Militants have reacted violently to the increased airstrikes, launching attacks across the war-torn country
AFP: Afghan conflict to intensify in 2018 'game changer'
Fighting in Afghanistan has escalated with US and Afghan officials tipping 2018 to be a "game-changer" as relentless airstrikes pummel Islamist militant groups -- but others warn the 16-year war has simply become a more violent stalemate.
A traditional easing in fighting during the freezing winter months has been absent this year as the Taliban and Islamic State group respond to intensifying US and Afghan air assaults.
Since US President Donald Trump announced his new strategy for Afghanistan in August, giving the US Air Force more leeway to go after militants, American pilots have been bombarding Taliban and IS fighters, their training camps and drug-making laboratories.
"The gloves are off," Brigadier General Lance Bunch, who directs future air operations in Afghanistan, told reporters recently.
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WNU Editor: It is also going to be an expensive 2018 .... Pentagon: War in Afghanistan will cost $45 billion in 2018 (The Hill).
5 comments:
Wrong strategy. Let the Taliban taking power and Afghanistan will be a good safe heaven for the Xinjiang Uygur resistant in China.
"The gloves are off." Post 911 I understood why we needed to go in. After all the masterminds of 911 were thete.
With that said I asked myself in the evening of 9/11/01 "the Soviet Union couldn't win in Afghanistan. What makes us think we can as as a far weaker nation in both relative and absolute terms than the Soviet Union of that era think we can be successful?" Sadly I've been proven correct.
Had I been in US leadership post 9/11 my first order of business would have been to contact Russian leaders to request any and all assistance they could offer. Unfortunately current US leadership seems obsessed with challenging Russia.
At this point, Russian leadership finds this amusing and such stupidity increases their power. I am confident that America will get this right. I just hope and kt happens before Russia and China lose patience with us.
I meant I hope and pray this happens before Russia and China lose patience with us. I apologize for the typo.
LMFAO,
Roughly a week ago, this happened,
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.military.com/daily-news/2018/02/06/air-force-sets-another-b-52-smart-bomb-record-afghanistan.html/amp
I've been waiting, and waiting, for the Ususal Suspects to put 2+2 together, but nope, nada, silence.
Badakhshan Province was Massod's old stomping ground. It was the only Province not conquored by the Taliban. It was the last hold put for the Northern Alliance. It's the Province that US SOF "shot callers" landed in with their guns, gear and bricks of cash landed. It's the place where the US repatriated all the old defeated warlords, Rubinni, Dostum and their few warriors from exile. It's the Province from which, the Northern Alliance cavalry charges, combined with US airpower, flooded out of, overwhelming the Taliban and al Quida in a few short months. It's populated with Tajik's, Uzbeck's and Shia Hazara.
And now it's Taliban.
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