Defeat in Afghanistan: Yankee Go Home
THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL: Defeat in Afghanistan is not only inevitable it is visible right now
Defeat in Afghanistan: Remember Maiwand
To solve the problems of the incompetent Afghan warlords and their sponsors, NATO and ISAF forces— they asked Washington to send in the marines. Well the US marines arrived and got stuck in the same morass. Most of Afghanistan is in Pashtun hands (wrongly labelled Taliban). The Pashtuns are a conglomeration of many diverse and divergent groups who are all fighting occupation.
The marines arrived. As in any guerrilla warfare, when an overwhelming body or force arrives. the opposing guerrillas melt away into the population. When the overwhelming body of force attacks the villages, the innocent are victimized and this balloons the ranks of the guerrillas. This has been happening in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.
British defeats at Maiwand and other places
Every day that the occupiers remain in Afghanistan, the insurgents keep on gaining ground. Eventually the occupiers get tired and leave. Afghan history is a testament to the retreat of the Macedonians, the Mongols, the Britishers, and the Russians.
Mr. Karzai the Mayor of Kabul is buying an island in the UAE. His brother is the biggest drug war lords in the world and the entire Northern Alliance is stepped deep in drug smuggling.
Defeated & dejected in a Helmund dust storm
Afghanistan plight grows worse for U.S. By LOLITA C. BALDOR and FISNIK ABRASHI The Associated Press
WASHINGTON | The situation on the ground in Afghanistan continues to escalate.
The U.S. military said Friday that airstrikes by its attack helicopters hit two vehicles carrying insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. The province’s governor said 22 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed.
This comes one day after the Pentagon decided to extend the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.
The Pentagon’s decision comes as violence in Afghanistan has increased markedly over recent weeks. June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the war began in 2001, with 28 combat fatalities.
Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month.
Violence has claimed more than 2,100 lives so far this year. And more than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks in Afghanistan last year – the most since the U.S.-led war began.
The nation’s top military officer, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that more U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan.
However, Mullen said the military does not have sufficient forces to send because of the war in Iraq.
Mullen said insurgent Taliban and extremist forces in Afghanistan have become “a very complex problem” that is tied to the drug trade, a failing economy and the porous Pakistan border.
1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said Friday that the airstrikes in Nuristanprovince hit militants who earlier attacked a U.S. military base with mortars.
The helicopters identified the militants’ firing positions, tracked them down and destroyed the vehicles they were traveling in, Perry said.
“These were combatants. These were people who were firing on us,” Perry said. “We have no reports of noncombatant injuries.”
He gave no account of casualties in the vehicles.
But Nuristan’s governor, Tamim Nuristani, said 22 civilians were killed in the Waygal district of Nuristan province. It was impossible to independently verify any of the claims because of the remoteness of the area.
Meanwhile, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is doing combat operations in the volatile south, will stay an extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October, said Marine Col. David Lapan.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, has repeatedly said he did not intend to extend or replace the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, calling their deployment there an extraordinary, one-time effort to help tamp down the increasing violence in the south. Asked about the possibility of an extension in early May, Gates said he would “be loath to do that.” He added that “no one has suggested even the possibility of extending that rotation.”
Lapan said Thursday that commanders in Afghanistan asked that the Marines stay longer.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrellsaid the longer tour does not open the door to an extension beyond the 30 days, nor to the possibility of replacing them with other U.S. troops when they come out in November.
He added that commanders in Afghanistan “asked for 30 more days to milk the fighting season to the bitter end and cement the gains they have made in the south.”
Commanders faced with increasing violence have said they need at least 7,500 more troops in Afghanistan. And President Bush and defense officials have said they hope to identify additional units by the end of the year that could go to Afghanistan early next year
