Air Force deploys A-10s to Afghanistan to ramp up Taliban fight

[Maarkhoor]

Folks don't want to understand!!! Every action has an equal and opposite reaction!!! Now the Taliban will also notch up the game!!! Last time, the soviets did the same mistake....

Uncle Sam forgets old saying "Afghanistan is a graveyard of foreign invaders".

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

You have no idea of the appetite for conflicts of American defense mafia - virtually endless.

Afghanistan represents the perfect environment to test new kind of weapon systems and defense-related doctrines from time-to-time. American defense mafia is really happy.

Some stories [that I have learned] will surprise you, if you want to know.

And, Russia has a mafia too...

 

[Fledgingwings]

You have no idea of the appetite for conflicts of American defense mafia - virtually endless.

Afghanistan represents the perfect environment to test new kind of weapon systems and defense-related doctrines from time-to-time. American defense mafia is really happy.

Some stories [that I have learned] will surprise you, if you want to know.

Yeah you are right.unfortunately US public are paying the price with their loved ones,s lives.However Afghanistan can be a proving ground for them but not for long.I remember the great soviet union came in and exited as Russian federation.lets see how it goes and ends for the yanks and their nato thugs.they smoked millions of people in the world wars before now its a matter of when and not if to get back to their natural state.which is beastly.

 

[Glockaholic]

For every move there is a counter move

 

[Signalian]

let's see, when does US introduce F-16 to fight with Taliban.

A-16. Heard of it?

 

[Trango Towers]

Lol.....now tell me where are the terrorists. USA needs to do more. Stop airlifting Isis to Afghanistan

 

[Ocean]

Some stories [that I have learned] will surprise you, if you want to know.

Share i want to hear

 

[X.I.X]

MARK MY WORDS, US CANNOT WIN THIS WAR FROM THIS HUMILIATING DEFEAT EVEN AFTER USING THE ATOM BOMB.

 

[LeGenD]

Share i want to hear

Bro,

My observations are as follows:-

1. Bush administration was absolutely aware of presence of Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in 2002. When US-led forces commenced an operation in this region under the able leadership of James Norman Mattis, he requested secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld to provide him a force of 700 Army Rangers to enforce a blockade of potential escape routes and make it possible for him to assassinate Osama. His request was DENIED.

"But the Al Qaeda leader would live to fight another day. Fewer than 100 American commandos were on the scene with their Afghan allies, and calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected. Requests were also turned down for U.S. troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan. The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the Army, was kept on the sidelines. Instead, the U.S. command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack bin Laden and on Pakistan's loosely organized Frontier Corps to seal his escape routes. On or around December 16, two days after writing his will, bin Laden and an entourage of bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area."

Source: a report by John F. Kerry, submitted to US Congress (2009)

Emphasis mine. Clear-cut evidence of mischief on the part of Bush administration, to create an opportunity to unnecessarily prolong conflict in the region and disturb the environment of Pakistan. This "game plan" paved way for CIA to establish its presence in Pakistan under the garb of chasing terrorists. On the face, they argued that Osama and his aides have slipped into Pakistan and should be nabbed, but they were not telling the whole story.

I get the impression that CIA established its presence in Pakistan to collect meaningful information about "matters of interest." A major crackdown on terrorists certainly took place in Pakistan during the years (2003 - 2011), ending with Operation Neptune Spear in 2011. Post-raid Pakistani investigations suggest that CIA began to withhold certain aspects of information from Pakistani intelligence agencies since 2005.

I also get the impression that US see in Afghanistan a test-bed for various weapons and defense-related doctrines. See points 2, 3 and 4 below.

2. Afghanistan is the first country where US employed advanced drones for COIN operations. Former operators describe their experiences as similar to playing a "video game."

Afghanistan was just the beginning; Obama administration authorized CIA to utilize drones to assassinate individuals inside Pakistan with impunity. First notable target was the founding father of TTP militia Baitullah Mehsud in 2009 (a welcome move at the time), probably with the consent of Pakistani establishment, but this "assassination spree" grew out of hand in later years, and CIA is deemed guilty of conducting scores of [unilateral] strikes inside Pakistan which is alarming because their is no accountability.

A source named Wikileaks was successful in cultivating the narrative that these strikes are carried out with tacit approval of Pakistani establishment but reality is more complex and disturbing. This "narrative" made it possible for CIA to mask any unilateral activity under the veil of tacit approval. You will find some dirty details in this report: https://digitalcommons.law.msu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1169&context=ilr

In-fact, people need to study a report of Amnesty International titled "Will I be next."

A much publicized incident of [unilateral] assassination effort inside Pakistan is that of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in 2016. Mansour was reportedly in talks with Pakistani establishment to find a peaceful resolution to ongoing conflict in Afghanistan at the time but [apparently] this was not in the interests of the US.

3. Afghanistan is the first country where US tested a weapon system that can affect human bodies with its invisible beams, in 2010. They call it "active denial system."

https://www.wired.com/2010/06/u-s-testing-pain-ray-in-afghanistan/

4. Afghanistan is the first country where US tested powerful MOAB weapon in an operation, in 2017. Target was a compound with an underground hideout in Tora Bora region.

Resultant shockwave damaged structures as far as in Pakistan

5. The most alarming development in the region so far is "Operation Neptune Spear" that took place in Abbottabad in 2011. Even though the primary objective of this CIA-led [unilateral] operation was to assassinate Osama, it also provided ample opportunity to the US to probe defenses of Pakistan on a much larger scale and achieve some operational insight in relation to this contingency plan: http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/the-pentagons-secret-plans-to-secure-pakistans-nuclear-arsenal/

6. Obama administration authorized ISAF to employ militias in largely ungoverned spaces of Afghanistan to do its bidding, and numerous cases of human rights abuses in such regions are attributed to such forces. Trump administration is expected to raise another militia [about 20,000 strong] in Afghanistan to do its bidding.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/19/afghanistan-militias-us-un-diplomats
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/world/asia/afghan-local-police.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/15/afghanistan-proposed-militia-threat-civilians

US doesn't give a damn about grievances of Afghanistan. They are not even trying to "win" this war, in political context. Afghanistan represents an ideal testing ground for new kinds of weapons and warfare doctrines. American Defense Mafia is really happy, it seems.

Not sure when this madness will end.

NOTE: I am not trying to cultivate the narrative that US is not serious about tackling the menace of terrorism around the world. There is ample evidence that suggests that US has played a major role in combating the menace of terrorism around the world since 2001. US deserves credit for assassinating scores of TTP leaders and combatants to soften its resistance to Pakistan Army over the course of years, starting with Baitullah Mehsud in 2009. However, at the same time, so-called War on Terror has provided American Defense Mafia ample opportunity to pull strings [behind-the-scenes] for its ends. Similarly, American administrations found windows of opportunity for more sinister ends. End-result is unnecessarily prolonging overseas conflicts to test new weapon systems and warfare doctrines. In the end, these matters are not so black-and-white.