Trump has made Afghanistan decision after 'rigorous' U.S. review: Mattis

[webfact]

Trump has made Afghanistan decision after 'rigorous' U.S. review: Mattis

By Idrees Ali

 

U.S. President Donald Trump steps from Air Force One upon his arrival in Morristown, New Jersey, U.S., after visiting Camp David in Maryland, August 18, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

AMMAN, Reuters - President Donald Trump has made a decision on the United States' strategy for Afghanistan after a "sufficiently rigorous" review process, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday.

 

However, Mattis did not provide details on when the White House would make an announcement or what the decision was on Afghanistan, where fighting still rages more than 15 years after U.S. forces invaded and overthrew a Taliban government.

 

Soon after taking office in January, the Trump administration began a review of U.S. policy on Afghanistan, which has expanded into a broader South Asia review.

 

"I am very comfortable that the strategic process was sufficiently rigorous and did not go in with a pre-set position," Mattis told reporters traveling with him aboard a military aircraft to Jordan. "The president has made a decision. As he said, he wants to be the one to announce it to the American people."

 

After Trump met with his national security aides on Friday to review an array of options for Afghan strategy, the White House said no decision had been made on whether he would commit more troops to America's longest war. However, Trump tweeted on Saturday: "many decisions made, including on Afghanistan".

 

U.S. officials have told Reuters that the president was expected to be briefed on options ranging from a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to a modest increase.

 

One U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Trump's top national security aides are backing adding between 3,000 and 5,000 troops and allowing them to embed with Afghan forces closer to combat.

 

Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Kaine said lawmakers were waiting for the Trump administration to articulate its strategy on Afghanistan before making a judgment on troops.

 

"The troop strength question is sort of cart before the horse," Kaine told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "The real question is what is our strategy? And then when you lay out the strategy, the troop strength question can kind of answer itself."

 

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" that he would oppose sending more troops.

 

"I don't believe putting more American soldiers in Afghanistan is the answer," he said, adding that the goal should be to help Afghanistan work toward having and maintaining a stable government.

 

Michael Kugelman, with the Woodrow Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said an extended strategy review was somewhat positive because it showed that all options were being considered. However, recent gains by Taliban militants made it imperative that a strategy be announced soon.

 

According to U.S. estimates, government forces control less than 60 percent of Afghanistan, with almost half the country either contested or under the control of the insurgents.

 

"The Taliban insurgency has never been stronger... We need a strategy to address all this, and fast," Kugelman said.

 

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; editing by David Stamp and Nick Zieminski)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-21

[tonray]

Couldn't we just send the White Supremacists there and let them fight some real foes instead of imagined bogeymen here ?

[Scott]

Troll post removed.  

 

[coconuthead]

42 minutes ago, tonray said:

Couldn't we just send the White Supremacists there and let them fight some real foes instead of imagined bogeymen here ?

 

 

 

 

 

the feared KKK brigade struck fear into the talibans hearts......for once captured the taliban were led into the woods and made to squeal "deliverance style"

 

 

Edited August 21, 2017 by coconuthead
.

[tonray]

17 minutes ago, coconuthead said:

 

 

 

 

 

the feared KKK brigade struck fear into the talibans hearts......for once captured the taliban were led into the woods and made to squeal "deliverance style"

 

 

"you got a purty beard son"

[canuckamuck]

The decision was made after the CIA made a late night call to the president telling him it was in his interest to keep the heroin flowing, and then something was muttered about JFK.

[impulse]

39 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

The decision was made after the CIA made a late night call to the president telling him it was in his interest to keep the heroin flowing, and then something was muttered about JFK.

 

Maybe Oliver Stone's JFK was the in-flight movie on Air Force 1, with some snickering and whispering from the cheap seats.

 

[Caps]

I wouldn't trust him to decide what underwear to put on, never mind making a decision on Afghanistan   

Edited August 21, 2017 by Caps

[Jdiddy]

58 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

The decision was made after the CIA made a late night call to the president telling him it was in his interest to keep the heroin flowing, and then something was muttered about JFK.

Helps recoup that $600billion war cost

 

It amazes me people still think wars are about WMDs and "saving the oppressed population"

[iReason]

Trump eyes Afghanistan’s elusive mineral riches to fund ongoing 16-year war

 

“President Trump is keenly interested in Afghanistan’s economic potential,” Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in June: Our estimated $1 trillion in copper, iron ore, rare earth elements, aluminium, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium. That’s new.”

 

"U.S. officials have said that Trump argued at a White House meeting with advisers in July that the United States should demand a share of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth in exchange for its assistance to the Afghan government."

 

"But a lack of basic logistics — paved roads and rail links needed to export copper concentrate or iron ore — as well as pervasive corruption, a messy bureaucracy, and a growing insurgency that has left much of the country beyond the writ of the Kabul government have all stifled attempts to build a legitimate mining sector."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/08/21/world/politics-diplomacy-world/trump-eyes-afghanistans-elusive-mineral-riches-fund-ongoing-16-year-war/#.WZqHzKtWdg0

 

Pipe dream.

[billd766]

It really doesn't matter, as he will change his mind 2 or 3 times by the end of the month.

[simple1]

16 minutes ago, iReason said:

Trump eyes Afghanistan’s elusive mineral riches to fund ongoing 16-year war

 

“President Trump is keenly interested in Afghanistan’s economic potential,” Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in June: Our estimated $1 trillion in copper, iron ore, rare earth elements, aluminium, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium. That’s new.”

 

"U.S. officials have said that Trump argued at a White House meeting with advisers in July that the United States should demand a share of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth in exchange for its assistance to the Afghan government."

 

"But a lack of basic logistics — paved roads and rail links needed to export copper concentrate or iron ore — as well as pervasive corruption, a messy bureaucracy, and a growing insurgency that has left much of the country beyond the writ of the Kabul government have all stifled attempts to build a legitimate mining sector."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/08/21/world/politics-diplomacy-world/trump-eyes-afghanistans-elusive-mineral-riches-fund-ongoing-16-year-war/#.WZqHzKtWdg0

 

Pipe dream.

 

F YI...

 

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2093852/talks-aim-jump-start-china-miners-stalled-afghanistan

[morrobay]

1 hour ago, Jdiddy said:

Helps recoup that $600billion war cost

 

It amazes me people still think wars are about WMDs and "saving the oppressed population"

What did you expect from a population that elected Bush twice ?

[Thaidream]

The total cost of the Afghanistan operation is estimated at $700K Billion and yet the US cannot provide universal healthcare to its people; refuses to provide free tuition so Americans can get and education without going in debt to the Government for 20 years and cannot guarantee civil rights for people of color.

 

Get the hell out of Afghanistan and the Middle East.  Stop providing billions each year to Israel and Egypt and let's start providing badly needed relief to Americans. Trump will never do it because he sees terrorists behind every bush and tree.

[RobFord]

 
F YI...
 
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2093852/talks-aim-jump-start-china-miners-stalled-afghanistan

Good article.
The US can distract the Taliban while China extracts needed resources and a few Afghans become unbelievably wealthy.


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Bluespunk]

42 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

The total cost of the Afghanistan operation is estimated at $700K Billion and yet the US cannot provide universal healthcare to its people; refuses to provide free tuition so Americans can get and education without going in debt to the Government for 20 years and cannot guarantee civil rights for people of color.

 

Get the hell out of Afghanistan and the Middle East.  Stop providing billions each year to Israel and Egypt and let's start providing badly needed relief to Americans. Trump will never do it because he sees terrorists behind every bush and tree.

How very Steve bannon of you. 

[morrobay]

58 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

The total cost of the Afghanistan operation is estimated at $700K Billion .

Yes Iraq, Afghanistan,Libya are disasters. But $700k billion ? Thats $700 Trillion ?

[Srikcir]

Trump campaigned on getting out of Afghanistan.

Originally part of Bannon's nationalism policies. I can't see the US military backing Trump on an immediate pullout. Looks like Trump may once again reverse himself maybe with an Obama-style surge - that failed to slow Taliban.

[jackh]

I am quite sure his plan will be the best solution. MAGA

[Srikcir]

17 minutes ago, jackh said:

I am quite sure his plan will be the best solution. MAGA

Or he'll call it HIS Generals' plan in case it proves not to be the best solution.

[Mansell]

I was there in January after 9/11 and most of the Taliban had either changed their turbans to a different color, or had fled into Pakistan. There were burnt out tanks and bombed bridges and farmers who had been strafed. There were supposedly American, Canadian, and British troops there. I travelled twice from Pakistan to Khandahar and never saw any boots on the ground....occasionally a helicopter. At that time the buildup was towards Iraq. But as former military I could see that Afghanistan was going to be a problem down the road because nobody was doing what it took to control the country. When I returned the following year my Pakistani doctors I was working with told me it was now too dangerous as the Taliban had returned in strength. So Afghanistan was now off limits. The assorted militaries had basically dropped the ball. Going back in is a huge waste of time, money, lives, and resources. We never seem to learn anything from the half wars, and when you are not dealing with an organized army, but a motley crew who put no value on their own lives......you cannot win.

[tonray]

11 hours ago, Mansell said:

I was there in January after 9/11 and most of the Taliban had either changed their turbans to a different color, or had fled into Pakistan. There were burnt out tanks and bombed bridges and farmers who had been strafed. There were supposedly American, Canadian, and British troops there. I travelled twice from Pakistan to Khandahar and never saw any boots on the ground....occasionally a helicopter. At that time the buildup was towards Iraq. But as former military I could see that Afghanistan was going to be a problem down the road because nobody was doing what it took to control the country. When I returned the following year my Pakistani doctors I was working with told me it was now too dangerous as the Taliban had returned in strength. So Afghanistan was now off limits. The assorted militaries had basically dropped the ball. Going back in is a huge waste of time, money, lives, and resources. We never seem to learn anything from the half wars, and when you are not dealing with an organized army, but a motley crew who put no value on their own lives......you cannot win.

The problem is twofold: a tribal culture that defies modern ideas and methods and the fact that the Taliban are ethnic Afghans. Do they not have the right to determine how they want to live and govern even it it is abhorrent to us ?

 

If you want to get a good sense of why that culture is so unchangeable this is a recommended book, very entertaining as a Scottish author walked across the country after the US invasion.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Places_in_Between

[chrisinth]

18 hours ago, iReason said:

"U.S. officials have said that Trump argued at a White House meeting with advisers in July that the United States should demand a share of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth in exchange for its assistance to the Afghan government."

Demanding a share of a country's resources which they, along with an alliance invaded?

 

As for the reasons that they have stayed after getting rid of the training camps, to bring democracy to a country that doesn't want it it seems to be another case of "What you have learnt from history is that you have learnt nothing from history".

 

Here's the facts, the only thing that brings the 7 warring tribes to the table to work together is when the country has been invaded. This America (and it's allies) have successfully achieved; this is the hole that we have dug for ourselves and this is the situation that needs to be sorted out.

 

Invading is one thing but stripping a country of it's resources is something else instead. That will really p i s s the natives off IMO.

 

And the Afghan government was put in place by us in the first place, disregarding the first rule of so called democracy from the beginning.

 

As a disclaimer to the above, I fully understand that the American public needed to see the flashes and hear the bangs of retaliation after 9/11. Also understand the choice of country, relatively defenseless and of minor importance when talking about other countries in the region supporting terrorists. Shouldn't forget that at the time it was unknown who was responsible apart from the 'blatant' trail of 'evidence' left by people who faultlessly carried out multiple attacks from the shadows.

 

After 23 years serving in my country's armed forces doing what I was told, it is quite easy to see hidden agendas behind policies. Pipelines from the Caspian or in-country resources, real or imagined, I can't get out of my head. My thoughts and mine alone..........