(ANTIWAR.COM) — Following a series of militant rocket attacks against the Kabul airport, an apparent attempt to target Defense Secretary James Mattis, the US responded with an airstrike to support a military operation against those responsible.
A US drone strike on Friday, September 15th, killed three men in the tribal area of Kurram, which lies on the border with Afghanistan, according to government and security officials as well as tribal sources.
(ANTIWAR.COM) — Even before President Trump made his late-August speech announcing the escalation of the Afghan War, the war has been dramatically escalating by several metrics. Today, Central Command issued new figures underscoring that with respect to airstrikes in Afghanistan.
President Donald Trump, led by his generals, will continue America’s longest war in Afghanistan. On this episode of The Geopolitical Report, we look at the history of the war and the effort by the CIA, aided by Pakistani intelligence, to manufacture both al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Prior to 9/11, the US did business with the Taliban and considered them a suitable partner for a pipeline deal. After 9/11, the Taliban offered to hand Osama bin Laden over to the United States, but the Bush administration refused, preferring instead to invade and create the longest war.
While Donald Trump’s troop surge sees more US soldiers pouring into Afghanistan against the wishes of all the major players in the region as well as against the wishes of the Taliban who now control over half of the country by conservative estimates, events on the ground appear to be moving in a direction that is preparing the country for a dialogue and reconciliation process with key players which hitherto had been the biggest stumbling bloc to a countrywide return to peace and normalcy.
(ANTIWAR.COM) — At least 16 civilians, including a number of women and children, were killed and many others wounded Monday in western Afghanistan, when NATO warplanes carried out a flurry of airstrikes in Herat Province’s Zerkoh District, aiming to hit a “Taliban base.”
A quagmire is defined as a complex or unpleasant position that is difficult to escape. President Trump’s recently announced war plans in Afghanistan maintain that quagmire. They come at a time when US Empire is failing and its leadership in the world is weakening.
Here is a fact you will rarely hear in all the reports about America’s invasion and 16 year occupation of Afghanistan: The Taliban has surrendered multiple times, but the United States has rebuffed them.
The Intercept’s Ryan Grim, reported on the Taliban’s numerous attempts to surrender to the United States, and how the US leadership consistently turned down the Taliban’s overtures in favor of more war and occupation.
Jimmy Dore explains…
Between 1994 and 1996, a Russian Federation weakened by internal political chaos fought the First Chechen War. The war was fought between the Russian armed forces and forces loyal to the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
During the First Chechen War, one of the leading commanders of rebel forces was Akhmad Kadyrov. His battle field tactics helped win the war, forcing an uneasy truce with Russia.
