Mediaboss Marketing

The Pentagon is not fighting to win the war in Afghanistan, but not to have the perception the US lost the war, said Brian Becker from the ANSWER Coalition. Any troop surge in Afghanistan will not be decisive, he added.

Afghanistans ambassador to the US said local Afghan forces should be able to deal with the Taliban threat themselves by 2020.

However, the Pentagon keeps considering whether to send more troops to the country. General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, recently said he anticipated an increase in troops stationed in Afghanistan.

We are developing a strategy, and we are in discussions with the secretary and the department right now, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. I do believe it will involve additional forces to ensure that we can make the advise-and-assist mission more effective.

RT: Do you feel the US military is going in circles? They continue to ask for an increased military presence, yet the situation on the ground is not changing?

Brian Becker: General Votels request for a troops surge in Afghanistan comes almost exactly eight years after President Obama carried out a troop surge, at that time with more than 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. Here we are eight years later: the war is not over, the war continues. It now continues to be the longest war in US history. Any troop surge in Afghanistan will not be decisive. The American people wont tolerate sending hundreds of thousands of troops so that it would be a smaller surge. Nonetheless, it wont win the war.

RT: Do you feel the US military is going in circles? They continue to ask for an increased military presence, yet the situation on the ground is not changing?

Brian Becker: General Votels request for a troops surge in Afghanistan comes almost exactly eight years after President Obama carried out a troop surge, at that time with more than 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan. Here we are eight years later: the war is not over, the war continues. It now continues to be the longest war in US history. Any troop surge in Afghanistan will not be decisive. The American people wont tolerate sending hundreds of thousands of troops so that it would be a smaller surge. Nonetheless, it wont win the war.

The real problem is the US cant win the war. The Pentagon knows that it cant win the war. It is not fighting to win the war anymore. It is fighting not to have the perception that it lost the war. More and more American young people: soldiers, sailors, marines are being sent to Afghanistan. Some will be killed; some will be injured; many Afghans will die. That is the strategy; there is no light at the end of this tunnel.

RT: Could this be another Vietnam a lost war with little chance of success the US government cannot let go?

BB: The component that existed in Vietnam and that is missing in Afghanistan is that in the Vietnam War in 1967-1972 millions of Americans were in the street demanding the war end. There could be no expectation that the war could be won. So there was mounting pressure at home to stop the war in Vietnam. The US could not win the war. The US cant win the war in Afghanistan. But the missing component here is that huge surge of anti-war opinion among the population. The reason for that is that US military planners have made sure that the numbers of US casualties are very low. All the bleeding is done on the other side, in other words, precisely in order to prevent massive anti-war sentiment from growing in the US that would be political pressure on this government or any American government.

RT: Could the indifference of the American people be the result of the lack of a mandatory draft, where people think that this war is far away and does not concern them?

BB: Yes, the combination of the absence of a selective service a conscripted army, whereby the burden of a foreign war had to be shared by the entire population, and the low number of American casualties the two things that have prevented the crystallization of mass anti-war sentiment as existed during the Vietnam War.

When I was a young kid, every year we were thinking: Oh, in four years, in three years, in two years I will be 18, I will be drafted. So for every family that had a young male in the family, the entire family had to deal with the question: Do we support the war? Do we want our son to go and fight, perhaps be killed? That is absent right now with the volunteer army. A very small part of the American people feel the burden of the foreign war.

Here we are in 2017 almost 16 years since the beginning of the US invasion of Afghanistan that began in October 2001. The Taliban probably controls more territory now than in did when it was the government of Afghanistan. At that time it couldnt control Northern Afghanistan. The country was severely divided by the warlords following the fall of the socialist government of Afghanistan in the early 1990s. I think the US knows they cant win. They dont want to leave. They know that Afghanistan will be effectively partitioned, but at least some parts of Afghanistan will remain under American control.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

See the original post here:
'No light at end of this tunnel, US can't win Afghanistan war' - RT

Stars and Stripes

Hecker assumes command of US, NATO air forces in Afghanistan Stars and Stripes KABUL, Afghanistan Maj. Gen. James B. Hecker became the top Air Force general in Afghanistan on Tuesday by assuming command of the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force and the NATO Air Command. Hecker took over from Air Force Maj.

Read the rest here:
Hecker assumes command of US, NATO air forces in Afghanistan - Stars and Stripes

An American special forces soldier has been killed in a combat operation against Islamic State extremists in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Sunday.

"The soldier was mortally wounded late Saturday during an operation in Nangarhar Province" in eastern Afghanistan, Navy Capt. Bill Salvin said in a message on the official Twitter account of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission.

The soldier was a special forces operator helping Afghan forces battle ISIS militants and was killed in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.

The circumstances of the death were unclear and Salvin said more information could be released later, Reuters reported.

The Pentagon said the soldiers identity would be released pending notification of next of kin.

The ISIS terror group has a growing presence in eastern Afghanistan, where it has battled both Afghan forces and the much larger and more powerful Taliban.

Insurgents killed at least 13 Afghan security forces in separate attacks, officials said Sunday.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, spokesman for the governor of the northern Balkh province, said a roadside bomb killed nine security forces and wounded several others the night before in the Chimtal district, where they were waging an ongoing operation against the Taliban. He said five insurgents have been killed and dozens wounded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Original post:
US special forces soldier killed in Afghanistan operation ...

Late one night in February, villagers in the Dast-e-Archi district of northern Afghanistan heard strange sounds from the nearby Panj river, which marks the border with Tajikistan.

One farmer said he saw the bright lights of planes landing close to the riverbank, just inside Afghan territory in an area controlled by Taliban militants.

Word of American airstrikes or raids against insurgents travels fast in Kunduz province, but the next morning no one had any information about such an operation. The villagers concluded that the planes belonged to another powerful country seeking to press its influence in Afghanistan.

It would have had to be the Russians, said the farmer, who asked to be identified as Gul Agha. These areas are outside government control so the question is raised, why were the planes landing there?

Reports have swirled for months across northern Afghanistan that Russia is increasing its support for the Taliban, providing weapons and financing to the militant group that has battled U.S. and international forces since 2001.

If true, it would be a sharp reversal of Moscows troubled Cold War adventures in Afghanistan, where leaders of what became the Taliban helped drive out Soviet soldiers who invaded in 1979 to prop up a communist government in Kabul. Back then, it was the U.S. under President Reagan that backed the Afghan mujahedin, or freedom fighters, against the Soviets.

Russias return to Afghanistan, according to analysts and Western diplomats in Kabul, is intended to counter the spread of Islamic State-affiliated militants in Central Asia and further challenge the United States at a time when the Trump administration has failed to articulate a plan for ending the Afghan war.

Trump has not appointed an ambassador to Kabul and has barely spoken about the longest conflict in U.S. history, although commanders have said they want to add to the 8,400 American troops still stationed here.

The U.S. has become less active while Russia has increased its activities, said a Western diplomat in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.

U.S. and Afghan officials have reacted with alarm since Alexander Mantytskiy, the Russian ambassador to Kabul, acknowledged in December that Moscow maintained contact with the Taliban. Earlier this month, Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, told Congress that it was fair to assume Russia was supporting the Taliban, although he did not disclose details.

Russia denies supplying the Taliban with weapons and insists its contacts are solely aimed at bringing the insurgents to the negotiating table. Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putins special envoy to Afghanistan, has called the allegations of material support to the insurgents absolute lies...aimed at justifying the failure of the U.S. military and politicians.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also denied that the group received money or arms from Russia.

But an official with the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, said Russian intelligence agents were providing the Taliban with strategic advice, money and arms, including old anti-aircraft rockets.

The Russian support has played a role in the Talibans advances in Kunduz, where they have twice briefly seized the provincial capital, Afghanistans fifth-largest city, said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

It also represents another effort by Putin to exert power globally while weakening the U.S.

Russia has intervened in the Syrian war on behalf of President Bashar Assad, and U.S. intelligence officials believe Putin directed a secret campaign to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Trumps favor.

U.S. officials see Russia as a threat to an already struggling government in Kabul which is losing an increasing amount of territory and troops to Taliban advances and to Afghan civilians, who are being killed and injured in record numbers, mainly in Taliban attacks.

We know that actions by Russia in Afghanistan are meant to undermine the work of the United States and NATO to support the Afghan government, said Capt. William Salvin, spokesman for the U.S.-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan.

The Afghan official said Russian intelligence agents have held meetings with Taliban representatives in Tajikistan and Moscow, and occasionally enter Afghan territory in border provinces like Kunduz. He added that Russians were serving as creative minds and strategists for the Taliban at a kind of academy in Iran.

Northern Afghanistan, particularly Kunduz, is of particular interest to Russia because Kabuls control in the area is limited and the province borders Tajikistan, a Russian ally that has helped mediate contacts with the Taliban.

In northern Afghanistan, Russian activity is well known to everybody, said Haroun Mir, a political analyst who regularly travels to the area.

Mir said Russia has increased contacts with the Taliban over the last year, coinciding with the spread of Islamic State militants. Afghan and Western officials believe that many of the militants fled an army crackdown in Pakistans tribal belt and are of Central Asian origin, raising fears in Moscow that they could strike Russian interests.

Waheed Muzhda, a former official in the Taliban government that ruled Kabul until the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, said Russian outreach to the Taliban began a decade ago, when it twice invited insurgent representatives to Moscow to express concern over Uzbek militants fighting alongside them.

Tayyab Agha, head of the Talibans political wing, assured Moscow that the militants would not create problems for Russia in Central Asia, Muzhda said.

Russia now appears to be using those contacts to portray itself as a peacemaker.

Moscow has held two multinational meetings on Afghanistan since December and scheduled a third for mid-April, at which representatives from 12 countries, including China, Pakistan, Iran, India and Afghanistan, are expected to attend.

The United States which has failed repeatedly to goad the Taliban into talks declined to participate, saying it had not been consulted in advance.

Although the Russian initiative is seen as a long shot, analysts said it could emerge as a counterweight to U.S. influence in Afghanistan.

When we had increasing contacts with the Taliban, Russia was very suspicious, and now that they are, we dont like it, said Barnett Rubin, a former State Department official in Afghanistan during the Obama administration who is now associate director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.

For whatever motive, [Russia] is doing what should be done, which is trying to bring the Taliban into a regional political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Special correspondent Liuhto reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Shashank Bengali from Mumbai, India. Special correspondent Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report from Moscow.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

ALSO

As death toll in hospital attack soars to 50, Afghanistan investigates whether it was an inside job

U.S. missile strike in Syria dashes hope of improving ties with Russia

Pakistan holds its first census in 19 years, but not everyone is ready to be counted

Read the original post:
In Afghanistan, Russia is working with its Cold War foe the Taliban, complicating the US' longest war - Los Angeles Times

Getty Images

AFGHANISTAN An Army Special Forces soldier was killed while conducting counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan late Saturday, April 8th US forces in Afghanistan have announced in a release.

The soldier was mortally wounded while helping Afghan forces conduct operations against Khorasan, the local branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, told CNN.

The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John W. Nicholson, offered deepest condolences to the family and friends of our fallen comrade on behalf of all US forces there. We will always remember our fallen comrades and commit ourselves to deliver on their sacrifice.

US troops regularly perform counterterrorism operations against the ISIS affiliate, which has a presence in Nangarhar Province, where the soldier was killed. Those operations are sometimes carried out in conjunction with Afghan forces.

The US counterterrorism mission is separate from the NATO-led effort to train, advise and assist the Afghan army and police force.

There are about 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan. This is the first US combat death in Afghanistan in 2017. The number of US casualties in Afghanistan has fallen sharply since the end of US-led combat operations in 2014.

Continue reading here:
US special operations soldier killed in Afghanistan - fox6now.com