from sleepy joe ?
Now the Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS will return and spread their terrorism everywhere, and they will have a global headquarters to manage their attacks, and Biden will not be able to repel their attack, that is if these groups begin to be used as mercenary war proxies + DIEversity invasion
just wait and see the apocalypse ?