Our Wars Of Empire in 2018
2017 saw the destruction of the IS Caliphate.
ISIS has not gone away, but it is now only a guerilla force rather than a pseudo-state.
However, ISIS managed to suck the U.S. back into the middle east wars, and we have no intention of leaving.
In Iraq
United States. forces are not leaving Iraq in 2018, a newspaper quoted a senior source at the Iraqi joint security command as saying.
The London-based the New Arab quoted a senior general within the Iraqi Joint Operations Command saying “there is no room for discussing U.S. troops’ exit”.
This is not going over well with all Iraqis.
In a statement released on the sixth anniversary of the United States’ military withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, the Hezbollah Brigades called on Washington to withdraw its troops from the country voluntarily “before being forced” to do so.
Of course, the Hezbollah Brigade has made this threat before, and as yet have not carried it out.
In Afghanistan
Approximately 3,000 additional American troops have now deployed to Afghanistan under President Donald Trump‘s revised strategy for the war-torn country, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The Pentagon had previously put the number of US forces in Afghanistan at about 11,000 but Trump in August authorized an increase requested by the commander on the ground, General John Nicholson.
..Nicholson has said he needs nearly 16,000 troops overall in Afghanistan, and NATO nations have pledged to help make up the difference.
Eight years ago Obama had his own much larger Afghanistan Surge. It failed.
However, Trump has a new twist on the surge strategy - targeting the Taliban's drug factories.
The Pentagon announced recently that U.S.-led coalition forces had destroyed 25 insurgent-run drug labs as part of a new U.S. military strategy to weaken the Taliban by going after its sources of revenue. It said at least $80 million worth of narcotics had been destroyed.
...Although Attal said the raids in the south had destroyed more than $20 million worth of opium, local and foreign drug traffickers still “easily sold and bought drugs” in the north. Afghan opium production jumped by 87 percent from 2016 to a record 9,000 metric tons in 2017, according to the U.N. Office on Crime and Drugs.
If the idea was to cut opium production, then this strategy is a complete failure.
Then there is the biggest problem of all - Syria.
To get an idea of the situation, we need to consult a current map.
The northeast quarter of Syria is dominated by the SDF. We have 2,000 American troops in that part of the country.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that he expected to see a larger US civilian presence in Syria, including contractors and diplomats, as the fight against Islamic State militants nears its end and the focus turns toward rebuilding and ensuring the militants do not return.
The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria fighting Islamic State. Mattis' comments are likely to anger Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has previously called US troops "illegal invader" forces.
Assad is right. We are invaders.
My question is: Who are these contractors?
That's not the only place our troops are in Syria. Consider the green area on the border with Jordan.
Russia’s military Chief of Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, yesterday accused the United States of training former Daesh fighters at Syria’s southern military base of Al-Tanf.
Speaking in an interview with Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Gerasimov said that the US base, which is located in a strategic Syrian highway border crossing with Iraq, is “illegal”, adding that the area surrounding it has become “a black hole where militants operate unhindered”.
“The US forces have effectively turned their military base near the town of Al-Tanf in south-eastern Syria into a terrorists’ training camp,” he said.
“According to satellite and other surveillance data, terrorist squads are stationed there,” Gerasimov noted. “They are effectively training there.”
That's a bad sign. Yet the biggest problem is on the northern border, in the Aleppo province.
Around 30 sub-groups of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), under the guidance of Tukey, have unified to form the country’s 22,000 strong “National Army,” becoming Syria’s largest armed group that will fight against the Assad regime, Daesh and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists.
...In the wide-ranging Euphrates Shield Operation launched in August 2016, the Free Syrian Army -- with the support of the Turkish army -- had cleared 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles) of land along the Turkish-Syrian border of terrorist elements. Over 15,000 soldiers in the newly-founded Syrian National Army are preparing to take part in the upcoming Afrin operation against PKK terrorists.
Assad says that Turkey is an illegal invader too.
We can't forget al-Qaeda controlled Idlib province in the northwest.
Donald Trump likes to put his name on things. Casinos, skyscrapers, laws. Having his name on a war is the next logical step.
Comments
sucked back in
[video:https://youtu.be/UneS2Uwc6xw?t=55s]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Sucked back in?
Heck, if terrorists in Syria didn't exist, we'd have to create them. Oh, wait.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Swiss make watches, English make toffee, the U.S. makes weapons
that's our business, of course we have to use them....and sell them
Hey!
We also make American "cheese" and light "beer".
Credit where it's due, America-hater!
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.
It's ironic that America's iconic beer brand, Budweiser
can't be sold in Germany for both quality and copyright issues. Velveeta can't even legally call itself cheese in the US itself.
It wasn't always like that, corruption, graft and shitty quality are choices that certain segments of society have chosen and cultivated. Quality and innovation still exist, but they're relegated to pockets, and have a real uphill struggle surviving the machinations of the crooks.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
In Canada, the gross thing we call "American cheese"
is labeled "Pasteurized processed cheese food".
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.
In the UK
Budweiser is referred to as “frozen goat piss”.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
I miss the draft.
chuck utzman
TULSI 2020
This made me laugh
In a statement released on the sixth anniversary of the United States’ military withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.
What's the real reason we aren't leaving Afghanistan? I don't buy the destruction of the opium fields. Not when the CIA gets so much money from them. Iraq? Is it the oil? Wasn't part of the reason for the Syrian war to build bases there for the upcoming war with Iran?
The only things that have change is the name of the president and the year. Imagine if we had a functioning press that would tell us what our government is really doing. Whenever I read any coverage about the wars I see people congratulating the troops for keeping them safe. Reports of civilian deaths are met with "that happens during wars." Absolutely no regrets for the number of deaths. Just another day in the empire.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
At least we have a
At least we have a responsible Congress that will have an open debate on the need for these U.S. forces before U.S. spends funds on it. Our media will have an honest debate on the needs for those forces.
Oh wait! There was a picture of a demonstrator in Iran...we need to 'Help'!!!!
Though obviously China or Russia would be worse as top dog
we arent a whole lot better than they would be and are probably the most destabilizing entity on the planet. Not only do we have a huge military that is every where with operations in half the worlds nations every year and occasionally leaves one a smoldering hulk, but we also stimulate conflict so we can move more of our #1 export.
Its hard to argue we are net positive for the planet, but the one thing we can do that the Chinese and Russians likely couldnt, is we can take our government back and reign in the madness. In a way the world is depending on us to do it, the planets future looks a lot worse with a Oligarchy America than with the peoples America, be it wars, climate, imperialism, coups, weapons etc it would all be at least more sane.
Would they be?
Other than their immediate neighbors, neither Russia nor China has ever attacked anyone at any time in their long history.
For instance, in 4,000 years China has never attacked a nation they didn't share a border with.
The U.S., OTOH, has attacked nations for no particular reason everywhere in the world.
The US is carrying on the greatest evil on the planet
Because they learned from the best:
@gjohnsit
That might also have something to do with logistics, making it far easier now than any time in the past.
Actually no
China's Great armadas
@gjohnsit
Im not going to argue nonsense if you wish to believe a nation that heavily oppresses its own citizens will be a kinder gentler superpower simply because they only invaded regional nations in the past, I dont know what to tell you.
It's already playing out in real time
For instance, Africa
I've seen interviews where they ask Africans if they can trust China?
The answer was always, "Well, China never invaded us, bombed us, or overthrew our government and installed a dictator. Until that happens, we'll give China a chance."
@gjohnsit
Look I am sorry but this is a ridiculous argument in my eyes, no one knows exactly how China would act were it pretty much the hands down super power, we can only go on probability and given their oppressive nature to their own people probability says they would be oppressive to the world too.
Your whole premise is they never expanded militarily beyond their region in the past 4000 years which is just arguing for the sake of arguing, I mean neither had Japan prior to WWII, but this century is nothing like the 39 prior which is why its a strange argument, China never had aircraft carriers over the last 4000 years, even just back in WWII we had to send fighter groups to defend there because they didnt have an airforce of any kind.
Now im not saying this doesnt carry any weight in the probability, but I find making it the defining point for establishing the probability fringing on the absurd.
I've seen this before
People say gold has been in a 4,000 year irrational bubble.
My answer is that if a trend holds for several thousand years then there is a solid reason for it, that maybe you just don't appreciate.
I believe Iran is next on the PNAC list.
That's logical. Things are clicking right along.
More monumentally stupid American leaders and journalists on the Left have picked the side of murder and mayhem, once again. They are trying to side with the proxy protesters, helping them broadcast rioting coordinates on social media, just like they did in Libya and Syria. So Iranians can has freedumbs, too.
Maybe the well-informed Left will get it right the FOURTH time it happens. No, wait... next time will be the FIFTH time.
Real men want to go to Tehran
Wasn't that the standard of ultra manhood by the chickenhawk neocons at the time of the invasion of Iraq?
Not shocking at all
to see "our" fingerprints in those protests. That really was my first thought when seeing the headlines, false flag to "allow" the US to go in on a humanitarian mission. Jesus.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
My bet is on Syria/Iran.
Too many powerful economic actors tied up South Korea as alot of tech travels through S. Korea or is made in S. Korea and shipped to China and other places.
On the Syria/Iran side, there is the entire neocon establishment including Israeli hawks and bunches of ME oil states pushing for war. Sort of a 2-fer as that means getting Russia also.
China is the key target of this Iran maneuver.
(I put this in the wrong place, sorry about that.)
Iran, Russia, and China is the troika that the US fears and wants to fight.
But China and quite a few nations around the world have prepared for the dying of this Empire, by creating new financial tools that will de-dollarize the world. I think Americans will be surprised how many of our allies are participating in the effort to end Dollar hegemony once and for all.
This is not about China or the rise of the Yuan as a new reserve currency (although it makes good business sense in 21st century to keep Yuan on hand for trade). This is about neutralizing a dangerous grab at empire, and eliminating US sanctions as a weapon. Sanctions are a collective punishment that constitute a war crime. They have never once worked for the US as intended. Instead, they have crushed the innocent with suffering and they destroy the human rights of tens of millions of people, every year.
We're not replacing one Superpower with another. Over the past decade, an alternate multi-polar system of finance and trade has been methodically constructed by countries from many regional trading alliances. A global network of settlement and investment banks have been established to facilitate international trade. The system has been tested to ensure moderation and fairness, and it's been anchored with significant gold holdings. The switch has been thrown, and it is up and running. The US has one of the governing chairs at that table by virtue of its size. But it will no longer be able to engage in money creation to pay for it over-sized military footprint. That era is finally over. Instead it will be able to afford to establish a Universal Basic Income, which will be a massive boost to the US economy and a boon for infrastructure projects..
Interesting this reality is not discussed in the US. Venezuela selling oil denominated in Yuan and gold, and abandoning the US Dollar, is regarded as one of the biggest stories of 2017, the world over. You'd never know it in the US.
Prepping for the transition would be a good topic for a future discussion.