[DAWN] United States President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has decided to pull a significant number of troops from Afghanistan, a US official told AFP on Thursday, with some reports suggesting as many as 50 per cent could leave the war-torn country.
The surprise move stunned and dismayed foreign diplomats and officials in Kabul who are involved in an intensifying push to end the 17-year conflict.
"If you're the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , Christmas has come early," a senior foreign official in the Afghan capital told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
"Would you be thinking of a ceasefire if your main opponent has just withdrawn half their troops?"
It is not clear if US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad or the Afghan government had been aware of Trump's plans.
A front man for President Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. said "if there is any reaction by the Afghan government, we will share it later".
The decision apparently came after Khalilzad met with the Taliban in Abu Dhabi this week, part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table with the Afghan government.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe POTUS is drawing down to reduce the possibility of Blue on Blue when the B-52s return en masse??
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/22/2018 3:53 Comments ||
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#2
17 years and we can't win. What can we do in an 18th year?
[Al Jazeera] The possible withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan will not affect the security situation of the country, senior Afghan officials have said, following numerous media reports that President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... was planning such a move.
"If the few thousand foreign troops that advise, train & assist, leave it will not affect our security," Fazel Fazly, chief adviser to the Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. , said on Twitter on Friday.
"In the past four & half years our security is completely in the hands of Afghans and the final goal is that ANDSF [the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] will stand on their feet to protect & defend soil on their own."
Presidential spokesperson Haroon Chakhansuri also said on social media that a US withdrawal will not have a security impact.
Various US media outlets reported on Thursday that Trump planned to withdraw some 7,000 of 14,000 US troops from Afghanistan.
The news followed a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi between US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban ...Arabic for students... representatives at which the two sides discussed the withdrawal of international forces.
In 2002, some 130,000 international troops entered Afghanistan following the military intervention of US forces to topple the Taliban government. Since then, close to 2,500 US troops have bit the dust in the war.
Former Ministry of Defense front man Zahir Azimi said on Friday that a possible withdrawal could affect the capabilities of Afghan troops in conducting effective night raids. US aerial support is also critical to Afghan ground forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Washington Examiner] A controversial U.S. private security firm signaled Friday it is slated to return to business, spurring questions of whether President Trump will seek to privatize the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
Blackwater took out a full-page ad in the latest edition of Recoil magazine with the message: "We are coming," the Military Times reported on Friday. The ad comes a day after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced he would resign from his post and word emerged that President Trump will draw down troops in Afghanistan.
Former founder Erik Prince sold the company in 2010, but has maintained communications with Trump and reportedly pressed him to employ private contractors in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is said to be preparing to withdraw nearly 7,000 troops.
Prince ‐ who has also been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into whether Trump colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election ‐ does not have any known relations to the Constellis Group, the new name put on the company after it was purchased by Apollo Holdings Group. The firm reportedly shelved plans earlier this year to try to sell the Constellis Group.
The tease about a return to business comes after a federal judge on Wednesday found a former Blackwater guard guilty for his role in a 2007 shooting in Baghdad, long considered a low-point in the 17-year-old conflict.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The political coordinator of the US mission to the UN, Rodney Hunter, expressed to the Security Council on Friday his country's regret that the new UN resolution on Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... did not hold Iran accountable for its actions in the war-torn country.
The United States had wanted to condemn Iran for breaching an arms embargo on Yemen, but Russia objected, diplomats said.
"We hope that in the days to come Iranian missiles or misdeeds do not shatter the promise of peace and bring us back to where we were before. But if that does happen, this council may come to regret this omission," US diplomat Rodney Hunter told the Security Council after the vote.
At the end of last month, the US provided evidence on Iran violating UN arms export ban in Yemen.
The US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, displayed rockets, missiles, small arms and debris from an Iranian drone that he says were intended for Houthis in Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't worry Iran, Trump will run away like he's doing in Syria. And some will cheer him for taking on the "globalists" 'eternal war', on the left AND now on the right.
Trump, Obama, going back to Nixon and Jimmy Carter have taught them all they have to do is wait us out, and we will quit, leaving our allies to twist in the wind.
#2
Not nearly the same. Th Houthis are Iranian puppets. The US is aware of this. And the Saudis will be "assisted" by people you would likely never expect it from. As for Syria, that is not a done deal yet. As for the Hmong, that was another era and the Cold War was going on. Blame Kissinger and RealPolitik if you want to blame anyone for that. He led Nixon, Ford and Carter around by the nose. Thank God for Reagan.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The UN Security Council on Friday voted unanimously to send a civilian observer mission to war-wracked Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... to monitor a fragile truce in the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeidah and supervise the departure of Houthis.
The new UN resolution 2451 supports the Stockholm deal on the situation in Hodeidah and its ports.
It also stresses on Hodeidah ceasefire commitment and the withdrawal of Houthis from the city.
The new UN resolution allows sending a civilian observer mission to war-wracked Yemen to monitor a fragile truce in the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeida and supervise the departure of Houthis.
The Yemeni legitimate government welcomed the new resolution's support to the Sweden deal, stressing on the importance of sticking to the timeline of execution.
The Yemeni ambassador also said that his government provided many suggestions in Stockholm to ease the suffering of the Yemeni people.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... has said it is creating government bodies to boost oversight of its intelligence operations, in the wake of international outrage over journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
The kingdom has said Khashoggi was killed inside its Istanbul consulate on October 2 in a "rogue operation" led by the then Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmad al-Assiri and Royal Court Adviser Saud al-Qahtani, both of whom have been sacked.
King Salman ...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians.... subsequently ordered a restructuring of the main intelligence agency under the supervision of his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016.... (MBS), who has faced global criticism over the journalist's murder even though the government denies he was involved.
A committee headed by the prince has approved the creation of three departments to ensure intelligence operations are in line with the national security policy, international human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... law and "approved procedures", the official Saudi Press Agency said on Thursday.
The statement made no mention of Khashoggi.
Bessma Momani, professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, said the modifications were an attempt to shift attention away from the crown prince.
"I think the optics of reform are clear," she told Al Jazeera. "The message being portrayed here is that there are checks and balances in the system, that there is oversight, but frankly is doesn't really address a bigger cloud hanging over the crown prince, that he was implicated in ordering this murder of Khashoggi.
"The key issue doesn't go away, but I think the cosmetic restructuring is meant to try and deflect attention."
"The idea here is that these three departments are going to be overseen by this committee, and this committee is going to be the crown prince. It really is, I think, quite difficult to see it as a genuine effort."
The intense global backlash over Khashoggi's killing has tarnished the prince's international reputation and left the oil-rich kingdom diplomatically weakened, analysts say.
It has also cast a fresh spotlight on the Saudi-led conflict in Yemen, which is gripped by what the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... Security Council has unanimously approved the deployment of its observers to war-torn Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... to monitor a fragile truce in the strategic Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
The resolution, submitted by the UK, was the subject of tough negotiations, and was amended several times before the vote on Friday.
The resolution also endorsed the results of UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden last week, when Yemen's warring parties agreed to a ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Decision comes nearly four years after 3 button men killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine in Gay Paree
French prosecutors are calling for 14 people to be tried in connection with the January 2015 jihadist attacks including the massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , judicial sources said Friday.
It will be up to anti-terrorist judges to decide whether all 14 are tried.
The decision comes nearly four years after brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015.
The next day a policewoman was killed just outside Gay Paree, while another gunman took hostages at a Jewish supermarket, four of whom were killed.
All the attackers were killed in separate shootouts with police.
Authorities said the attackers had claimed allegiance to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... krazed killer group.
Those likely to face trial are accused of "complicity" in assisting the attackers, including providing them with weapons.
Another man, French national Peter Cherif, an associate of the Kouachi brothers, was tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in Djibouti on December 16, French officials said Friday.
Cherif was expected to be extradited from Djibouti. He has not yet been indicted in connection with the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... said on Friday that his country would postpone a military operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria as he "cautiously" welcomed Washington's decision to withdraw its troops in the area.
Speaking during a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan said the US decision meant The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... would "wait a little longer" before launching the operation.
"Of course, this is not an open-ended waiting period," he warned, adding that Turkey was working on plans to "neutralise ISIS elements" that still exist in Syria. ISIS is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS).
Erdogan had announced on December 12 that Turkey would start an offensive in northern Syria in "the next few days", but on December 14, he spoke to US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... in a phone call.
According to Ottoman Turkish daily Hurriyet on Friday, Trump decided to pull out of Syria during that call with Erdogan and ordered his national security adviser John Bolton to "start the work" to prepare withdrawing troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Boycott campaign removed over complaint that notes its affiliation to umbrella group of Paleostinian factions including Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", and Islamic Jihad.
A US software company said Friday it blocked the fundraising account of the Paleostinian-led boycott movement against Israel following a complaint by a pro-Israel group that the campaign has links to Death Eater organizations.
Donorbox, which makes fundraising management software, confirmed that the BDS campaign’s account was temporarily blocked while it investigates the allegations.
The BDS movement called the Israeli move "McCarthyite."
The decision came in response to a complaint from Shurat HaDin, an Israeli advocacy group that files lawsuits around the world against Israel’s foes, submitted in coordination with Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry.
"This decision does not mean that we consider BDS to be a nefarious organization. We are merely reviewing evidence following this complaint. Their donation forms were closed as a precautionary measure," Donorbox said in a statement. The the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... firm, whose product is used by BDS and other nonprofits to collect online donations, gave no indication how long the review would take.
The complaint noted that the boycott movement’s membership includes the "Council of National and Islamic Forces in Paleostine," an umbrella committee representing all major Paleostinian political factions. Committee members include Hamas, Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, groups that have been branded terrorist organizations by the US.
The council, also known as the PNIF, was formed two decades ago and rarely meets due to deep divisions among its members.
"We have no intention to allow terrorist organizations and their accomplices to raise money online without interference," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of Shurat HaDin.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, whose office is spearheading Israel’s battle against the boycott movement, called the decision "a significant achievement in our efforts to counter the discriminatory BDS campaign."
The BDS campaign advocates boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli businesses, universities and artists. Comparing itself to the anti-apartheid movement during apartheid-era South Africa, it says it is using nonviolent means to resist unjust policies toward Paleostinians. The group has made significant gains in recent years, particularly among artists and university students.
Israel says the movement masks its motives to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state.
Israel’s allies have passed a series of anti-BDS laws in the US. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently challenging a Texas law requiring contractors to certify that they do not boycott Israel or Israeli-occupied territories, saying it violates the right to free speech.
Omar Barghouti, a founder of the BDS movement, called Shurat HaDin a "repressive organization with clear connections to the far-right Israeli government" that is "engaging in McCarthyite... tactics."
"They are making categorically false allegations, threatening and bullying our partners and service providers in a desperate attempt to undermine our ability to challenge Israel’s regime of apartheid and oppression," he said. "While this legal repression may temporarily burden us, it has failed to deter us from continuing our peaceful anti-racist and inclusive struggle for freedom, justice and equality."
[Al Jazeera] Imtiaz Khan, a 12-year-old schoolboy, and Majloom Ansari, a 32-year-old cattle trader, were kidnapped, beaten and hanged from a tree in Latehar in the Indian state of Jharkhand in March 2016.
The two had been walking with their oxen they planned to sell at a cattle fair, some 40km away, when they were intercepted by members of a Hindu "cow protection committee" in the next village and fatally attacked.
They were beaten with sticks and axes, and hanged from a tree with the same nylon ropes they used for their cattle.
Now, more than two years later, a Latehar district court found the eight involved in the killings guilty of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
As the accused were brought to court, around 100 supporters shouted slogans such as 'Bharat Mata ki jai' (Glory be to mother India) and 'Gau hatya band karo' (Stop killing cows).
Friday's ruling is only the second such conviction in a series of lynchings by Hindu cow vigilantes across India in the last few years.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] In latest ghoulish discovery, authorities discover bodies of civilians, believed kidnapped and executed by jihadist group, at the bottom of a well in Kirkuk.
Iraqi authorities said they uncovered a new mass grave containing the remains of dozens of people in an area of northern Kirkuk province once held by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
Security forces have discovered dozens of mass graves since they drove out IS in 2017 after three years of occupation of swathes of northern and western Iraq.
The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... said in November that more than 200 mass graves containing up to 12,000 victims had been found in Iraq that could hold vital evidence of war crimes by the jihadists.
The latest macabre discovery was made on Thursday in the Hawija district of Kirkuk province, Adel Ismail, a lieutenant-colonel in the Iraqi federal police force, told AFP.
He said the grave contained the remains of "innocent Iraqi civilians" who "were kidnapped and then killed" by the jihadists.
It was found in what appears to be a deep well in the al-Abbassi area of Hawija.
"This is a mass grave used by ISIS," said Wani Firas, a resident of the area, using an Arabic-language acronym for IS.
"They used to come here, execute and throw (the victims) inside, and we used to watch and observe from nearby," he said.
The United Nations in Iraq (UNAMI) and its human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. office said last month they had documented a total of 202 mass graves in parts of western and northern Iraq held by IS between 2014 and 2017.
Of them, just 28 had been excavated and 1,258 bodies exhumed by Iraqi authorities, the report said.
Even more sites could be uncovered in the months to come, it warned, urging Iraqi authorities to properly preserve and excavate them to provide closure for victims’ families.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Iraqi forces are in full coordination with the Kurdish Peshmerga in monitoring the activities of ISIS remnants in the Hamrin mountain areas and both sides are fighting the group together with help from coalition air forces, said the spokesperson for the joint-operations command.
“There isn’t any security vacuum in this area, but there is coordination at the highest level with the Peshmerga,” Brigadier Yayha Rasool, spokesperson for the Iraqi joint-operations command told Rudaw in Baghdad.
“This terrorist group is constantly changing its locations,” Brig. Rasool added.
He said that movements of members of the group have been noticed recently in the Qarachogh Mountains and “coalition jets have intensely bombed their caves and hideouts.”
After the fall of Mosul and liberation of Hawija west of Kirkuk several thousand ISIS militants are believed to have escaped and taken position along the Hamrin mountain ridge.
Brig. Rasool said that the coalition forces are helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces track down the ISIS militants.
“Before any operation we would have full coordination with coalition jets,” he said. “Very advanced technology is employed in our operations and that’s why all operations are successful.”
Brig. Rasool said that the “terrorists” are constantly on the run as Iraqi forces are in hot pursuit.
“Some of the militants are local and others are foreigners,” he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
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#2
Will you be saying the same thing when the Turks and Iranians destabilize the entire region and we end up forced to go back in?
I don't understand attitudes like this. Its not "globalists" (go sell that line of paranoid conspiratorial horseshit to Alex Jones), its called supporting our allies in the region and slowing the roll of Islamic fundamentalists in Iran and Turkey in the region.
Or maybe you want a Sultan in Turkey, and the Ayatollahs dominating the middle east (with nukes)?
#3
Why should the US care if the entire middle east is destabilized? I say stir the anthill and let all the players kill each other off with hopefully none of our people in harms way.
#4
The Middle East has never been *stabilized*. The people who live there don't want it that way; they want the chance to murder everyone they hate -- which is everyone not directly related to them.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/22/2018 12:25 Comments ||
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#5
The Middle East has never been *stabilized*.
DING-DING-DING! Winner behind door number 4!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/22/2018 12:38 Comments ||
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#6
And to M.Murcek jpal and others like you who seem to have turned this place, philosophically, into InfoWars isolationism with your talking of globalists elites and warmongering cabals & conspiracies:
You have forgotten the most important lesson of history. There will always be war as long as free men exist. To remain free you must fight and be willing to fight. If you think otherwise you are gravely mistaken. Its a matter of when and where, not if.
Islam as it exists in its current form will always be waging war (jihad) on us either overtly or covertly. Its in their book. Submit or die. So you're dead wrong when you place the "blame" for war on some imaginary cabal in the west. Its not us that wants war, or an eternal struggle. Totalitarians, evil men, and Islam (redundant) do. So they made their choice.
Our choice is surrender or fight.
I ask you this: Where? Over there with allies helping versus fighting alone with our homes at our backs.
I ask you this: When? Sooner is better than later, so they do not get stronger.
I have fought - and I say fight. You are apparently choosing surrender (walking away) until your back is against the wall.
In the words of Sam Adams:
"If ye love wealth better than liberty,
the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or your arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
#7
Yes. Because the way it's been run since, oh, the end of WW II has been just dandy.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/22/2018 13:05 Comments ||
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#8
It's better to let the Muslim fight among themselves, and have free men not insert themselves in the crossfire.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
12/22/2018 13:52 Comments ||
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#9
"If you don't agree with me, you're... you're... you're Alex Jones!"
That argument, right there, that's going to make me seriously re-evaluate every single thing I have ever thought.
LOL
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/22/2018 13:54 Comments ||
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#10
OS: The problem I have is not fighting over there, it's we aren't fighting to WIN. If we're over there, we need to be committed all the way. I want a clear goal, I want a path to achieve victory for our nation! I don't want a second Afghanistan we're we constantly have troops over there for maintaining the "Status Quo".
That isn't winning, it's just choosing which of our Citizens to use as human shields. Too often the BEST of our Citizens.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/22/2018 14:25 Comments ||
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#11
Every policy has limits. No policy should be viewed as beyond criticism.
Every proposed or continued forward deployment of US troops needs to pass some basic tests:
1. What outcome are we are trying to prevent with this force?
2. Can that outcome be achieved without a US forward deployment - either through non-military means or via other nations' military forces?
3. If the answer to #2 is No, then what is the opportunity cost of this forward deployment of US troops, and is the objective worth that cost?
Re. #1, the goal in Syria was never made clear by Obama or his people.
In this, Obama was continuing the American tradition since Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan of asserting half a dozen muddled and contradictory Mideast goals, and ending in strategic incoherence. (After the Marine barracks bombing in 1983, Reagan's people told the public that our Marines were there to "defend themselves," to which Kissinger responded by noting "they can do that more effectively at Camp Lejeune.")
Obama's successor introduced - for the first time anyone can remember - CLARITY and SIMPLICITY to our Middle East policy. The goal is simply to neutralize ISIS. Toward that end, he approved a small US force engaged in what appears to be a very a limited - in scope and duration - hammer/anvil operation.
That operation appears to be 95% or more complete. Perhaps he's withdrawing a few months too early, but that's a minor quibble. There is no reason that the Russians cannot mop up the remaining ISIS hard boys.
This would spare us the risk of a war with Russia - note that we have already engaged Russia's "little green men" on the ground in Syria - and allow us to get our policy toward Russia back on a sane and manageable footing.
Trump, buffoon that he is, has restored clear focus and limited, sensible aims to our Mideast policy for the first time since Nixon. He deserves our gratitude.
#12
There is a far far greater risk on the horizon than that posed by ISIS: the very real risk of a war with Russia.
Unnoticed amid all the absurd and unhinged conspiracy theories about Russia and Trump, back in the real world, we and the Russians have escalated our confrontation on every front and at every possible flashpoint.
We are inches away from an utterly pointless confrontation with a nuclear-armed rival that does not threaten us in the slightest.
Trump is probably the only person in Washington - aside from the left-liberal journalist Tom Frank and a few journalists of Russian birth - who recognizes the insanity of ratcheting up our confrontation with Russia. Our relations could not get worse.
Now is the time to get out of Syria, find an accommodation over Ukraine (the Cold War solution of "Finlandization" would work fine), scale back the buzzing and other saber-rattling stunts, and find a way to give Russia the space and respect they deserve as a great power with legitimate interests on their periphery.
The cyber version of the Great Game will continue. But we must not have a war with Russia. This is the broader context of Trump's wise and bold moves.
#15
I don't agree with each and every one (Ukraine/Russia as a great power again) of his points, but I see the logic/observation. Civil, well-reasoned discourse
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2018 18:04 Comments ||
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#16
I'm an old student of history.
Been watching this movie for going on 50 years.
The US does not understand the Middle East. It is an anarchic state of nature where none of our liberal internationalist assumptions applies.
Consider this oddity: The only US presidents that have ever had a clue about how to make sense of and make decent predictions about the behavior of mideastern nations have been our two most erratic, emotionally unbalanced presidents: Richard M Nixon and Donald J Trump. Why do you think that is?
#17
two most erratic, emotionally unbalanced presidents
I would offer that that was the establishment/MSM take on both. Strategic unpredictability can be misused but often yields results
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2018 18:15 Comments ||
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#18
MMck, apparently me calling you out on "globalists" and "eternal war" (which is an Alex Jones special, which he stole from the left) is too close to the mark for you.
I've said when, and I've said why. Lets see your answers. And lets look at the cost.
By the way, how many casualties has the US taken in the ops in Syria? You talk as if there had been mass casualties.
Here are all five (5) of them.
U.S. pilot 00 November 2014, F-16 crashed in Jordan after a mission against ISIS. Also November U.S. special forces team member was taken by an IED while advising Kurdish-led forces ISIL in Raqqa. A US servicemen died on 30 March 2018 by an IED explosion.
Two other service members died due to non-combat causes in northern Syria in 2017.
Thats 5 total. And 3 combat deaths in a bit over 2 years. The allies have been and still are doing the dying and bleeding over there.
I bet you didnt know that.
And I also bet that whatever delayed actions you advocate will result in eventually more US casualties, as well as large amount of casualties among our allies.
I know many of these people. They deserve our support. Ask nearly (legal) foreign Western combatant who has been to the Kurdish areas. They will tell you the same.
Yet you want to abandon them, and you don't even have a good reason other than the usual leftist cry of "Bring our boys home", and "these people arent worth fighting for". Did you realize you now sound more like the anti-war left did back in 2006-7? Those who have been there think they are worth it.
Shameful. Just shameful.
The one hope I have is that President Trump will realize he has made a mistake because good people will let him know, and he will change his mind on the sudden and total withdrawal. Instead slow-roll any pullback of regular troops, put in special ops to train and advise like we are already doing, and keep resupplying these fighters via Kurdish areas of Iraq.
Leave a framework and a fighting force of locals so we are not forced to come back again in 2-3 years to fight the Turks, the MB, the Iranians, and ISIS, all entrenched and rearmed.
[Al Jazeera] Kurdish-led forces in Syria may not be able to hold prisoners from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) if the situation in the region gets out of control, a senior Syrian-Kurdish official has said.
Ilham Ahmed of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) warned that the Trump administration's decision to withdraw all of its forces would have dangerous repercussions and a destabilising effect on the entire region.
"Under the threat of the Ottoman Turkish state, and with the possibility of ISIS (ISIS) reviving once again, I fear the situation will go out of control and we no longer be able to contain them," Ahmed said at a news conference in Gay Paree on Friday when asked if the SDF was considering releasing hundreds of ISIS detainees.
On Thursday, The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported that the SDF had discussed releasing almost 3,200 local and foreign ISIS prisoners.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
If the Kurds are forced out of Manbij that they took and held from ISIS with US support, like the State Department and Trump want, ISIS will move into the vacuum.
#3
I'll be shocked if they let any of their prisoners live. We're the only reason the took prisoners in the first place most likely.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/22/2018 14:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"They keep falling fatally with head injuries as we moved them from a secure holding place to another"
"But it's level flat ground?"
"Exactly! Perplexing"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2018 17:55 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
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Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016....
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[Al Jazeera] Imtiaz Khan, a 12-year-old schoolboy, and Majloom Ansari, a 32-year-old cattle trader, were 
