"Hope waning among Afghan-Americans" by Ernesto Londono Washington Post / October 9, 2011
KABUL - The Sept. 11 attacks had made a US assault on Afghanistan feel all but inevitable....
Related: "the directive outlined essentially the same war plan that the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon put into action after the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration most likely was able to respond so quickly to the attacks because it simply had to pull the plans “off the shelf.”
Also see: US planned war in Afghanistan long before September 11
What a cui bono coincidence, huh?
Farid Maqsudi, an Afghan-American who did well in a war economy flush with cash, said he and other Afghan-Americans have little to be proud of. They say that the benefits of what was rebuilt have not trickled down to average Afghans, that the money they have amassed has largely been sent overseas, and that today’s Afghanistan is in many ways worse off than it was when they came to help....
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Also related:
"Dimmer outlook as Afghan war marks 10th year" October 07, 2011|By Greg Jaffe and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post
The war in Afghanistan began as the good war. Today, it is the good-enough war.
I've come to learn that there is no good war, and never has been. All wars are based on government lies.
In Kabul and Washington, the push is on to wind down a fight that today will mark its 10th anniversary. US officials, who are facing a future of fewer troops and less money for reconstruction, are narrowing their goals for the country. The constrained ambitions come amid pressure from the Obama administration to scale back the US commitment at a time of flagging public support.
Just want to let the WORLD KNOW support is not only flagging, we HATE the F***ING THINGS and DO NOT WANT ANYMORE!!!
In southern Afghanistan, American commanders are focused on holding territory taken from the Taliban over the past two fighting seasons. In the capital, US officials are working to restart peace and reconciliation talks that appear to be going nowhere.
US isn't interested in peace, otherwise we would have had it and left by now.
And in the east, where violence is up slightly over last year and plans for US reinforcements were scuttled this spring, military commanders are pressing new offensives before troop levels begin to fall. That is where American commanders face their most daunting challenge.
Because we simply don't have them. That's what part of leaving Iraq is, no doubt.
“Our sense of urgency is driven by time and a recognition that we will never have more forces on the ground than we do right now,’’ said Major General Daniel Allyn, the US commander in eastern Afghanistan.
US troop levels, which are at their peak of about 98,000, will shrink by about 30,000 by summer. The coming cuts have led senior military officials to press forward with large-scale operations designed to take on key insurgent strongholds before troop levels decline, US military officials said.
Many of those assaults have focused on shoring up security along the southern approaches to Kabul, where the Haqqani network has sought to expand its presence. The insurgent group has been responsible for many high-profile attacks in the capital.
Related: Haqqani Ha-Ha
I'm not laughing.
The military had plans this year to shift some combat forces from the south to the east to help in the battle against Haqqani strongholds, but those plans were shelved, because commanders were worried that if they thinned out forces in the south too quickly, they would give up hard-won gains there. “You’ve ended up with about two-thirds of the planned-for uses of the surge,’’ said a US official in Afghanistan, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the state of the war candidly.
The inability to increase the size of the US force in the east, currently about 30,000 troops, has compelled commanders to make tough choices. Commanders have identified 45 of 160 districts as “key terrain districts’’ where security and governance must take hold. To further focus limited resources, they have designated 21 of the 45 as “priority’’ districts....
The focus has meant forgoing some plans that may have made sense a few years earlier. In Paktika province, long a stronghold of the Haqqani network, military commanders recently held off building a string of outposts to help Afghan police forces hold an area where they had crumbled in the past.
US officials focusing on reconstruction are also scaling back goals and expectations.
We only smash countries and then allow rebuilding money to be looted anyway so that is nothing new.
In Konar province, a restive area along the Pakistani border, money that went toward paying Afghan elders $120 monthly stipends to sit on district councils, known as shuras, was eliminated. About half of the elders are expected to stay with the quasi-official bodies, which play key roles in areas such as local dispute resolution.
“It remains to be seen if they will continue to be effective,’’ said a US official in eastern Afghanistan who follows the program. “We have dramatically reduced expectations of what we can accomplish here.’’
Despite the problems, US commanders point to signs of progress. There are new indications that the Taliban is having a harder time recruiting fighters locally....
That's when the light went out.
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Related:
"Northern Afghanistan has become more insecure over the past year as insurgents facing pressure from NATO troops in their southern strongholds have pushed into pockets in the north....
Progress.
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"The assault was the second major attack in three days to target foreign workers or NATO troops in the country, spotlighting the insurgents’ ability to continue to carry out major attacks, despite a 10-year NATO campaign against them....
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"Insurgents armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a small NATO base here yesterday, breaking an unusual period of calm in this volatile city and setting off a standoff between the attackers and coalition and Afghan forces that continued late into the evening....
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"NATO officials say attacks such as yesterday’s bombing have little impact on the balance of strength between the government and the insurgents....
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Then why do we need to wait two more years?
"Afghan, NATO forces kill or capture 200 militants in east; Recent operations target, impair Haqqani network" October 25, 2011|By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press
On Sunday, NATO reported that a heavily armed group of Haqqani fighters was the target of an airstrike in Wuza Jadran district of Paktia province. The coalition said several insurgents were killed in the attack, but did not specify how many.
While NATO presses ahead with its campaigns, several hundred people including students demonstrated at Kabul University against a strategic security agreement being negotiated by US and Afghan officials. Many Afghans think such an agreement would give American forces a long-term presence in Afghanistan.
The United States, which has said that it is not seeking permanent bases in Afghanistan, is negotiating details of the plan, which would govern the American troop presence in the country after the international forces’ combat mission ends in 2014.
Related: Envoy says US forces may stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014
Yeah, I am sick of being lied to.
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