Sunday, July 6, 2014

The Taliban Are Taking Back Their Strongholds In Southern Afghanistan

BBC

The Bloody Betrayal: Intelligence Emails Reveal Taliban Have Taken Back Afghan Strongholds That 150 Of Our Boys Died For -- Daily Mail

* Now Zad, Musa Qala and Sangin have been overrun by insurgents
* Makes a mockery of David Cameron’s declaration of ‘mission accomplished’
* The devastating news was revealed in a series of emails
* Insult for soldiers' families as rebels seize towns where troops pulled out

Huge swathes of Helmand Province, the area of Afghanistan where hundreds of British soldiers were killed in eight years of bloody fighting, are once again in the hands of the Taliban, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The districts of Now Zad, Musa Qala and Sangin have been overrun by insurgents after British troops withdrew to the security of Camp Bastion – the last remaining UK base in the province.

The return of the Taliban to hundreds of square miles of territory which was previously liberated by British soldiers makes a mockery of Prime Minister David Cameron’s declaration of ‘mission accomplished’ in Afghanistan.

Read more ....

My Comment: A repeat of Iraq in the not so far distant future?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Obama is correct when he says in effect that other countries have to stand on their own feet and the U.S. can be there all the time.
But says something that he knows is true but his motivations for using that particular maxim are specious. Thus his timing is off and his execution is atrocious.
Many in the U.S. have complained that other countries in NATO have been taking advantage of American protection to starve their military breaking NATO treaty commitments in order to provide increased social welfare benefits to win electoral power.
Some in the U.S. are also upset that Germany and Japan do not shoulder more of the burden as allies. Well the U.S. has itself to blame as well as Peaceniks in Europe, Japan and the U.S.
One could argue that Iraq should be able to stand on its’ feet already. Well the U.S. rebuilt its government structure from scratch. It is debatable that we should have put so many former government workers and soldiers out on the street but we did. In the meantime Iran spent a lot of time money and effort trying to frustrate the Iraqi government getting rebuilt. They sent a lot of war material, aid, training and intel to warring parties on all sides. Iraq was failing to build itself up in a vacuum. It had enemies. Add to those terrorist groups able to create at least a few to several thousand with deep pocket donors from around the gulf and elsewhere. It is not quite fair to ask Iraq to go it alone.

It could be argued that it is moral to part ways with Iraq. It may be morale but it isn’t smart. It isn’t Iraqis that will suffer. Americans will suffer terrorist attacks. In addition by abandoning allies, who would want to ally with America again?

The only reasons Obama want to cut out of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is one to satisfy his base, who are the dupes of Soviet influence operations as well just being plain stupid in their world view (which they would have had USSR or no USSR). The other reason is because like the Europeans he does not want to countenance the necessity of fighting wars or funding the military. It detracts from social welfare spending from whence it achieves his power.
The democrats are not going to like the 2016 election cycle. The news from Afghanistan will be dire. Hillary will wash out or won’t cut it. But Elizabeth Warren will scream and get ever shriller about how this is expected and we should just ride it out and abandon Afghanistan. She’ll use every Occupy talking point, every military-industrial complex explanation and every other Leftist ploy.

She will get over 40% of the vote. With no voter ID, illegals, amnesty and every other dirty trick she just might win.

So while I am happy that Obama’s actions will come back to haunt him before then end of his term. It may make no difference. All the Democrats have to do is paper over it, weather it, maintain political control and then they will spin it and keep right on governing until a new 1453 arrives.