@gjohnsit @gjohnsit @gjohnsit

U.S. Military Stops Counting How Much of Afghanistan Is Controlled by Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan — The American military command in Afghanistan has halted regular assessments of how many people and districts the government and insurgents there control, it emerged on Wednesday — eliminating what has long been an important public measure of progress in the war.

The military said the assessments had “limited decision-making value” for commanders. As recently as November 2017, the previous American commander in Afghanistan had called them “the metric that’s most telling in a counterinsurgency.”

...“We are focused on setting the conditions for a political settlement to safeguard our national interests,” Col. Dave Butler, a spokesman for the American-led military mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement to The New York Times. The assessments “did little to serve our mission of protecting our citizens and allies,” he said.

...Bill Roggio, a military commentator whose assessments have challenged the Pentagon’s analyses, said the assessment reports had recently reflected a shrinking in the territory the government controlled, particularly outside urban areas.

“The district assessments highlight failure, which is contrary to the U.S. military’s desired message of success,” Mr. Roggio said in an email. “Make no mistake, if these assessments showed the Afghan military retaking lost ground, the U.S. military would continue to publish the information.”

Shorter Pentagon: No more need to track the war because we know we've already lost.

Taliban on the move

The Taliban captured a district center Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 13 government soldiers. The fighting comes as Russia asserted the Taliban is getting stronger and called for increased efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to the 17-year-old war.

Local officials and insurgent sources reported Taliban fighters assaulted Shamulzayi in Zabul province before dawn, forcing Afghan security forces out of the district center and also overrunning the regional office of the government intelligence agency, NDS.

how it's done

The infiltrators had friends in high places, as well, according to Afghan and American military officials: an Afghan lieutenant colonel and a sergeant major who made sure they knew where to go, and where to hide on the sprawling base.

The ensuing attack on Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, on March 1, was not one of the country’s deadliest, but it may well have been its most embarrassing. It was the third time the Taliban had infiltrated that base, the headquarters for the Afghan Army’s 215th Corps.

Before the assault was over, 23 Afghan soldiers and base workers would be dead, and the American military would once again have to come to the rescue of a base it had long since handed over to the Afghans

@Pricknick @Pricknick That delusion is that we could actually "win" such a war with Iran. So is the self-illusion that we really have any allies in this one, except our real proven enemies in the region, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The United States has the illusion of delusion

@MrWebster

but it's not just in Germany. We have sent a lot to our base in Israel too. The maddening thing is that our foreign policies are being set by a unelected person. Bolton didn't have to go through the nomination process because of how Trump installed him. He's done that to other departments too. But then does anyone think that congress wouldn't have confirmed him anyway? This turd once was our ambassador to the UN. Whilst he was there he threatened more than one person who didn't tow the USA's line of thinking.

I was taken by a poster where who said their kid in the military stationed in Germany was seeing a shitload of arms like the US was already in a war.

The insanity of the war machine is upon us. The Europeans are just as fucked.

@MrWebster Vermont Guard Readies for Massive Training in Louisiana

It was impossible not to notice this happening as it happened. Immediately, I thought, "something's cooking." Now we know what it is.

I was taken by a poster where who said their kid in the military stationed in Germany was seeing a shitload of arms like the US was already in a war.

The insanity of the war machine is upon us. The Europeans are just as fucked.

@orlbucfan It's called "justifiable homicide", which legally includes acting to prevent harm to third parties. He's a rabid dog, more dangerous than any Middle Eastern dictator. I'd hardly be surprised if a biopsy revealed literal brain disease.

Bolton and rocket him on a one-way trip into the heart of the sun??? Even Cheney-Bush fired his stupid, insane butt! Rec'd!!