Afghans to start night raids again next year

Hamid Karzai, the most Taliban man in Afghanistan, banned night raids last year to help his pals out in their war against Karzai’s government. According to Stars & Stripes, and the New York Times, the new Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, is going to lift that ban with the coming of the new year;

Afghan National Army Special Forces units are planning to resume the raids in 2015, and in some cases the raids will include members of American Special Operations units in an advisory role, according to Afghan military officials as well as officials with the American-led military coalition.

That news comes after published accounts of an order by President Obama to allow the American military to continue some limited combat operations in 2015. That order allows for the sort of air support necessary for successful night raids.

Afghanistan military leaders are pleased about the end of the ban, I guess because they’re fighting a war and stuff;

General Hameed welcomed a continuation of intelligence sharing, air transportation and close air support from American forces past the end of the year.

“We need strong backing of foreign forces during night raids, the helicopters and night vision goggles, GPS equipment, and better guidance,” he said. “Now we have noticed free movement of the Taliban, they are moving around at night and passing messages and recruiting people for fighting, and the only solution to stop their movement is night raids.”

Yeah, well, that why Karzai stopped the night operations – US forces are real good at night operations.

On Saturday a White House official responded to an article in The New York Times that said that President Obama had issued a secret order continuing combat operations in 2015, after their planned end on Dec. 31. The official reiterated that “the United States’ combat mission in Afghanistan will be over by the end of this year.”

Lawyer speak for “we’re calling it something else” because we can’t have a Nobel Peace winner who conducts combat operations.

Category: Terror War