"The American ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, speaking to CNN from a locked-down American Embassy, praised the Afghan security forces as having “acquitted themselves very, very well, very professionally.”
He added that attacks like this strengthened the case for Americans staying until the Afghans were fully ready to handle the situation on their own.
The scope of the Taliban’s threat in Afghanistan is often hard to measure. Sometimes it takes the shape it did on Sunday: periodic complex attacks on specific targets, rather than a concerted effort to hold territory as the movement did in the south a few years ago.
“There’s a very dangerous enemy out there with capabilities and with safe havens in Pakistan,” Mr. Crocker said. “To get out before the Afghans have a full grip on security, which is a couple of years out, would be to invite the Taliban, Haqqani, and Al Qaeda back in and set the stage for another 9/11. And that, I think, is an unacceptable risk for any American.”
Related: Haqqani Ha-Ha
It really just is not that funny anymore.
While such large-scale attacks accomplish the classic terrorist goal of shaking people’s confidence and temporarily halting daily life, it does not necessarily win support for their cause. On Sunday, in at least one case, it rallied a cry of direct opposition.
Which makes one wonder who the real "terrorists" are, doesn't it?
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Related:
[Keeping to the precedents established by his predecessor, Amrullah Saleh, Afghan intelligence never misses an opportunity to agitate or cause trouble between the US and Pakistan. The Haqqanis are being set-up to take the blame for this one before the government machine guns have even had time to cool-down--typical false flag bullshit.] --Afghan Intel Paints Haqqanis As “Lee Harvey Oswald” of Kabul
"Afghan forces to take charge of military raids" April 09, 2012|Sayed Salahuddin, Washington Post
KABUL - The United States and Afghanistan signed a deal Sunday giving Afghans authority over military raids on Afghan homes, resolving a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and Washington.
The agreement removes a key obstacle to a long-term strategic partnership between the two countries, including a United States military presence in Afghanistan after 2014....
Translation: we aren't leaving and the war isn't ending despite the propaganda campaign by the AmeriKan press to convince you.
The operations will still be based on United States intelligence, and, for now, Afghan forces will continue to depend on US airstrikes during the raids, according to the agreement.
About 3,000 night operations have been conducted during the past 14 months, with suspects apprehended 81 percent of the time, US officials said last week....
US forces will still play a large part in operations, including entering Afghan homes if needed....
In other words, NO ON THE GROUND CHANGES at all!!
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Yeah, this crock pot is getting kinda full.
"The bombing indicated that despite an enormous effort on the part of US and Afghan forces, the area was not entirely secure."
Where are we talking about?
"US readies for major Afghan offensive; Campaign aimed at securing Kabul" by Patrick Quinn | Associated Press, April 17, 2012
Securing Kabul? Kabul? The capital city and allegedly only safe place in Afghanistan?
KABUL - For Taliban militants and US strategists alike, all roads in this impoverished country of mountain passes and nearly impassable goat tracks lead to this ancient capital of 3 million people nestled in a high and narrow valley.
The Taliban made their intentions clear over the weekend, mounting spectacular coordinated attacks that sparked an 18-hour battle with Afghan and NATO forces. And now, the United States is gearing up for what may be the last major American-run offensive of the war - a bid to secure the approaches to the city.
An offensive to SECURE KABUL after TEN YEARS of INVASION and OCCUPATION?
In NO WAY can this be described as a VICTORY!!
The LAST OFFENSIVE is to SECURE KABUL?!!
While bombings and shootings elsewhere in Afghanistan receive relatively little attention, attacks in the capital alarm the general population, undermine the government’s reputation, and frighten foreigners into fleeing the country. That’s why insurgents on Sunday struck locations that were so fortified attackers could cause little or no damage, including the diplomatic quarter, Parliament, and a NATO base.
“These are isolated attacks that are done for symbolic purposes, and they have not regained any territory,’’ US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.
That sounds SO VIETNAM, hey!!!
Related:
"Taliban have proven resilient, opening up new fronts in the north and west and stepping up attacks in the east"
Yeah, they haven't regained ground -- they have EXPANDED!!
The US-led spring offensive, expected to begin in the coming weeks, may be NATO’s last chance to shore up Kabul’s defenses before a significant withdrawal of combat troops limits its options.
Un-flipping-real
The focus will be regions that control the main access routes, roads, and highways into Kabul from the desert south and the mountainous east. These routes are used not only by militants but by traders carrying goods from Pakistan and Iran.
The strategy in eastern Afghanistan involves clearing militants from provinces such as Ghazni, just south of the capital. The pivotal region links Kabul with the Taliban homeland in the south and provinces bordering Pakistan to the east.
NATO, under US command, will also conduct more operations in eastern provinces such as Paktika and Paktia that are considered major infiltration routes to the capital from insurgent safe havens in Pakistan.
But we are getting out and turning things over to the Afghan Army that shoots at our guys.
How do you tell an American mother her son or daughter died for no good reason other than we stayed way to long because of geopolitics and energy resources?
Related:
“I think that in the next days, the government of Afghanistan’s response to anticorruption efforts are a key test of its ability to regain the confidence of the.... American people [who] are prepared to support with hard-earned tax dollars and with most importantly, with the treasure of our country — the lives of young American men and women.... and say, ‘Hey, that’s something worth dying for.’ ’’
I don't think so.
Afghan and US officials blamed the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, which is part of the Taliban and has close links with Al Qaeda, for the weekend attacks that left 36 insurgents, eight police officers, and three civilians dead in Kabul and three eastern provinces.
Ha-ha.... ha.
But Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said officials have not determined whether the attacks emanated from Pakistan.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said the attacks represented an “intelligence failure by us and especially NATO’’ that allowed the militants to enter Kabul and other targeted cities, and he called for a full investigation.
That means it was an INSIDE JOB!!!
US officials acknowledged that the militants apparently were able to cross the border and travel hundreds of miles before attacking the secure targets.
Declining numbers of international troops in the coming months are prompting coalition forces to focus less on remote and thickly populated places such as eastern Nuristan. They hope to move responsibility for those areas to the Afghan security forces.
Coalition forces made gains last summer in traditional Taliban strongholds such as Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the south, areas they must now hold with fewer troops. By September, as many as 10,000 US Marines are scheduled to leave Helmand and hand over the lead for security to Afghan forces in the former Taliban stronghold.
“It’s going to be a very busy summer,’’ General John Allen, the top US and NATO commander, said recently.
“The campaign will balance the drawdown of the surged forces with the consolidation of our holdings in the south, continued combat operations,’’ and an effort to push Afghan security forces into the lead.
Ummm.... general, has anyone told you the need to SECURE KABUL!!!???
The United States finished moving the First brigade of the 82d Airborne into Ghazni this month to help clear out a Taliban stronghold in Andar district. It could be one of the largest remaining American clearing operations of the war.
It is not known when that operation will take place, but Ghazni is at a key chokepoint, with the country’s main highway from the south to Kabul running through it. The highway runs just past Andar district.
Eliminating the Ghazni problem is an important part of the plan to transition security responsibility from foreign forces to the nascent Afghan National Security Forces.
Maybe you better SECURE KABUL FIRST!!
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And that's just about the last I've seen of the last AmeriKan offensive in my Boston Globe.
"Militants foiled from attack on VP
KABUL - Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, which has come under fire from Afghans for failing to detect multiple attacks here last weekend, said Saturday it had apprehended militants plotting to kill the second vice president, Karim Khalili, and another group smuggling tons of explosives into the capital in a truck of potatoes. In both plots the evidence pointed toward planners in Pakistan, the agency said, and in the case of the assassination plan, the would-be attackers have reportedly been linked to the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based criminal network (New York Times)."
Cui bono when intelligence agencies stopping their own plans "look good?"
"The US ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, said the insurgents had struck far from anywhere visited by the president, who had returned to Bagram before flying out of Afghanistan at about 4:25 a.m. “While we regret the loss of life, this was not militarily significant,’’ he said in a briefing with reporters. “If this is the best they can do, they are not winning this war.’’
Oh, that is SO VIETNAM!!
Also see: Gunmen attack Afghan government base, killing 10
4 Afghan police killed in Taliban attacks
Rogue Afghan officer let Taliban kill father
Aaaaah, Assadullah!!!!!
Afghan capital awakes to more insurgent attacks
Three die as Afghan violence continues
Taliban attack Afghan capital, 3 other cities
At least they aren't winning.
Time to Bale on the coverage:
"US soldier to remain silent at ‘sanity board’" Associated Press, April 14, 2012
SEATTLE - The US soldier charged in the shooting deaths of 17 Afghan villagers last month will not participate in an Army review aimed at determining his mental state, his lawyer said Friday.
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was expected to face what is called a “sanity board’’ examination by Army doctors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, seeking to establish whether he is competent to stand trial. But his civilian lawyer, John Henry Browne, said Friday he instructed Bales to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent because the Army will not allow Bales to have a lawyer at the sanity board review and will not allow the examination to be recorded.
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Also see: The Lone Gunman of Afghanistan
Crock now overflowing.
