The Hill: Mattis says war in Afghanistan needs to end: ‘40 years is enough’
Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Monday called for the international community to help end the war in Afghanistan and aid regional leaders in their efforts to bridge longstanding disagreements, saying that conflicts in Afghanistan have now gone on for “40 years.”
“In Afghanistan, it’s gone on now it’s approaching 40 years; 40 years is enough and it’s time for everyone to get on board, support the United Nations, support Prime Minister Modi, support President Ghani and all those who are trying to maintain peace and make for a better world here. So, we are on that track,” Mattis told reporters ahead of a meeting with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman.
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Update: Mattis Says 40 Years Of War Enough For Afghanistan (TOLO News)
WNU Editor: Some wars and conflicts go on for decades. Afghanistan is one of them.
7 comments:
It has been said that "face saving" is important for far eastern cultures such as China and Japan. I think the need to "save face" is not unique to these cultures but is a part of the human condition.
The first thing for American leaders to do is to admit to themselves that we have lost. Whatever it was we were trying to accomplish, defeat the Taliban, establish routes for a pipeline, or whatever, we have failed. Once this is done, then we can work on how we "save face," however, there is a problem with this. We would be asking men to continue dying for a lost cause. As such, I say exit the country in as expeditious a manner as possible.
If we MUST save face, Trump and his team would be in the best position of any of our leadership to do so. From careful observation it appears to me that he is generally respected and even feared by all the relevant parties. As for other US leadership, they are generally not only not respected but are held in utter contempt by all the relevant parties.
If Trump can avoid the long knives of his political opponents, I estimate a 99.95% chance that he and his team will get this done by around this time in 2020. Otherwise continue the same policies and it is not "if" but "when" the fight will be brought to the American mainland. Getting us out of Afghanistan would be a great Christmas present for 2020!! Definitely something to look forward to!!
and now, trollskie, back to your vodka
The assumption that America is in it to win as in defeat the enemy at all costs and get out is not correct. That is not the objective of the Afghanistan enterprise. The objective is occupation, presence from both a strategic perspective relative to Russia, that includes completion of the pipeline to supply Europe and cut out Russia, and now the development of the very large and recently discovered Rare Earth Element resource in Afghanistan. The latter will eliminate the need to import REE from China.
Oh and to keep the MIC happy. I see now a fourth kid died from that recent IED mishap.
Due to the nature of Western (specifically American) politics and culture, and the nature of Islam and Afghan society, defeating the Taliban and other islamist groups who all have safe havens and support across the Pakistania border is literally impossible.
The US needs to pull out and seriously reconsider it's "alliance" with Pakistan.
Anon (11:19AM),
If you have something constructive to add, please do so. Otherwise don't waste time here.
Bob,
You may well be correct. As stated, I'm not sure what we are doing we here. If you are correct and as I stated, whatever it is or was we were trying to do, we've lost. The sooner we can admit this the sooner we adjust and get out. When in a hole, the first thing you do is STOP DIGGING!!
Sadly, the kid who died has died in a lost cause. When someone loses a loved one because of this, they tend to view these things a bit differently.
Caecus,
I agree. I think we are in the process of reconsidering this "alliance." I think there has been cutbacks in aid. Perhaps as a condition of them helping us in negotiations the aid can be continued. In any event, when we leave the routes in and out go through Pakistan. We would want to have their cooperation as we redeploy otherwise it could be a mess.
Let Russia go back in. They did so well some time ago
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