Reinforcement troops from the Afghan army prepared to travel to Kandahar.Ahmad Masood/Reuters
Michael Evans & Tom Coghlan, The Australian/The Times: Afghan army collapse drags US back into war
The US is being sucked back into the war against the Taliban despite the official end of NATO combat operations because Afghan forces are suffering unprecedented casualties.
US rules of engagement are supposed to prevent its aircraft in the country from taking a direct role in fighting unless they are participating in counter-terror operations against al-Qa’ida, or when the 16,200 American and NATO troops in the country are directly threatened. With Afghan allies taking a battering, however, US airstrikes have continued since NATO combat operations ended in December.
The strikes have been increasing, with 52 bombs dropped in March, up from 36 in February. The reason, Western officials say, is that US commanders are deliberately committing American “trainers and mentors” to danger areas so that they can then justify the use of airpower to support Afghan forces on the ground.
WNU Editor: The Afghan Army is experiencing unprecedented casualties .... and I suspect that at this rate they will soon not able to sustain military operations against the Taliban in many parts of the country. I also suspect that right now .... in the Pentagon and in the White House .... there is a growing realization that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan may have to be reconsidered.
8 comments:
Oh just let the Afghans sort it out themselves. There is nothing to gain there and there never was.
I like it.
We pull out, Iran and Pakistan will try to fill the vacuum.
Soon afterwards they will fight
Maybe the Saudis will finally get the Pakistanis to fight on their side.
No US President is going to pull out of Afghanistan,
Until the Afghan Government is strong enough, or a side deal is negotiated with the Taliban,
For a Decent Interval, between the pull out and the fall of Kabul.
A new president could tell everyone that it is worse than we knew, blame it on Obumbler and withdraw.
People are assuming that the military will have supply lines.
Russia has worked very hard to cut US access to airports in the Central Asian Republics.
Enough Taliban attacks from Pakistan to Jalalabad could put a real crimp on logistics. Or the Pakistanis could cut the lines again.
Abandoning Afghanist to the "terrorists", undercuts the whole concept of the US Global Terror War, and the US will never do it.
Might see the first actual impeachment and jailing of a sitting US President if the US retreats from Afghanistan with out a "reasonable" pause.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. It would depend on the economic and political conditions in late 2016, who gets elected, and who elected them.
Phillip,
No US President is going to give Afghanistan back to the Taliban.
It would be a public admission that the Global Terror War has been a waste of time, money, blood and treasure.
Rand isn't going to be elected and neither will Bernie.
It's going to be Hillary vs Jeb.
I think everyone, especially the Americans, already knows it has been a waste of time and has only served to generate more hatred against the US and therefore more terrorism.
Admitting it by pulling out would be a big move on the part of the US especially since they have a tradition of never leaving a country once they get in there.
That is of course except where they have to pull a speedy retreat from roof tops.
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