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| Afghanistan |
| Petraeus: Next President Must Make ‘Enduring Commitment' to Afghanistan Security |
| 2016-10-11 |
| [PJ] WASHINGTON - Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA director and former commander of U.S. Central Command, said the situation in Afghanistan is "deteriorating" and encouraged the next administration to make an "enduring commitment" to security in the country. "The situation as we describe is fraught and it is concerning, and the bottom line is we believe the next administration should make an enduring commitment to Afghanistan and our partners there -- that is the real bottom line and, if you will, the headline -- that we should not have to go through the annual reviews to see where you are and how you are going to draw down or what have you, that we should use the assets we have there as effectively as we possibly can to support our Afghan security force counterparts," Petraeus said during a discussion on Afghanistan security last week at the Brookings Institution. "As many of you know, our air power was restricted for quite some time. We think it warrants further examination to determine how we can indeed help individuals for whom we provided close air support when we were fighting shoulder to shoulder with them and then we did not do that for some period of time until more recently. Those are the kinds of initiatives that should be pursued," he added. Petraeus said U.S. involvement within Afghanistan, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and surged during President Obama’s first term, is not a blank check and has to be a commitment from both sides. Con't. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #14 VICE nailed it with this quagmire documentary: This is What Winning Looks Like |
| Posted by: Omavirt Thineter1172 2016-10-11 20:35 |
| #13 Do the Afghans have any responsibilities here? |
| Posted by: charger 2016-10-11 20:11 |
| #12 Karzai ended night raids and air strikes on civilian areas in 2013. The day the Taliban wins and strings Karzai up from the nearest lamp post, the average Afghan is gonna be thinking "what a putz". |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2016-10-11 19:24 |
| #11 The only reason to be in Afghanistan is to get the miscreants who perpetrated 9/11, not nation build. OBL is dead, may of his associates are dead. The Taliban are now hired help for the drug lords. AQ has been displaced by ISIL. You don't have to take them all down, just weaken them enough that another predator will do it for you. You never really wanted to fight war as it was meant to be fought. Something more kinder and gentler instead and you get decades of fighting without resolution. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-10-11 19:19 |
| #10 ‘Enduring Commitment' is just diplospeak for surrender to Afghanistan. ‘Enduring Commitment' puts the West's provocative weakness on display in front of the whole world. This kind of commitment actively destroys any semblance of Western deterrence. Nuts! |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2016-10-11 18:22 |
| #9 No, really? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2016-10-11 13:10 |
| #8 Failed nation-building begets legacy-building, I guess. |
| Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 2016-10-11 13:03 |
| #7 I think "Level everything" would be more appropriate. Whatever grows back couldn't be any worse than what is there at the moment. |
| Posted by: Crusader 2016-10-11 12:23 |
| #6 Before we leave perhaps we should use B52s to level every runway and road out of the place. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-10-11 12:06 |
| #5 It's not our problem - let's GTFO. |
| Posted by: Raj 2016-10-11 11:14 |
| #4 Build a wall around Afghanistan, and erect signs on the exterior of the wall reading "Hell on Earth" - and depart - staying away forever. Some tribal places are not meant to become nation-states. Accept this, and move on. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2016-10-11 10:59 |
| #3 You mean we have to keep our troops there forever and forever? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2016-10-11 10:55 |
| #2 I've said it before a 100 times. Afghanistan is an ethnic quagmire the Soviets found to their cost. And the USA is merely taking longer to find the same thing. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2016-10-11 09:57 |
| #1 Excellent shot of the aft Electronic Countermeasure defensive pods (anti-manpad) and eye on that CH-47 Chinook helicopter. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-10-11 09:01 |