Kabul Bombings Kill or Wound Dozens at Rush Hour

No more hope in Afghanistan, is the word ringing out through the Afghan history right from the days of Alexander of Macedonia. “May God keep you away from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the revenge of the Afghans.” Alexander the great. Rudyard Kipling, the poet of the Empire, believed in British imperialism. But even he didn’t believe much in intervening in Afghanistan, wrote: “When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains. And the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains And go to your God like a soldier". Here is the American President with a record low IQ trying to wind up US presence in Afghanistan by dropping GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast and boasted the bombing “another very, very successful mission.” Very, very successful mission indeed!!

.... carried out by a suicide bomber! Who does this! suicide bomber; suicide bomber; suicide bomber;. Why do they allow themselves to be killed as they murder Innocents? who does this?

The US needs to leave Afghanistan

Russia fled after 25 years - Obama was elected to end the Middle East wars - Trump is set to take on Iran - more lives and money down the tubes. What short memories we have! The roll calls of the dead, the horrific injuries, and the money siphoned off by American “contractors” - tough man Trump - “when will we ever learn”?

Surprisingly few commentators relate the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan. The U.S. now has a completely professional military where promotions come in wartime. If a draft was in effect it is hard to conceive of any war lasting 17 years. From a purely military perspective every American war since W.W. II has proved basically unsuccessful--even Gulf I, leaving Saddam in power. During this period Congress has abandoned its authority to declare war, including or excepting the catastrophic "war" on Drugs.

High time for the US to get out of Afghanistan. NOW. There's nothing a foreign power can do to help the horrible, sad situation there. As Europeans learned in the 19th century, Afghanistan is "where empires go to die." Enough already with Western pie-in-the-sky hopes & dreams for this sorry place. Since 9-11, the US has spent a vast amount of blood & treasure there, nearly all for naught. Afghans remain mostly illiterate: 75 % of the women & 55% of the men there cannot read or write. Females there can only go out wearing cloth bags that cover them from head to toe, & which do not even have slits for their eyes; instead the eye slits are covered by a fabric mesh of thick, crude threads that render them visually maimed. And the Islamists & warring tribes in Afghanistan will keep fighting to the death generation after generation forever & ever, without end. Let's focus instead on curbing the spread of militant Islam in the Western world, where many people are finally starting to realize that we, too, are now in the fight of our lives for the continuation of Western culture. We need to focus on protecting liberal democratic values in the places where they're already established & once flourished. Such as as freedom of speech/ expression, civil rights for all minorities not just the majority, universal literacy & education, equality for women, separation of church/mosque & state, liberal sexual mores, & the right to draw cartoons, cause offense, & make jokes...

A nephew with 20+ years of Special Ops work and a Masters in International Studies wrote his thesis on counterterrorism, after his second tour there. It is really sobering stuff. He claims that to make any difference the United States must be prepared to stay a couple of generations and spend a lot more money in Afghanistan. I doubt that any of us have the sort of patience to remain in “graveyard of empires.” So go watch the Avengers movie, America. That is what we civilians are best at: enjoying fake violence. Talk about infinity wars...

Explain again how life in Afghanistan has improved since 2001?

"Time to pull out." "We have no business being there." "Afghans have no interest in Western-style democracy." These and other comments here show that most Americans suffer no sense of responsibility or complicity for the situation in Afghanistan. As I recall, most Americans blood-lustily cheered the onset of this stupid war. Well, the chickens have come home to roost -- not only for the American soldiers and journalists but especially for all those Afghans who have been the victims of a war that has been poorly imagined and managed since its inception. After World War II, our fathers understood the vital need to rebuild Europe (and the lucrative implications of that rebuilding for American businesses). Where's our Marshall plan for Iraq and Afghanistan? Because, without one, this war will eventually come home to roost here.

Seventeen years. That's how long we've been in Afghanistan. Are you tired of it? I am. And YET: "Despite more than $100 billion in aid and the continuous presence of American troops in the country, the Western-backed Afghan government has struggled to exert full control over its territory, its forces even losing control of a major city twice...The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, recently offered a peace deal to the Taliban, who control or contest more than 40 percent of Afghan territory," Stupid, stupid Americans and their love of unending failed wars. The Clown told us we're winning. Is this what winning looks like people? IS IT? Get out of Afghanistan and leave it to the Afghans. If Pakistan or Russia or someone else wants to mire themselves in this then let them. It's not our problem anymore. This is what the Afghans get for supporting the Taliban's attacks on the US in 2001. And just in case you think it matters what we do there, did it ultimately matter what we did in Vietnam? All in all that turned out pretty well AFTER we left. No more wars of choice.

ISIS did this? Didn't ISIS succumb to Demagogue Donald's "foolproof plan" at the end of his first month in office? My mistake. I guess I got another Trump campaign promise confused with the realm of possibility.

Tragic, horrific and moreover a tremendous loss of life. So, what of Afghanistan..during my tour 2003-4 in SE Afghanistan, all of us agreed individually that based on historic metrics and interaction with the Afghan people and tribal leaders (Khost, Ghazni and Paktia), our presence..or anyone's presence outside the "locals" was un-acceptable. The Afghan's endured "hearts and minds" during the Soviet era..then turning their "occupation" into a full blown war resulting in over a million deaths. The Afghans now believe international involvement in their country can be quelled...as it was during the two occupations of the Brit's in the 19th century and of the Soviet's 20 year war.....now come our turn...with over 17 years of fighting...or attempting to find the correct metric to "tame the beast". Having fought there..and seven (7) other combat deployments..the time has passed in our attempt to bring western style democracy to Afghanistan. Mothers are already replenishing the Afghan men lost now with a follow on generation. Time to begin retrograde....

Is it worth it anymore? Really? And to those who think we should be inviting more of this to Europe and the US are out of their minds.

I feel sorry for these Afghan journalists putting themselves constantly at risk in order to feed the Western appetite for gore-journalism. They have to take the risks to feed their families, unfortunately, but that we don't submit Western journalists to this kind of risk from being at the scene of a just carried out suicide bombing is telling.

Maybe once there was news, but now coverage is becoming like an obsessive disorder as proven here with the coverage being mostly about the coverage. Sometimes I don’t think Fake News is willful, it’s just the inevitable result of what happens when too many people are all trying to make news out of the same thing they’re staring at but report on it as if they’re the only one.

Unfortunately, important news like this is being buried by the Trump Show on a daily basis. It would also be nice to have a normal president again, one who would make a statement of condemnation and defend the brave journalists who risk their lives every day so that we may know the truth.

Further evidence that journalists only truly care for their own. No in depth report on lowly non-journalist losses on a daily basis. Only incestious reporting on their own.

Afghanistan has been the target of colonialism or nation building, which basically a form of colonialism, for almost 180 years. Every single attempt has been a failure. The Afghan people are not going to change. They have always been two groups. The controllers, the minority, and the followers, the majority. We really need to just pull everything out, that includes our allies, and let them sort it out. Just make it perfectly clear to who ever "wins" that the only thing we will not tolerate is the support of terrorism. They have always been happiest when they've been left on their own.

Trump and Kim Jong-un as Nobel Laureates; should just go ahead and make it a clean sweep and include Putin as he deserves some of the credit for his role in getting Trump elected. I can see the cover of Time now. Monument a la Mount Rushmore in Korea?

The complete and utter indifference the American populace has towards a war in which thousands of their own soldiers are still involved is truly astounding to behold. Indeed, I'd venture its safe to say that the only thing the US military has going for it right now is that media having become so pre-occupied with the political dysfunction at home that they no longer have the time or inclination to look seriously into how badly this war is being managed.

Manageable parts of Afghanistan should be colonized by a civilized country and the citizens taught what it means to develop a civil society. It's pointless to try to take the whole country, but small pieces might possibly be saved this way. I'm sure many would scream at the idea of colonizing a backward populace and its territory but it's probably the only way to stop this endless butchery. Just save a part of it. Maybe the positive influence will spread. Otherwise, we will see safe havens develop for more ISIS, Taliban and Bin Laden which if of course is dangerous to the rest of us.

Let us put politics aside and celebrate the lives of those journalists who risked all to bring light to the plight of so many in far off and dangerous places. Our journalists are keeping this country and freedom around the world alive. Join me in thanking each of the lost for their sacrifice. Let their families know how incredibly grateful and admiring we are of the course their son/daughter/father/relative was willing to make for the betterment of mankind. I only wish that I were that brave.

"In a fourth incident, in eastern Afghanistan, one American soldier was killed....." Now the waiting begins.

It is past time to declare all-out war on the Taliban. They need to be hunted down and killed to the last man, along their families, support systems and tribes. And if Pakistan won't stop aiding and abetting them, they need to be cut off without a red cent of aid. These atrocities must be answered in kind and then some. Open season on the Taliban.

Journalists compete with each other for the inside story and the best photo. That means they are not always looking out for the best interests of each other. They are in this position to serve the interests of the newspapers and TV stations they work for. In a place as dangerous as Afghanistan, this kind of competition is unreasonable and immoral and unethical. The media outlets that benefit from this competition are borderline criminal. They should pay millions for deaths like these and somebody should prosecute them on behalf of the victims.

Some Afghans are better at voter suppression than Republican state governments in the U.S.

“I don’t think there is any serious analyst of the situation in Afghanistan who believes that the war is winnable,” Laurel Miller, a former acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the State Department." Here is a voice of reason coming from the State department. The war machine, however, continues to make money off of this loosing enterprise. How much more destruction and lives will the US be responsible for? We still have no mission and no end in sight.

Those people and their culture that are responsible for these bombings are very sick indeed. They make George W. Bush who invaded Iraq and is responsible for thousands of deaths in Iraq and the rise of ISIS seem almost innocent by comparison.

"The graveyard of empires" quotation cannot be overstated.

The West has lost its way. We are over-extended and weary. We are now in the same situation that Russia faced prior to retreating from Afghanistan in 1979. That year Khomeni's Shiite revolution through out the Shah of Iran, a western puppet. Russia finally retreated from Afghanistan because America's CIA had supported the original Al Queda group founded by Bin Laden. Al Queda opposed Russia's occupation of Afghanistan and the USA did also. Later, after America had removed most of its forces, the Taliban joined Al Queda and that symbiosis has reigned ever since except that today ISIS is a new member of that club. The Europeans have sent afer 9/11 tokens of their traditional NATO commitment to Afghanistan. But their heart is not in that country. Frankly, it is either America or no western-supported Afghan government. And Americans are getting tired. If America leaves, the current Afghan government will fall. ISIS, Al Queda and the Taliban will have a ball and build up their opposition to the West. From Afghanistan they will colonize other weak spots around the world, like in Libya, central Africa and elsewhere. The basic problem is America and much of the West has no strategy and no realistic foreign policy. You cannot win the world with "human rights" and toothless promises of the Siamese twins Democracy and Capitalism when those twins become the laughing stock of the world. After all, the Chinese live very well and promise to live better without any of those fig leaves.

Very sad story about this attack in Afghanistan reported today. For Isis to target journalists, like dictators around the world, they realize that a free press threatens their ultimate goals. These journalists protect our freedoms every day by reporting in war torn countries. We are so grateful to them and deeply saddened by their families and friends loss of these brave war correspondents.

Mission Accomplished! At least if you own MIC stock. The Afghan and Iraq War has cost over $6 trillion. To put this in perspective Bernie Sanders pushed for free college tuition which would cost $75 billion and the noise of how would we pay for this was loud. Not to mention all the lives lost and damaged from these needless wars. Wonder how much the coming Iran war will cost?

We view the murder of journalists as particularly heinous. We think of them as neutral fact finders serving the public. But all the journalists in Afghanistan know that the Taliban and the Islamic State have a different point of view. They see journalists as the enemy, propagandists for the West. And, in fact, most journalists have Western sensibilities and have disdain for Muslim jihadists. After all, they see the damage they do on a first hand basis. Jihadists don't respect the neutrality of the press because they don't see any neutrality. Because of the hostility of the press and the jihadists, the murder of these journalists is not a surprise. By contrast, the murder of rescue workers strikes me as entirely arbitrary and particularly cruel. They have no political mission. They are just there to save lives. Some may have an affiliation considered hostile by the jihadists and I understand that. But, to the extent that they lack affiliation and merely save lives, they are the ones whose deaths most outrage me.

Anyone who knows history knows that Afghanistan was always going to be hard nut to crack. However, when Bush abandoned our troops in Afghanistan in 2003 with no mission, no leadership and no strategy, in order to launch his disastrous "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, the war was lost...in 2003. During the last 15 years, it has just been one body after another thrown on the trash heap of history.

"Today Was the Deadliest for Journalists in Afghanistan Since at Least 2002" No doubt this is a sad statistic so-called president Trump will celebrate rather than mourn. In fact, I don't believe he mourns anything or anyone, with the possible exceptions of Roy Cohn, and the loss of his equivalent of a snow sled named "Rosebud." What else could explain how he became such a beast?

Statistically, journalists abroad are at greater risk of death and injury than our soldiers in the field. And, like military, journalists are driven by virtues most cannot fathom. Military defend truth while journalists seek truth . Our President has contempt for journalists. I pray that someday we will erect a monument to the women and men who in pursuit of truth gave their lives to aid and abet democracy here and abroad.

The endless war, where everybody loses...\

Unfortunately we have a commiment to Afghanistan because it is the epicenter of the 9/11 attack. It is a quagmire however, and we should carefully guide our intervention so as not to be drained or overly hopeful as to the possibilities of victory. Similarly we owe the nation of Iraq help because our feckless president GWB destroyed it and left it out to dry. Both countries however, should largely be left to their own devices and let the people and tides of events prevail. We must stop trying to control the world, as we can neither predict nor determine what happens.

It's standard practice to plant two, or more, bombs with one detonating later to kill the responding emergency crews. An AP reporter covering the Bosnian war told me of an incident where a mortar round killed a group of people and her driver wanted to go to the scene and help the injured. She said No, stay away because there usually is a followup explosion to kill those who rush to help. Either they send in another mortar round, artillery shell or another planted bomb goes off. It's all well and good to want to help but war has different 'rules' if you want to survive.

"The bombings were the latest spasm of a conflict that began more than a decade and a half ago and shows no sign of ebbing." -from the article Gee, do you think that these frequent attacks have anything to do with the unwelcome presence of US troops in this islamic country? (sarcasm)

It is true that the security situation in Afghanistan has worsened significantly, especially since the withdrawal of the American and allies’ forces, evidenced by civilian death approaching 10,000, and internal refugee flows of 200,000 in 2017. However, on balance the broader picture is quite positive: GDP and GDP per capita have grown an astonishing nearly 800 percent since the US intervention in 2001 that toppled the Taliban. National debt as a percentage of GDP is still relatively low at 35 percent, and Afghanistan has trade surplus. Importantly, in terms of social indicators of development, there has been amazing progress as life expectancy, infant mortality, illiteracy, and other indicators of the Physical Quality of Life Index have all declined dramatically. Millions of girls now go to school, the number of Afghan universities have increased from one to 14. It has a vibrant free rolling media. And Afghanistan is more democratic than any of its neighbors, and the president of the country is a serious anti-corruption reformer. Push-backs from entrenched corrupt elite in conjunction with the rise of Daesh (ISIS) in Afghanistan had created potentially grave threat to the ability of the reformist president to muddle through, and to long term stability. Things will get worst before it gets better. That said, the Ghani administration has reached out to the Taliban to foster political settlement, and if it can pull it off, Afghanistan just might pull through.