Victory in Afghanistan?

Otto von Bismarck once said, "Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied."
That moment happened today in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani denied Monday that the Taliban is winning the war in Afghanistan despite a continuing wave of deadly militant attacks and signs the militants are expanding areas under their control.
Ghani said the Afghan state is not at risk of collapse and reiterated his government's intent to seek a negotiated peace. He insisted it would not do so "from a position of weakness."

Bombs_Afghanistan.jpg

According to the official report, the Taliban have never been stronger.
But what do they know, amirite?
Consider this recent chain of events.

Gen. Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, on Thursday narrowly escaped a bold, deadly insider attack the Taliban claimed responsibility for.
Miller at one point drew his sidearm during the attack, but did not fire, according to CNN.
...
Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley was among the Americans wounded in Thursday's incident and is recovering from a gunshot wound, a NATO spokesman confirmed to CNN on Sunday. Smiley is in charge of the NATO military advisory mission in southern Afghanistan.
...It was an astonishing moment in a conflict that recently entered its 18th year, and perhaps the most embarrassing piece of evidence yet the US is badly losing the war.

victory.jpg
Having your generals shot tends to get a reaction.
In this case, American forces temporarily cut off all face-to-face contact with Afghan forces, which is a sure sign you are winning.
After a few days, contact was resumed...and there was almost immediately another deadly insider attack.
At virtually the same time, in a different part of Afghanistan, there was another sign that we were winning.

The most elite US-trained forces in Afghanistan suffered an embarrassing defeat to the Taliban in what's often referred to as the country's "safest district" over the weekend, yet another sign the war is a lost cause.

Early on Sunday, a company of roughly 50 Afghan special forces commandos was almost entirely destroyed in the rural district of Jaghori, according to a report from The New York Times.

We are winning so much in Afghanistan that the Trump Administration is considering asking the Afghan government to suspend its presidential election.

The trick is how you define victory.

“I think it is very important to keep in mind why we went to Afghanistan and the reason why we have stayed,” says Petraeus. “We went to Afghanistan to eliminate the sanctuary in which the 9/11 attacks were planned, and we have stayed to ensure that that sanctuary cannot be reestablished by al Qaeda or, now, by the Islamic State or other extremist groups, and also to ensure we have a platform for our regional counterterrorism campaign.”

Reconciliation, argues Petraeus, is “a legitimate aspiration, something we should certainly seek to achieve, however slim the prospects might be,” but the U.S. should be prepared to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, even if the Trump strategy to end the war fails.

“Look, we have had tens of thousands of troops in Korea for approaching 70 years. We’ve had them even longer, in larger numbers, in Europe,” says Petraeus. “If you can get the cost down in blood and treasure, I think this is a sustainable commitment, and I believe it should be sustained given the importance of the mission.”

Victory in Europe (our troops are still there). Victory in Korea (our troops are still there). Victory in Afghanistan (our troops are still there).

“Our troops will fight to win. From now on, victory will have a clear definition: attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing al-Qaeda, preventing the Taliban from taking over the country, and stopping mass terror attacks against Americans before they emerge.”
"One way or another, these problems will be solved — I'm a problem solver — and, in the end, we will win."

- President Trump, August 21, 2017

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/08/07/believe/

Perhaps they just have the wrong Otto:

OttoAsHimself.jpg

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Bisbonian's picture

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Europe feared a Soviet invasion. South Korea feared North Korea and China.

But there is no external enemy in Afghanistan. We invaded Afghanistan. It's a totally different situation. Not protectors, but conquerors ruling through a puppet government.

"If you should fall on the Afghan plain, roll on your rifle and blow out your brain." - Rudyard Kipling

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Bollox Ref's picture

I wasn't aware that US service people are being constantly blown up in the failed states of Korea and Europe.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref Talking secrets in pillow talk with a reporter. Did he really think was sexy? Rod Stewart?

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

snoopydawg's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

after giving classified information to his girlfriend, ehh? Obama went hog wild on charging people under it when they were actually whistleblowers and yet when he had a slam dunk case on someone who really did give CI to someone he let them off with a $100,000 fine, two years probation and he got to keep his pension. Not sure if he got dinged a rank, but he's walking free and still involved in things regarding war. Obama the hypocrite. Another part of his legacy.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

EdMass's picture

Victory is pulling out. Extracting all military. Leave the Afghan "Gubmint" to figure things out. And for the MIC keep selling them shit until they can't pay for it anymore.

I really don't like the Taliban. But I guess the people of Afghan do or they are still just serfs. Or maybe it's all about their rich culture and 'dancing boys". One can never have enuf boys to pass around among those big, strong war lords... Fuck them.

You know what bothers me the most? They destroyed those 2 huge carved Buddha statues because Islam....

Fuck them all.

Leave them to themselves.

China can have them and send them all to re-education camps.

Fuck them.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Amanda Matthews's picture

@EdMass

Rare Earth: Afghanistan Sits on $1 Trillion in Minerals

*

The aerial surveys determined that Afghanistan may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium. For instance, the Khanneshin carbonatite deposit in Afghanistan's Helmand province is valued at $89 billion, full as it is with rare earth elements.

"Afghanistan is a country that is very, very rich in mineral resources," geologist Jack Medlin, program manager of the USGS Afghanistan project, told LiveScience. The scientists' work was detailed in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/rare-earth-afghanistan-sits...

At stake in US military efforts to stabilize Afghanistan: At least $3 trillion in natural resources

Yet while Trump is looking at the possibility of the U.S. cashing in on the poor war-torn country, others have already started. Northern Afghanistan is rich with natural gas reserves and has attracted Russia's attention for decades.

During the Soviet invasion, Russia laid the framework to control Afghanistan's natural gas but abandoned the effort after the Taliban seized control of the country.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/18/trumps-afghanistan-strategy-may-unlock-3...

Afghanistan Breaks Ground on 1,127-Mile ‘Peace Pipeline’

Feb. 23, 2018

*

Like so many other energy infrastructure works in the region, the project is deeply entwined with politics.

In the jostling for influence and dominance in Central Asia a century ago, the great powers mapped caravan routes and mountain passes in a contest known as the Great Game. In its modern variant, they compete with pipelines. The United States has supported pipelines to bypass Russia and alleviate former Soviet states’ economic dependence on it. And bringing Central Asian energy to market eases global dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

The United States is backing the TAPI line as an alternative to the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India, or IPI, another “peace pipeline” that would tap Iran’s large South Pars gas field.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/world/asia/afghanistan-pipeline-tapi....

Those people are sitting on OUR stuff and our lords and masters in corporate boardrooms intend to fight to the last pleb to ‘keep’ it.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Amanda Matthews

... to seize control over Afghanistan's natural resources...

Those people are sitting on OUR stuff and our lords and masters in corporate boardrooms intend to fight to the last pleb to ‘keep’ it.

... but the government will privatize it to US corporations. We get nothing back for the taxes we invested in this piracy, not even crappy jobs. It all goes to the war profiteers.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@EdMass
At the time the press said the Muslim world condemned that Buddha destruction. Fanatics like the Religious Right.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness
of Taliban violence have been other Muslims. they are not loved by the Islamic world.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@EdMass

Fuck them all.

This is a people who've been brutalized non-stop since 1978 in ways that Americans can't even imagine.
They've already been fucked over.

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EdMass's picture

@gjohnsit

So, where are you? F them? or what?

Let's back off cause they've been f'd up since the British Raj?

Where Empires go to die.

One really has to admire their persistence/resistance.

Not sure what u are telling me....

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

@EdMass

Not sure what u are telling me....

I'm of the opinion that I'm not in a position to judge anyone in Afghanistan.
Almost every action that Americans has ever done in that nation has been destructive.

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We went to Afghanistan to eliminate the sanctuary in which the 9/11 attacks were planned, and we have stayed to ensure that that sanctuary cannot be reestablished by al Qaeda or, now, by the Islamic State or other extremist groups

Pack your old kit bag and move to some other desolate wasteland (we're creating new ones all the time) and start up operations there. If you do it right you get the enemy (USA and "coalition of the willing") to keep overextending themselves/bleeding themselves dry in country after country, when they are using a 20 pound sledge to try and swat mosquitos.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@MichaelSF

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Not Henry Kissinger's picture

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.”

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

k9disc's picture

this?

“I think it is very important to keep in mind why we went to Afghanistan and the reason why we have stayed,”

“We went to Afghanistan to eliminate the sanctuary in which the 9/11 attacks were planned, and we have stayed to ensure that that sanctuary cannot be reestablished by al Qaeda or, now, by the Islamic State or other extremist groups, and also to ensure we have a platform for our regional counterterrorism campaign.

“Look, we have had tens of thousands of troops in Korea for approaching 70 years. We’ve had them even longer, in larger numbers, in Europe,” says Petraeus. “If you can get the cost down in blood and treasure, I think this is a sustainable commitment, and I believe it should be sustained given the importance of the mission.

Asshole. Monster. War Criminal.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

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