And when he got there the cupboard was.... full of agenda-pushing propaganda:
Afghan president vows to take on corruption
While in China, he invited the Taliban to join in a peace process backed by the international community.
Encore, encore!
Afghan president dismisses most of his ministers
Afghan people still waiting for leaders to take charge
After long delay, Afghan leaders unveil list of Cabinet nominees
Among the current nominees are former generals who rose up in the Communist government in Afghanistan from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and in a separate development Monday, Afghan officials confirmed for the first time that the Islamic State is active in the south of the country, recruiting fighters, flying the group’s black flags, and possibly battling Taliban militants, the Associated Press reported.
Yup, ISIS is now everywhere and if they are battling Taliban, well....
Afghan Cabinet nominee investigated
Afghan Cabinet nominees named
I didn't know Karzai had been reelected.
Time for some fun and games:
"Suicide bomber kills at least 45 at tournament in Afghanistan" by Joseph Goldstein, New York Times November 24, 2014
KABUL — At least 45 people were killed and about 80 wounded Sunday after a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a crowd gathered for a volleyball tournament in a village in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The attack was launched hours after Parliament approved security agreements allowing US and NATO troops to remain in the country past the end of the year.
The bombing occurred in the Yahyakhail district of Paktika province, near Pakistan, said Mokhlis Afghan, a spokesman for the provincial government. He said many of the wounded were in critical condition.
Although most of the victims were civilians, a member of the provincial council in Paktika, Bahawul Khan Katawazai, said that the dead included eight members of the Afghan Local Police, a village-based paramilitary outfit that supports the Afghan government.
No one claimed responsibility, and the Taliban’s spokesman could not be reached.
The hallmark of a false flag.
Paktika, one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions, is among the places where Taliban and affiliated insurgent groups such as the Haqqani network are waging an intensifying war against the government in Kabul.
Sunday’s attack was similar to those carried out by Haqqani, which regularly sends young men on suicide attacks against high-profile targets.
Related: Haqqani Ha-Ha
Not funny anymore.
The attack occurred after 5 p.m. in a small village where a local volleyball team was competing against players from a neighboring district, Yosuf Khel.
Volleyball is among the most popular forms of entertainment in rural Afghanistan.
Along with dog fights, from what I've read (Taliban banned them?).
*********
The Taliban had banned sports such as boxing and soccer when the group governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. In the years since, even as suicide attacks by various insurgent groups, including the Taliban, have become more frequent, sporting events have rarely been targets.
So far this year, there have been at least five suicide attacks in Paktika province; many of the suicide bombers who carry out attacks in Afghanistan are trained in nearby Pakistan.
In several suicide attacks this year, the targets in the province appear to have been police officials or tribal leaders. In July, a vehicle detonated in a market in a nearby district in Paktika, killing at least 89 people.
Attacks across the country have escalated this year amid a contentious election and President Ashraf Ghani’s inauguration in September. The insurgents use their attacks to make clear their opposition to Ghani’s administration, as well as his support for a security agreement with the United States, which he signed immediately after taking office.
On Sunday, Parliament gave its approval to agreements with the United States and NATO allowing 12,000 international troops to remain in the country past the end of this year, the Associated Press reported.
President Obama has approved a combat mission authorizing American troops to engage Taliban fighters, not just Al Qaeda terrorists. Obama’s decision also means the United States can provide air support when needed.
Need help?
Dial ‘1-800-air power.’
That sure cooled things down.
The decision to expand the military’s authority does not affect the overall number of US troops who will remain in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, Obama ordered the American force be reduced to 9,800 by the end of this year, a figure expected to be cut in half by the end of 2015.
We were told all out at the end of 2014, but what's another broken promise on a mountain of them?
The troops were supposed to remain in a training and support capacity after ceding the leading role in the anti-insurgent war to Afghan security forces in the middle of last year. But the Afghans have suffered record casualties, stirring concerns that international troops are essential if the war is to be won.
It's been 12+ years already.
Afghanistan’s first deputy president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, welcomed Obama’s decision....
Obama wants all US troops to be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2016, as his presidency draws to a close.
Was 2014.
In addition to approving the new security agreement, Ghani’s government has quietly lifted the ban on night raids by special operations forces that his predecessor had imposed.
Afghan National Army Special Forces units are planning to resume the raids in 2015, and in some cases the raids will include members of US special operations units in an advisory role, according to Afghan military officials as well as officials with the US-led military coalition.
They are just going along for the ride.
Night raids were banned for the most part in 2013 by President Hamid Karzai. Their resumption is likely to be controversial among Afghans, for whom any intrusion into private homes is considered offensive.
Where is it not considered offensive?
US military officials have long viewed night raids as the most important tactic in their fight against Taliban insurgents, because they can catch the militant group’s leaders where they are most vulnerable. For years, the Americans ignored Karzai’s demands that the raids stop.
Two Afghan army generals in some of the country’s most active combat zones — Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan — said in interviews on Saturday that they welcomed the lifting of a ban on night raids, adding that they expected the raids to resume in 2015.
In other words, nothing has changed.
--more--"
"Bomber kills Afghan police officer" Associated Press December 19, 2014
KABUL — The Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility. The head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service said the drawdown of foreign troops had made it more difficult to track down militants.
Agenda-pushing point of psyop received. Can't leave.
Under pressure to explain the rise in attacks on Kabul, Rahmatullah Nabil, chief of the National Security Directorate, told parliament Wednesday that the removal of manpower and technology by withdrawing foreign forces had contributed to the spike in violence.
In Helmand province, he said, 65 surveillance balloons had been removed with the closure of U.S. and British bases last month. "Now I have just six agents working there," he said.
Nabil added there were 107 terrorist cells in the provinces surrounding Kabul while the city's preparedness is severely lacking and outdated.
How can he know that without.... never mind.
Also Thursday, Kabul criminal investigation chief Farid Afzali said arrests had been made connection with the killing last week of a senior Supreme Court official.
Atiqullah Raoufi was shot dead on Saturday as he was walking from his home to his vehicle by assailants on motorcycles.
--more--"
"Two Afghan soldiers arrested after fatal army attack on wedding" Associated Press January 03, 2015
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Two Afghan soldiers have been arrested in connection with the deaths of at least 28 people, mostly women and children, who were killed by artillery fired from military checkpoints at a wedding party, an official said Friday.
Ooops.
General Sultan Mahmoud, the head of the army in southern Helmand province, where the incident took place Wednesday night, said the soldiers were arrested late Friday. Another eight were still under investigation, he said.
‘‘There is still a possibility of more arrests because the investigation is not over yet,’’ he said.
Investigators sent from Kabul by the Defense Ministry arrived in Helmand’s capital of Lashkar Gah earlier in the day, a deputy Defense Ministry spokesman said.
An initial inquiry found soldiers had fired at a house from two directions while the wedding party was in full swing in the volatile district of Sangin, in the poppy-producing Helmand River valley.
The incident happened just hours before Afghanistan’s own forces took control of nationwide security after the end of the 13-year international combat mission led by the United States and NATO.
--more--"
Related: Rocket kills 26 at Afghan wedding party
Afghan lawmaker survives attack that kills 3 people in Kabul
Taliban suicide attacker kills 4 in Kabul
Taliban kill 7 Afghan police at checkpoint
Suicide attack at Afghan funeral kills 9
Afghan blasts kill at least 10 police officials
Taliban overrun Afghan army outpost, killing 14
Taliban’s resiliency tests troops in a strategic village
Taliban step up attacks throughout Afghanistan
Bombers hit convoy in Afghanistan
Three explosions rock Afghan capital after months of calm
Taliban attack rocks upscale Kabul district
In some Afghan areas, Taliban keep government in check
Better send the troops back in.
NATO wraps up 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan
Well, not really, but, you know, don't let that spoil the illusion and imagery of official public relation and narrative.
"13 years after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban’s brutal regime, and after billions of aid dollars flowed into one of the world’s poorest countries, there is cause for measured optimism, leaving behind a war as hot as it has been at any time since 2001.
That's a cause for optimism?
This past year was the deadliest for Afghan civilians since the insurgency began soon after the Taliban were removed from power. Civilian casualties for this year are on course to hit 10,000 for the first time since the UN’s Afghanistan mission started keeping figures in 2008. With US and NATO forces no longer going on the offensive, the insurgents are seizing territory across the country, redrawing battle lines through towns and villages and putting civilians at heightened risk, according to Emanuel Nannini, program coordinator in Kabul with the international aid agency Emergency. Afghan security forces are also falling in record numbers as they take on a greater role in the fighting, with some 5,000 killed this year alone....
But the optimism!
The good news is it still presents the best chance — and perhaps the last chance — for Afghanistan.
Oh, that's great news. It's your last chance! Situation as bad as it's ever been after twelve long years of war -- but it's your "best chance!"
Then pardon, if you may, but WTF have we have been doing over there then?
That’s why the Obama administration’s decision to delay the withdrawal of all US troops was the right one. The extension of 10,800 US soldiers to train Afghan soldiers and assist with air support is a small price to pay, given all that the United States has already invested. The world should not turn its back on Afghanistan just as it leaders are finally getting their act together....
Oh, yeah?
Related: Senior officials of collapsed Afghan bank jailed
"The scandal struck at the heart of the Kabul political establishment."
The one the U.S. and NATO helped establish.
In an interview Monday in his office after the lowering of the flag that signaled the official end of the coalition’s war-fighting mission, Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, the departing commander, offered a nuanced take on the final year of America’s longest war. The record casualties of Afghan forces are not sustainable, and neither is the astounding desertion rates, he said.
Looks like measured optimism to me.
Political meddling, not intelligence, drives Afghan military missions. The police and the army do not work together.
Well, we have turf battles over here, too. Usually results in failing to connect the dots of some false flag terror plot.
It was a reflection on the mission that was in stark contrast to the unbridled renditions of success offered during the ceremony by commanders, including Anderson. Anderson also sounded notes of hope. The war could not go on forever, but even positive assessments seemed dampened by reality."
You gotta love that paragraph, huh?
Yup, shoveled a load of shit at the ceremony, all that imagery and illusion cloaked in arrogance, all delusional and hopeful even as reality stares them in the face. Wow.
Iraq offers cautionary tale for US withdrawal from Afghanistan
Allies promise to support Afghanistan beyond war
US to keep extra troops in Afghanistan
"President Obama has authorized the use of air support and other combat support activities to help the Afghans in 2015, reversing an earlier plan to end all combat activity by US troops at the end of this year....
I never believed him to begin with.
The Army’s 10th Mountain Division formally concluded its operations in Afghanistan on Tuesday, another sign that the war is drawing to a close even as a few dozen soldiers will stay behind for another week or two."
Or year or two, anyway.
Three Americans killed in Kabul airport shooting
2 foreign soldiers reported killed in Afghanistan
Hold your governments responsible; they wanted to stay.
Those who didn't want to go back:
Asylum decision delayed for Afghan who fled US training
Major Jan Arash is one of three Afghan military officers who fled a US-led military training exercise in Massachusetts in September with hopes of entering Canada.
Afghan soldier who fled training on Cape Cod is denied asylum
Afghan soldier who fled US training sent to Canada
That's a flip from Vietnam, ain't it?
Maybe I should check the refrigerator:
"Afghans fleeing war now face brutal winter" by Rahim Faiez, Associated Press December 29, 2014
KABUL — Thousands of Afghans are pouring into makeshift camps in the capital, where they face a harsh winter as the Taliban return to areas once cleared by foreign forces.
Maybe they can stay at the club.
The US-led coalition are marking the end of their combat mission this week.
On the grimy outskirts of Kabul, hundreds of families are huddled in flimsy tents or mud shelters at the Bagrami camp. By day the children forage for fuel and food.
At night the families burn garbage to try to keep warm as the icy winds sweep down from the Hindu Kush mountains surrounding the city and temperatures plunge to below freezing.
‘‘Violence has forced us out of our homes but here misery and poverty have made our life even more difficult,’’ said Abdul Qayyum, 52, who fled here with his wife and eight children. ‘‘Such a life is not worth living.’’
Like the others in the camp, they fled their home in Sangin in the volatile Helmand province, an opium-rich region where the British struggled for years to keep the Taliban at bay before withdrawing in 2010.
All part of being liberated from that scourge.
The insurgents are now once again on the move and have extended the summer fighting season as foreign forces have handed over front-line combat responsibility to Afghan security forces.
An Afghan official said four government soldiers were killed Sunday while repelling a Taliban attack on an army checkpoint in southern Helmand province.
Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the Helmand governor, said another three soldiers were wounded in the late fighting in Sangin district. Eight insurgents were killed, he said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
This week, the United States and NATO formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan, 13 years after the invasion that toppled the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
The insurgents have taken advantage of the vacuum and seized territory across the country, redrawing battle lines through urban areas and putting civilians at greater risk. The Sangin fighting began in June after Afghan forces replaced withdrawing US troops.
Emanuele Nannini, project coordinator of the Emergency aid organization, says its 90-bed hospital in Helmand’s capital Lashkar Gah has been full for months with wounded civilians and combatants from both sides of the Sangin fighting.
Unlike previous years, he said, there had been no winter slowdown. The facility is ‘‘100 percent a war hospital,’’ he said.
This has been the bloodiest year of the war for civilians, with the toll of dead and wounded expected to hit 10,000 for the first time since the United Nations began keeping records in 2008.
The Taliban are attempting to reclaim territory in other parts of Helmand province, said Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor. Sangin, however, is a particularly important junction on the insurgents’ supply routes and their access line to the capital. Zwak estimates that 3,000 families have been displaced from northern Helmand, mostly Sangin, since the summer.
Some of that tragic fallout from the renewed violence can be found in Bagrami, in Kabul’s eastern suburbs. People have been coming here from Sangin for the past six months, but conditions are so poor that many long for the war zones they left.
That is tragic.
The Bagrami camp is effectively an illegal settlement on public parkland in a middle-class Kabul suburb. There is little local sympathy for the displaced, many in the camp said. Local authorities have objected to proposals to dig a well to provide more water for the 400 families here, and residents complain about the smoke from the fires as the displaced burn whatever they can find for heating and cooking.
Imagine all the toxins coming from some of the stuff.
After a mild start, the worst of the winter is yet to come.
Oh, yeah, that, too.
--more--"
I'm sure they can not wait for spring:
Afghanistan’s future lies with small farmers
Saffron will save them, right.
Afghan opium production rises to record levels
That's odd because the Taliban nearly eradicated the crop just before 9/11. Now, after 12 years of NATO occupation.... hmmmm.
