Posted on 02/10/2015 9:21:02 PM PST by Second Amendment First
What is our end-game for Afghanistan?
Purely political decision. Drag the withdrawal out until after leaving office. DemocRAT successor will have to see it through or Republican successor gets blamed for the collapse that is sure to happen. Legacy secure.
Obama ridiculed Bush and called Afghanistan “the right war”. This is all his mess. He ramped up involvement, increased the war dead count, and went on to launch a war in Libya, supported ‘regime change’ in Egypt, and tried to launch a war in Syria.
Obama ONLY referred to the ‘two wars’ he ‘inherited’ from Bush in his 2015 State of the Union speech. The world as it is, is all Obama’s making. His pro-Islamist foreign policies have not been well intentioned or well considered.
Picture the Afghan Taliban joining up with the Pakistani Taliban that have signed allegiance to IS. Then picture Afghanistan as a province of IS used to try to topple Pakistan, a nuclear power. Also consider Boko Haram (operating in Nigeria, and expanding its territory) as a province of the caliphate. And the north Suez as a province of “caliphate”.
Right now I would say there are 4 main Muslim factions: the A) Sunni thug/dictator faction (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc) keeping the Sunnis in line; B) the Turks, C) the Shiites (Iran, Iraq, Syria... and now Yemen and potentially Bahrain in the near future), and the D) radical Sunnis (of which ISIS is the biggest).
Both C and D seem to be expanding at the expense of A.
The pattern would be that most of A gets gobbled up by D. Then B, C & D battle it out, the winner gets all Islamic territory. Expect collateral damage EVERYWHERE while they duke it out, then expect things to get worse if a clear winner emerges... they will go after the West.
What a waste.
BINGO!
How sad.
“In the case of Yemen, Obama actually sought the help of the Houthis against al-Qa’eda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). And as a result, Iran just took over Yemen.”
That may be what he is planning in Afghanistan too... hand it over to Iran. I recall a recent statement from the White House which included Afghanistan in with a list of areas for Iranian influence as a regional power. They have long ties in Western Afghanistan, and its main city Herat, near the Iranian border.
Afghanistan is backward and poorly developed, but rich in minerals that are worth a fortune if security can be imposed.
I’ve spent two years in Afghanistan - ‘08-’09 and ‘11-’12.
There was hope and morale was good in ‘08.
Making progress on the mission.
There was little hope and terrible morale in ‘11.
Back sliding on mission.
Things were possible in ‘08... something that was going on in ‘08 that had possibilities was that the villages were getting satellite TV’s... the locals were seeing things on TV they didn’t believe existed and were asking how THEY could get them. Information was coming AROUND the tribal elders. It was changing the game...
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