https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51692546

That damned warmongering Trump!

Oh wait...

 

There are troops from many nations stationed in Afghanistan!

Thinskin

 

Its not done, America will have to go back again and finish the job, should have done it right the first time and be done with it

 

Afghanistan will be ruled by the Taliban in a year, 2 years at the best. This is the same ploy used by Henry Kissinger to get the US out of Vietnam.

 

In his memoirs President Eisenhower estimated that as many of 80% of the Vietnamese, in the North and in the South, supported Ho Chi Minh.

Once a Marine sergeant told me, "Whenever we went into the countryside Charlie [the Communist forces] knew we were coming. He knew how we were coming. He knew how many of us were coming. He knew when we were coming".

That would not have been possible without a lot of Communist sympathizers in the South Vietnamese government. In South Vietnam there were a lot of enemy villages. During the Second World War, when we invaded France there were not enemy villages who supported the Germans. There were not even enemy villages in Italy, although Italy had recently been an ally of Germany.


When the United States invaded Afghanistan I thought that the Taliban were unpopular in Afghanistan. If they were unpopular they would have have been able to resist the American occupation as long as they have.

I knew Saddam had a lot of support in Iraq in order to be able to survive defeat in the Gulf War.

By the time we invaded Germany the Germans were war weary, and knew that they had been defeated.

The lesson to be learned here is that we should not invade a country with a hostile population that will keep fighting us after we occupy their country. I am sure U.S. military leaders know that. It does not seem that Trump does. He seems to want war with Iran.

 

Iran needs to be watched carefully. It’s casual comments on destroying Israel are in particular quite alarming as it races to develop nuclear weapons.

Afghanistan is a lost cause because it is too self destructive. It cannot be occupied by anybody, really. Ask the Soviets. Ask the British. Ask Kipling:


“When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!

by Rudyard Kipling

 

I'm sorry for going off track just real quick though since they're saying what you said about the coronavirus @Distant Lover - is that the most affected severely physically from it would be elderly and those with a pre-existing medical condition- heart, diabetes, etc, would that put Bernie Sanders at a disadvantage as becoming the next President or are no voters thinking about that factor when considering voting for him?

 

And there is nothing the US can do to change that. Nor should we try.

The US need not be the police of the world.

Trump is just doing what Obama was unable or unwilling to do...

 

Yes he is doing what needed to be done since at least a couple years after 9 11.

ISIS will never occupy Afghanistan nor will Iran. Both would be eviscerated. The Afghans will go back to fighting amongst themselves when no external enemy is present but that is not our problem.

Ssy what you wish about Trump but he did good here. I am fully supportive of this.

 

Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Mike Bloomberg are all past 70, so they are vulnerable. Bernie Sanders is not my first choice, as he was in 2016, but I will vote for him if he wins the Democrat nomination.

 

Yes and it is time this ended.

 

Yep , peace just like in Vietnam.

The only difference , hopefully ,
you won't be leaving by chopper , from the embassy roof , in a panic.

The Taliban will be pretty pissed off I imagine ,
wondering why they had to waste 19 years of shit , to get back to where they started from.

But I recon they always knew they'd get to here , having survived there , in the world's oldest crossroads , for about 7,000 years.



At least they know they'll recoup their costs fairly quickly ,
selling resin to America

 

The war is ending. It’s the Taliban’s problem now.

If Obama had done this, it would be considered a great victory and praised of course.

Were you trying to spell reckon?

 

Afghan, U.S., NATO Officials Call Declaration a Path for Peace

Under an agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, all foreign troops may be out of Afghanistan in 14 months, officials said in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg all said today that any withdrawal would be conditions-based, and the Taliban would have to negotiate with Afghan officials for the process to move forward.

Esper and Stoltenberg traveled to Kabul to meet with Afghan leaders and discuss the joint declaration.

Under the declaration, the Taliban have agreed to counterterrorism guarantees, Afghan-to-Afghan negotiations, a ceasefire and condition-based withdrawal of foreign forces.

"Today's release of the joint declaration between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States marks a pivotal moment in the peace process," Esper said during a ceremony at the Afghan palace. "Our declaration acknowledges the deep bond shared by Afghan and U.S. forces, and reflects our commitment to working together to achieve a sustainable, negotiated agreement that ends the war, for the benefit of all Afghans. Central to this agreement are measures to prevent the use of Afghan soil by terrorist groups or other individuals who seek to harm the United States or our allies."

Esper said the result of the weeklong ceasefire in the country were encouraging.

But the Taliban do not get a free pass. "We call on the Taliban to abide by their commitments as outlined in the agreement with the United States, to include maintaining the ongoing reduction in violence across the country," Esper said. "As intra-Afghan negotiations progress, the United States will watch the Taliban's actions closely to judge whether their efforts towards peace are in good faith."

If the Taliban uphold the agreement, the United States and other members of the coalition will begin a conditions-based reduction in forces, the secretary said. "However, should the Taliban fail to honor their commitments, they will forfeit their chance to sit with fellow Afghans and deliberate on the future of their country," he added. Moreover, the United States would not hesitate to nullify the agreement."

 

The Taliban can not/should not be trusted. With them in power the Afgan ppl will never know freedom... Far as I'm concerned thats their choice. We.. USA... Need and should maintain a permanent military presence there... A well fortified air Base to run counter-terror and Intel Ops when the need arises. I have little doubt this idea would not go over well... But too freakin bad... After over $750 BILLION spent... 1000's of our service members killed... We paid for any land we occupy there.

 

I simply do not think it is the responsibility of any nation to bring peace or freedom to another people. Even Bill Clinton went on record to say that it would have been craven for the US not to respond militarily after 911. HOWEVER, that response had no business going on for this long. The Taliban is not going anywhere as they are deeply entrenched in a large tunnel filled country. And I don’t think the people in Afghanistan are even appreciative of the US presence there. I’m happy that there was an initial US military response as Bin Laden thought at the time that the US was going to be just another Soviet Union and easily routed. Bin Laden was stunned at the US airlift capacity and then by US drones. This info from his own frustrated writings seized at the time of his assassination by President Obama. President Obama and I disagreed on virtually everything by the way but the removal of Bin Laden was absolutely necessary and Obama’s greatest achievement and he deserved praise for this. And it would be adolescent of me or anyone who does not like him to deny him that respect on that matter. If Trump pulls off this deal with Afghanistan then that will be his greatest triumph and it would be adolescent for his detractors not to honor that accomplishment.

 

@BigSuzyB
Anger is not helpful in a debate and the threat of you getting angry at me is of no import to me at all.
I’m sorry your countrymen were killed in a war fought for no good purpose but as John Kerry said how can you ask a man to be the last to die in a senseless war. This had to end. And if Trump pulls this off he deserves great praise for it.

 

We told you all that the so called deal was another tRump lie.

The Taliban says it's going to resume fighting Afghan security forces, throwing another wrench into US plans for peace

• The Taliban has decided to resume offensive operations against Afghan security forces, a Taliban spokesman told Agence France-Presse on Monday.
  
  
• The decision followed a hopeful call from the Afghan president for a sustained cessation of hostilities and came as the Afghan government bickered over a prisoner-exchange provision in the conditional peace deal the Trump administration and the Taliban signed on Saturday.
  
  
• The Afghan government has refused to release prisoners before negotiations, and the Taliban has said there can be no intra-Afghan dialogue without an exchange of prisoners.
  
  
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
  

Just two days after the US and the Taliban signed an agreement intended to bring peace to Afghanistan and facilitate the withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban said it would resume offensive operations against the Afghan security forces, throwing a wrench into the peace deal.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Agence France-Presse on Monday that the seven-day reduction in violence that preceded the US-Taliban deal signed on Saturday in Doha, Qatar, "has ended now and our operations will continue as normal."

Per the agreement, "our mujahideen will not attack foreign forces but our operations will continue against the Kabul administration forces," the spokesman added.

The announcement that the militant group intends to continue its operations against the Afghan security forces came one day after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he expected that the "reduction in violence will continue with a goal to reach a full cease-fire."

It was unclear on Monday what effect a failed truce would have on the US-Taliban agreement — already in question as the Afghan government and the Taliban bicker over the deal's prisoner-exchange provision.

The agreement signed on Saturday stated that "the United States is committed to start immediately to work with all relevant sides on a plan to expeditiously release combat and political prisoners as a confidence building measure with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides."

The prisoner exchange, which would involve about 5,000 captured Taliban fighters and 1,000 Afghan security-forces prisoners, is scheduled for March 10, "the first day of intra-Afghan negotiations," the deal said.

The Afghan government "has not made any commitment to release 5K prisoners before the start of any potential negotiation," Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan government, tweeted on Monday, adding that the Taliban first needed to address significant issues, including the need for a cease-fire.

"We hope that the Taliban will comply with their commitments made in the agreement with the U.S. signed on 29th Feb, which are cutting ties with al-Qaida, and other terrorists, and sit down with the Afghan government for a negotiation leading to a political settlement," he added.

The Taliban has said it will not take part in intra-Afghan talks until its captured fighters have been released.

"We are fully ready for the intra-Afghan talks, but we are waiting for the release of our 5,000 prisoners," Mujahid told Reuters on Monday. "If our 5,000 prisoners — 100 or 200 more or less does not matter — do not get released there will be no intra-Afghan talks."

He said of the end of the truce: "As we are receiving reports that people are enjoying the reduction in violence, we don't want to spoil their happiness, but it does not mean that we will not take our normal military activities back to the level that we were before."

Mujahid added that "it could be any time, it could be after an hour, tonight, tomorrow, or the day after."

As the US and the Taliban signed their agreement on Saturday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper expressed cautious optimism, saying, "This is a hopeful moment, but it is only the beginning."

He added: "For the first time in many years, Afghanistan has a real path toward the future this country deserves. We look forward to the coming weeks and months with great optimism, as we advance these important efforts to finally achieve peace."