NATO hints at early withdrawal from Afghanistan
According to the Guardian, NATO’s secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the organization is contemplating an early withdrawal of coalition troops from Afghanistan, largely because of those “negligible” insider murders;
“From now until the end of 2014 you may see adaptation of our presence. Our troops can redeploy, take on other tasks, or even withdraw, or we can reduce the number of foreign troops,” he said. “From now until the end of 2014 we will see announcements of redeployments, withdrawals or drawdown … If the security situation allows, I would not exclude the possibility that in certain areas you could accelerate the process.”
Rasmussen admitted that the killings of almost 50 allied troops this year in “green on blue” attacks – Afghan security forces turning on their trainers and mentors – had damaged the relationship between the international forces and the Afghan police and military.
“There’s no doubt insider attacks have undermined trust and confidence, absolutely,” he said.
Do you mean to tell me that in the space of a few weeks those attacks have gone from being “negligible” to being the entire reason we’re leaving? It’s also just a few days after the schedules withdrawal of the “surge” troops. So it looks to me like having a scheduled insertion and withdrawal of the much-vaunted surge forces kind of worked against the whole surge thing didn’t it? I wonder who could have seen that coming? Certainly not Joe Biden.
The New York Times reports that the coalition has abandoned a negotiated end to the war, since they’re not really negotiating from a position of strength;
With the surge of American troops over and the Taliban still a potent threat, American generals and civilian officials acknowledge that they have all but written off what was once one of the cornerstones of their strategy to end the war here: battering the Taliban into a peace deal.
Yeah, well, the CIA and General McCrystal told the administration that would happen if this administration didn’t fully staff a surge like the generals requested. And, viola, there you go. This administration was more interested in mollifying their base while trying to look like they are tough on terrorism. A half-assed response got a half-assed result.
Category: Terror War
The focus of negotiations will be a peaceful pullout, nothing more. And Lord knows what we will have to pay to get that. We will seek assurance that when our people stage, they will not be attacked in any way, shape, or form by Afghan troops, police, or civilian terrorists.
And in 5 to 10 years, Afghanistan will return to being the 7th century moon-scape it always has been, and the Taliban and others of their ilk will claim victory over another superpower, just as they did after the Soviets left. Maybe Karzai will finally get the picture after he is ousted within months of our final departure, but it will be too late for him by then.
A half-assed result? NO. The combination of diddling around with the decision for months, half-ass surge, scheduled timeline of retreat, and begging for negotiations created negative results by emboldening the enemy and creating the means by which they could infiltrate the ANSF, and attack from within.
The result is decidely negative, decidely in favor of the enemy. 75% of all violence in Afghanistan has occurred from 2009 to 2012. 2012 is ALREADY worse than any year before Obama “made Afghanistan his ‘top priority.’ ”
Enemy initiated attacks are up exponentially over the 2001-2008 period.
These are the predictable results of setting a policy of “ending” a war, without winning it.
This Administration came in declaring how they would make Afghanistan their top priority because of how it was ‘ignored” by the previous Administration… That is debatable, but what is not is the fact that Obama pretty much ignored his Commanders on the ground for almost a year, and then grudgingly and half assed their recommendations.
What has resulted from his lack of balls, piss poor apologizing strategy is the needless deaths of ours and our Allies men and woman for a cause he had no intention of winning.
Yet we have a willfully negligent media who has allowed their political bias to keep them from reporting the truth about what this naive neophyte done to our foreign policy and image in the world. image is everything in the Middle East, and they see us now as weak/impotent!!
Gonna have to agree with WOTN (@3) here.
There’s nothing half- about it. This is all ass and it smells like it.
Frankly, after 10 years, untold billions and countless lives spent in Afghanistan, we need to get the hell out. I truly feel sorry for the women and children, the disabled and despised, and the trauma and terror they’re going to be subjected to once we pull out. I feel for the, really I do. But, after devoting an ungodly amount of Blood and Treasure, the Afghanis need to man the fuck up and take their own freedom from those who would oppress them.
We’ve given them the time, tools and training. Now it’s time we give them the opportunity to stand on their own feet, take a rifle in hand, and decide if freedom is worth fighting for. Because I tell you what, if they’re not willing to fight for it, and die for it, and own their responsibility for their own liberty, they’ll never appreciate any assistance we might render in getting it for them.
I’m not sure where else to put this article from Reuters news service, and the links sometimes don’t last very long, so I copied the article instead of the link: UPDATE 1-Mali Islamists tell France they will open doors of hell Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:11pm GMT * France urging swift military intervention in Mali * Islamists would target Hollande, kill hostages * Western nations funding jihad with ransoms, MUJWA says (Add France reaction, details on hostages) By Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali threatened on Saturday to “open the doors of hell” for French citizens if France kept pushing for armed intervention to retake the rebel-held north. The renewed threats against French hostages and expatriates came as French-speaking nations met in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where French President Francois Hollande was expected to urge the rapid deployment of an African-led force to rout the Islamists. Hollande said the threat would not deter France’s determination to quash the Islamists in Mali. “If he continues to throw oil on the fire, we will send him the pictures of dead French hostages in the coming days,” said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for Islamist group MUJWA, in apparent reference to the six French nationals still held by armed groups after being seized in the region. “He will not be able to count the bodies of French expatriates across West Africa and elsewhere,” Hamaha said by telephone. MUJWA is among the Islamist groups which seized control of the northern two-thirds of Mali when fighters swept into the territory in April following a coup in the capital Bamako. Regional and Western powers are now considering armed intervention to retake the area, with former colonial ruler France seeking swift military action by regional bloc ECOWAS. The U.N. Security Council called on Friday for an intervention plan to be drawn up within 45 days after passing a French-drafted resolution to revive attempts to end the crisis. Hollande on Saturday dismissed the MUJWA threat, saying it would not alter its stance on Mali. “We have always said that we would… Read more »