President ends war in Afghanistan from Hawaii

The President courageously ended the war in Afghanistan from his Hawaiian vacation, according to the Associated Press;

President Barack Obama says the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.

Obama is welcoming the end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. The war came to a formal end Sunday with a ceremony in Kabul.

Obama says in a statement that the effort has devastated al-Qaida’s core leadership, brought justice to Osama bin Laden and disrupted terrorist plots. He says U.S. troops and diplomats have helped Afghans reclaim their communities and move toward democracy.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, NATO ended it’s mission in Afghanistan, according to Stars & Stripes;

The U.S. and NATO formally transitioned Sunday to a new “non-combat mission in a combat environment” whose definition remains as unclear as Afghanistan’s future, now that the bulk of foreign forces have left.

During an hour-long ceremony in a drab gymnasium at the headquarters of the military coalition that has battled against insurgents for 13 years, generals hailed the end of a mission, while struggling to explain the parameters of what will still be a substantial military operation in Afghanistan.

I wonder how al Qaeda voted on this “transition to a new non-combat mission”. The president spoke to US troops while he was on vacation on Christmas day;

President Barack Obama marked the end of more than a decade of combat in Afghanistan by paying tribute to America’s military, telling troops on Christmas Day that their sacrifices have allowed for a more peaceful, prosperous world to emerge out of the ashes of 9/11.

A more peaceful world, huh? Not according to Reuters;

The Islamic State militant group has killed 1,878 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organization said on Sunday.

Islamic State also killed 120 of its own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, in the last two months, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

I remember when I was in college, they told me that the Vietnam war the longest war in our history and they told me that it lasted from 1955 – 1975. I guess they revised those dates down recently so that they could call Afghanistan our longest war. Good for the history police.

Now this new “non-combat mission” is Operation Resolute Support – certain to scare the bejesus out of the Taliban. It even has a fancy schmancy flag;

On the U.S. mainland and across the globe, other prominent leaders were fanning out, echoing the president’s message with their own Christmas visits and phone calls to American troops.

Well, that’s what important – a message. That’ll show those jihadists.

Category: Terror War