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| Afghanistan |
| Taliban declares 'defeat' of Nato |
| 2014-12-29 |
| Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have declared the "defeat" of the US and its allies, a day after the coalition officially ended its combat mission. A Taliban statement said the US-led force had "rolled up its flag" without having achieved "anything substantial". Nato formally ended its 13-year mission on Sunday, but about 13,000 troops will stay to train the Afghan army. Meanwhile, officials said four Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in Helmand province on Monday. Three other soldiers were injured during the attack on an army checkpoint in Sangin district. Eight insurgents were said to have been killed. The US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) marked the end of its mission by lowering its flag at a ceremony in Kabul on Sunday. Mission commander Gen John Campbell said the Nato force had "lifted the Afghan people out of the darkness of despair and given them hope for the future". 'Demoralised' But in a statement on Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Nato ceremony was "a clear indication of their defeat and disappointment". He said the Taliban would establish "a pure Islamic system by expelling the remaining invading forces," adding that Western troops were "demoralised". Nato's Afghan deployment began after the 9/11 attacks against the US. At its peak, the US-led Isaf deployment involved more than 130,000 personnel from 50 countries. But from 1 January, the force will consist of about 13,000 mostly-American troops and will shift to a training and support mission for the Afghan army. The US will also have an additional force of a few thousand troops whose focus will be counter-terrorism operations. While the US and its allies say the Afghan security forces have been able to prevent a Taliban offensive, violence has increased in recent months. This year has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, with at least 4,600 members of the Afghan security forces having been killed. Nearly 3,500 foreign troops have been killed since the beginning of the Nato mission in 2001, including about 2,200 American troops. |
| Posted by:John Frum |
| #6 Obama pulled out of Iraq and it is now chaos. Afghanistan is soon to be chaos. Benghazi Obama let our people die. The air show in Kurdistan is just to keep things from spinning out of control too quirk. Obama regime still needs more allies, Castro and an embassy in Tehran with the Mad Mullahs on the side of the Obama regime's side is another positive for the Obama regime. With socialist latin Americans pouring through the Southern border, and the military being filled with yes people and soon foreigners, America as we knew it will be toast in two years. |
| Posted by: Ebbomosh Hupemp2664 2014-12-29 20:48 |
| #5 "grab their balls and their minds will follow" Either blow it the hell up or occupy and oppress. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2014-12-29 17:58 |
| #4 Never gonna get the desired result in these hearts and minds bullshit war. Unless you do it LeMay way. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-12-29 17:06 |
| #3 Never gonna get the desired result in these hearts and minds bullshit war. Make them fear the hell out of you, I thought that and resource take over was what war is supposed to be about. |
| Posted by: chris 2014-12-29 16:49 |
| #2 EH, I fear you are correct. I supported GWB because he was the best available but his "compassionate" conservative, PC, noblesse oblige was not up to the job. He never named the enemy and therefore we could not have a strategy. Obama was the result. Domestic concerns should have been put in the context of a true war and prosecuted accordingly. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2014-12-29 16:30 |
#1 "These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate." Only weeks later there was this: 'In remarks endorsed by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, Gen Musharraf said any post-Taliban government in Kabul should be "broad-based" and "multi-ethnic". It could include the "former king Zahir Shah, political leaders, moderate Taliban leaders, elements from the Northern Alliance, tribal leaders and Afghans living outside their country", he added.' Western policy on Afghanistan became incoherent as early as 2001. Under these circumstances anything like winning the war was impossible. The problem is that this is/was a war that neither the US or NATO could afford not to win. A precedent has been established that fundamentally undermines Western deterrence. I fear we are just now beginning to reap the consequences of this disaster. |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2014-12-29 16:20 |