In the week before President Donald Trump’s reported decision to abruptly withdraw 7,000 U.S. service members from Afghanistan, the top U.S. commander there all but admitted that the 17-year-old war there will not end with a military victory for the Pentagon.
“This fight will go until a political settlement,” Army Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the Resolute Support mission there, told CNN when asked whether the Afghan campaign against the Taliban had reached a stalemate.
“These are two sides that are fighting against one another, and neither one of them will achieve a military victory at this stage.”
In the same interview, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass concurred with Miller’s assessment, cautioning that U.S. and Afghan officials will face a complicated diplomatic situation given the Talian’s aggressive rejection of the current administration in Kabul.
“We have an opportunity today that we didn’t have six or 12 months ago to see if it’s truly possible to achieve that political settlement,” Bass told CNN.
“We don’t know if we’re going to be successful. We have to see if the Taliban is interested in responding to the deep desire of the Afghanistan people for peace.”
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Putin said get out for pete sakes.Are you too proud or political to convey?How many years did Russia spend there?DUH!!!
ReplyDeleteA lot of rich donors won't be happy.
ReplyDeleteWe aren’t there to fight the Taliban. We are there to have a place to keep
ReplyDeletethousands of troops and materiel in a volitile part of the world ready to mobilize at a moments notice.
We are there because it is a money maker for the military and the defense industries.
ReplyDeleteExactly 5:09. So the well connected can make millions to provide services such as security, consulting, rebuilding etc. It's unbelievable what goes on and the exhortation prices the federal government pays. They pay these well connected companies like 1 million a year per security person they send to those countries.
ReplyDeleteYou are the same clowns that helped put us there and Iraq in the first place. Do the US a favor and sit out this policy debate.
ReplyDeleteAmerica has not really won any of its wars after WW2. Politics has hampered the fighters.
ReplyDeleteNeed to do like we did in WW2, kill them all, and let God sort them out.
Tokyo, Nagasaki, Heroshema, Dresden, Berlin, are a small example on what we need to be doing!