Taliban Launch Assault on Ghazni, a Key Afghan City

Does anyone in the US government have th slightest clue of why we have spent 7 miserable years in that country without a victory? Don’t ask Don Trump; he’s on vacation, and, he would not know anyway!

For how many centuries has tribal warfare been going on in Afghanistan and why have we decided to become part of it?

With billions spent in Afghanistan it is hard to believe that Taliban's can still launch an assault on a major city. This shows that allied forces do not control situation there and so is the government.What can US do to improve the situation. Just establish military rule for the time being until the situation gets better for democracy to work.

How Trump could support this war is amazing. What are we fighting for? the Taliban have done nothing to the US. Despite the lackey US Afghan government having huge military advantage in weapons they would surely lose within a week to the Taliban. Let them fight it out and we should just disappear like in Vietnam. And now we like the same bad Vietnamese right?.

As Gen. Westmoreland might have put it, "Victory's just around the corner." Wasn't true then in Vietnam and isn't true now in the ME. Just a black hole of lives and treasure.

What folks need to realize is this the Taliban have TIME on their hands we don't at all. We need to get out of there it started with Ronald Reagan a Republican trying to kick out the Soviets for its greedy purposes, then George H.W. Bush a Republican continued it as well then Bill Clinton a Democrat followed along with the plan then George W. Bush a Republican continued that failed then Barack Obama a Democrat continued as well and now Trump a Republican. This war has been a abject failure on all sides and it is time someone with enough pride and humility to admit it we lost it and stop wasting our kids lives for your pride so it won't be damaged I am sick of it.

At least we’ll never again wonder why exporting democracy to civilizations which have ancient traditions regarding honor and shame is destined to fail, right?

The ethnic and intra- tribal make of Ghazni does not lend itself to sustained Taliban control. Ghazni too will be liberated as was Mazari-Sharif, and Kunduz. Whereas roughly 45 percent of the Afghan population is Pushtune, in contrast in Ghaznia which I have visited on many occasions, this number is much lower, thus more people are hostile to Taliban. Further, within the dominant Pushtune ethnic group, to which the Taliban belong as does President Ghani and former Afghan monarchs, vast majority are Khilgai, and or of higher social -economic status cohort - the Durani Pushtunes, most hostile to the Taliban. Why does all this matter? Answer: the Afghan war is effectively combination of civil war, asymmetric proxy war, and insurgency warfare all into one . Support or lack of support from the local population is the best predictor of whether Taliban can hold territory intermediate or long term. In ghazni there is little basis of support from the local population to sustain the insurgency. As a side note, in spite of monthly barrage of news of Taliban overrunning Afghanistan, the Taliban fighters do not control a single Afghan city. Even Lashkargah, in the infamous Helmand Province and target of decade-long Taliban assaults to take it over and rule over, remains under the government control. So will Ghazni.

Once again a lengthy story that could be summarized with the comment that Ghazni is only 50 miles south of Kabul - in short, these 20 years of US involvement have nothing accomplished and many lives lost. Very tragic.

Sounds like our strategy there is really working well.

The defense department should set up a temporary website for all of our Afghan veterans. “What should our policy be, going forward?” Negotiate with the Taliban, another massive intervention (aka, continuing war), pull all our troops out and leave the Afghanis on their own.....any/ all other solutions accepted. These men and women who served there, those boots on the ground- having invested their lives, limbs, nightmares, friends, comrades....should decide. Spec. Soto (“War Without End” NYTimes article), speak up. We will listen. We need to decide. And in five years, will the Taliban, ISIS, or a newer version, use this country for a training ground again?? And Pakistan? Veterans- tell us.

We need to quickly send about 20000 young American men there so that we can effectively continue this endless war. The Military Industrial Complex depends on it. Oh, and more tax cuts for billionaires.

"The Ghazni assault comes at a critical stage in the Afghan war, when President Ashraf Ghani and the Americans have been trying to persuade the Taliban to enter peace talks." Of course the Taliban is going to ramp up during "peace talks" – its simple strategic sense because it provides them with much more control and a much more powerful position at the negotiating table. And cease-fires only buy them time to re-invigorate themselves for the next round. And as an aside - The U.S. has the most well-equipped, best trained and most lethal conventional military force on the planet. That said - for nearly 20 years - on whose terms have we been fighting? (Hint: Not ours) The U.S. has formally declared war, I believe, 11 times in its history. We have never lost a fight under a formal declaration of war - because we fight declared wars on our terms. Conversely, in the absence of a formal declaration of war, the U.S. has never won. One only has to read through the comments provided here to understand this.

Reality check this country been at war since dawn time,why Main export is herion. The solution is cure people from pain an suffering. Or is it the pain an suffering people feel they need makes people come alive.

I gave up trying to teach my dog to tap dance and juggle while singing opera. Afghanistan is a similar fools mission. Just a trillion dollars more expensive. Bring back our people and let them rebuild our schools, tutor our children, run water lines in Flint, and that will make America great again.

Google says the Afghanistan war started Oct. 7th, 2001. And the Taliban attacked a major city today. What does that say?

I suggest you read the Long War Journal in order to get the truth about our continuing failure in Afghanistan .This game of wack a mole doesn't work . The important thing to remember is the Soviets left when their generals told the politburo it would take 850,000 troops on the ground !!

Whether the Taliban takes the city or not, it illustrates the Taliban still have fight in them, and are far from being defeated. This is shades of Vietnam, when do we call it quits & get out of there, or are we going to wait until another 50,000 Americans lives are lost.

The article correctly states Highway 1 from Kandahar to Kabul was cut. That hiway was the priority infrastructure project for USAID 2003-4. The road was designed to "connect" the southern provinces to Kabul...the cost was in the millions of US dollars. The road has been cut by the bad guys for years. Ghazni is a critical location because the city with the hiway to Kabul is the "access" from the south to Kabul. If there is ever an attack from the south as the bad guys encroach north will come on the Hiway 1 built by the United States. Provninces: Ghazni, Paktia & Khost 2003-4