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| Afghanistan |
| Top U.S. general in Europe says Russia might be supplying the Taliban |
| 2017-03-24 |
| [Chicago Tribune] The top U.S. general in Europe told lawmakers Thursday that Russia and the Taliban are growing increasingly close, suggesting that the Kremlin might even be supplying the insurgent group. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who is also the Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, did not elaborate to the Senate Armed Services Committee on what type of equipment the Taliban might have received or when. Any type of material support, however, would be a significant escalation of Russia's involvement with the Taliban; it has said in the past that it maintains only limited communication with the group. "I've seen the influence of Russia of late, increased influence in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban," Scaparrotti said. Much to the chagrin of U.S. officials and military officers, Russia has justified its communications with the Taliban by saying the insurgent group is fighting the Islamic State in Afghanistan, not the U.S.-backed Afghan government. Army Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has decried Russia's contact with the Taliban, saying that it has given cover to a group that has worked for years to undermine the United States and the government in Kabul. Russia fought its own bloody war of attrition in Afghanistan in the 1980s, pulling out after suffering heavy losses from U.S.-supplied insurgents. "This public legitimacy that Russia lends to the Taliban is not based on fact," Nicholson told reporters in December. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #6 Hand the Ukrainians a bunch of mothballed F-16A's and associated equipment and watch them do a number on the Russian-backed separatists. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2017-03-24 19:15 |
| #5 Heck, forget armed separatist movements. How about funneling $1b worth of weaponry to Ukraine every year? It'll be worth it just to put an end to Soviet flags flying in East Ukraine. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2017-03-24 19:09 |
| #4 Russians probably think of it as "turnaround is fair play" The Russians got the better end of the deal. Between their support for North Korea and North Vietnam, they killed 100K American GI's. The Russians are estimated to have lost 13K soldiers. If they're supporting the Taliban, we need to be bankrolling armed separatist movements in Russia. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2017-03-24 19:06 |
| #3 Popular theme, make new enemies of old. Possibly because we cannot recognize ancient enemies as new. |
| Posted by: al aSha-med 2017-03-24 15:36 |
| #2 Russians probably think of it as "turnaround is fair play" |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-03-24 12:05 |
| #1 When have the Russians, Chinese, or Cubans NOT injected themselves into conflicts involving the West? The tenets of a 'zero-sum game' demand their involvement. But in fairness, it appears to be a game played by nearly everyone. Regime change at it's finest: Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the Jihadi warriors, mujahideen, in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the military intervention by the USSR in support of its client, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups that were favored by the regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in neighboring Pakistan, rather than other, less ideological Afghan resistance groups that had also been fighting the Marxist-oriented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan regime since before the Soviet intervention.[1] Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken;[2] funding began with $20–$30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987.[1] Funding continued after 1989 as the mujahideen battled the forces of Mohammad Najibullah's PDPA during the civil war in Afghanistan (1989–1992).[3] Wiki link |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-03-24 05:19 |