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2021-07-19 Afghanistan
David Petraeus: Afghanistan falling apart after 20 years of US war
[Iran Press TV] Former US commander in Afghanistan and CIA director Gen. David Petraeus has said Afghanistan is falling apart as the United States is withdrawing troops from the country after 20 years of war in the country. In an interview with CNN
...the organization formerly known as the Cable News Network. Now who knows what it might stand for...
on Sunday, the retired US general said, "The situation on the ground has become increasingly dire with each passing week."

"I fear we will look back and regret the decision to withdraw," Petraeus said. "Sadly, we may regret that sooner than I had originally thought when I said that right after the decision was announced."

"Beyond that, I think we will also look back and regret the hasty way in which we seem to be doing this," added Petraeus, who retired from the Army to become director of the CIA in 2011.

US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem mschine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family...
has announced that American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan, and he recently moved up the date of the final departure to August 31, as the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
claimed that they now control 85 percent of the country’s territory.

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 on the pretext of fighting terrorism and removing the Taliban from power, but after the 20 years of war the country now looks descending into chaos and the Taliban knocking on Kabul’s door. Some high-profile Americans are now suggesting that the US war should not end.

Petraeus praised the Afghan National Security Forces for their fight against the Taliban, saying they "had been fighting and dying in very large numbers. And they still are. The problem now is they're not sure if someone is coming to the rescue, and that injects a very considerable amount of uncertainty into the battlefield."

The retired CIA chief went on to argue that withdrawing American troops was not going to end the fighting in Afghanistan.

"No one wants to see endless wars ended more than those who have actually served in them, but we are not ending this war, we are ending US involvement in it," he said.

Petraeus also said, "What I see now, sadly, is the onset of what is going to be quite a brutal civil war."
Courtesy of Skidmark, the Daily Mail adds:
While the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
government was dislodged from Kabul, it was never fully vanquished.

Since 2001, more than 2,300 American military personnel have died and more than 20,000 have been maimed in Afghanistan.

The number of Afghan civilians who have died ranges from 35,000 to 40,000, according to estimates.

The financial cost of maintaining the war effort is also steep for the American taxpayer, as the Pentagon is estimated to have spent more than $824billion in Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, the Taliban have chalked up dozens of wins and now hold key border crossings with Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistain.

The Taliban is enforcing its harsh interpretation of Islamic rule and reverting to its fundamental roots as it makes huge advances across Afghanistan.

Insurgents are issuing new orders to captured territories, banning smoking and beard-shaving and ordering villagers to marry off their daughters to foot soldiers and stopping women from heading out alone.

The Islamist group warned that anyone who breaks the rules 'will be seriously dealt with'.

It comes a day after video emerged of Taliban fighters massacring 22 Afghan commandos who had surrendered in Dawlat Abad, in northern Faryab province.

The Islamists are trying to persuade government troops to abandon their posts on the promise of safe passage back to their homes as they take advantage of the US withdrawal.
Posted by Fred 2021-07-19 00:00|| || Front Page|| [14 views ]  Top
 File under: Taliban 

#1 Petraeus also said, "What I see now, sadly, is the onset of what is going to be quite a brutal civil war."

Ok, thanks General. Now move along please. No one is interested in your assessment.
Posted by Besoeker 2021-07-19 00:18||   2021-07-19 00:18|| Front Page Top

#2 Is that his way of saying 'I had nothing to do with it'?
Posted by Kim Jong Raj 2021-07-19 00:24||   2021-07-19 00:24|| Front Page Top

#3 Whoopsie!
Posted by Raj 2021-07-19 00:24||   2021-07-19 00:24|| Front Page Top

#4 "I fear we will look back and regret the decision to withdraw," Petraeus said

The only regret is the one that we didn't make the sponsor and sanctuary for the Taliban, ie Pakistan, into a parking lot.
Posted by Procopius2k 2021-07-19 06:04||   2021-07-19 06:04|| Front Page Top

#5 Yeah, it's obvious that's the plan now. Sabotage Afghanistan as good as they can, and then declare they *must* come back. Another 50 years of war! The military-industrial complex's profits are saved.
Posted by Jiggs Trotsky5854 2021-07-19 06:18||   2021-07-19 06:18|| Front Page Top

#6 Falling apart? When was it together?

OK, maybe before the Soviet invasion, but since?
Posted by Rob Crawford 2021-07-19 06:24||   2021-07-19 06:24|| Front Page Top

#7 Been falling apart for 2,000 years at least. We didn't fix it, just kept applying bondo on it. Now that we are not, it falls apart like it naturally did before.
Posted by DarthVader 2021-07-19 08:36||   2021-07-19 08:36|| Front Page Top

#8 Hekmatyar, Dostum, Taliban, Pansher, ISI: 1989 revisited.
Posted by Gerthudion Whomoper3485 2021-07-19 09:01||   2021-07-19 09:01|| Front Page Top

#9 Like a Rolling Stone.
Posted by swksvolFF 2021-07-19 10:23||   2021-07-19 10:23|| Front Page Top

#10 Make a list of all the "game changers" who cycled through the US command in Afghanistan.
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-07-19 10:55||   2021-07-19 10:55|| Front Page Top

#11 George Bush and his foolish commitment to "fix" a 3rd world sh*thole began a 20 year waste of lives and treasure. I despite Bidet and the corrupt, illegal cabla that serves the Kalorma Kompund and the seat of true evil there, but getting out of Dodge is long overdue. If we don't/won't deal honestly with the viper that is Pakistan, the region is just a mire, a miasma that will never dry out. Get out and close the Embassy, its lunacy to imagine it serves any real purpose ...
Posted by NoMoreBS 2021-07-19 13:04||   2021-07-19 13:04|| Front Page Top

#12 Amen and amen to the last line in #11. If you can't draw a winning in 20 years it might be time to leave the table, cash in, and hit the road.
Posted by Black Bart Hatrack1972 2021-07-19 13:43||   2021-07-19 13:43|| Front Page Top

#13 Well, Boosh was bent on "exporting Democracy™" Never mind that the USA is not a democracy and the republic it actually is seems fleeting at the moment. Imagine that Boosh had set out to export opera to the same places.
Posted by M. Murcek 2021-07-19 14:45||   2021-07-19 14:45|| Front Page Top

#14 Imagine that Boosh had set out to export opera to the same places.

They'll have to settle for Chinese opera.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2021-07-19 14:47||   2021-07-19 14:47|| Front Page Top

#15 Id imagine a Fukanese aria would be right up there with Vogon poetry...
Posted by M. Murcek  2021-07-19 15:07||   2021-07-19 15:07|| Front Page Top

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