Afghanistan War Enters New Stage as U.S. Military Prepares to Exit

This is not a "war". This is an "attack", an "invasion", an "occupation" of a much smaller, weaker sovereign nation by our Empire-du-jour. We were ramrodded into this despicable action by a group of (R) sociopaths who made no serious effort at seeking a diplomatic solution, who had no clue about Afghanistan, it's makeup and it's history, who had no end-game, no way to define "winning", who were playing out their personal pathologies on a global stage. The results have been catastrophic and have resulted in continuing death and destruction. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

"The work that Mr. Trump is most interested in — hunting and killing Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists..." I'd like to know what this improbable statement is based on. A White House press release?

Then I get on my knees and pray, "We won't get fooled again."

Trump surrenders. Taliban win. Why did the Republicans send us down this killing hole anyway? Worst decision ever after Iraq. Republicans fail the nation over and over and over.

The NYTimes has been pushing for the US to leave Afghanistan and the middle east in general for some time now. Apparently, now that it's happening, it's a bad thing. I believe it is more worthwhile to keep a force to fight the Taliban as well as support the Kurds, but that's just me. Apparently, now the NYTimes agrees. Wonder what we'd be reading if Bernie or Biden were President?

While every reasonable person wants to see the end of the Afghanistan war, one wonders whether the price the ISAF countries paid in prosecuting the war against the Taliban will have been worth it if the small victories won in democratic institutions and education for girls and women are wiped out by a Taliban takeover of the country following American withdrawal. It is entirely forgotten in the American media, including the NY Times, that other, smaller countries, participants in the NATO force, also lost blood and treasure in Afghanistan. For example, Canada which has a tenth of the population of the US and a GDP comparable to the state of Texas, lost 158 soldiers and 7 civilians, suffered 1800 wounded and spent 18 billion dollars fighting in Afghanistan. If we paid this price only to see everything revert to the harsh theocracy led by the Taliban, why would we ever answer the door when the US comes knocking again?

The US should open our "immigration doors" to Afghan women and their families. This will be disastrous for them. They need freedom and not persecution.

It is important to note that the current problems in the Middle East can all be directly tied to inept and incompetent Republican administrations. If Reagan hadn't funded the insurgency in Afghanistan Al Qaeda may never have had a place to hide. The Moslem radicals in the Pakistan’s unlawful frontier have always been the source of the problem and will continue to be so --- no one has ever address that problem. The only thing this accord will do is return Afghanistan to a rogue state it has always been. Male domination and corruption are a way of life in the country --- nothing has change for thousands of years. The current leadership and “in crowd” in Kabul are probably already telling their European staffs to get the house ready --- knowing they could easily be the next group of leaders to meet the Taliban in the soccer stadium if they don't get out of country. The years of occupation has served no real purpose. It is time to leave… like we did in Vietnam. Maybe 50 years from now the country will be more prosperous as they sell their increased poppy production to the addicts of the world.

Leave? Fine. When the terrorist group de jour forms, are you going back in? Leaving isn’t the deal...this out and then back in situation is the deal. So if “out” is it, commit to it.

If we haven't been able to find a satisfying resolution in Afghanistan after nearly 19 years, I fail to see how another one, or two, or ten could change that. 9/11 is only of my earliest memories; our country has been at war for nearly my entire life. I'm not going to let my own dislike of Donald Trump color what is finally a step towards ending this madness.

Declare victory and go home ... when did we here that before? And like back then, we could (optimistically) win the war, but decisively lose the peace.

And today, the Taliban ,have renewed attacks in Afghanistan as if there were no agreement whatsoever. Again, for political gain, the Trump Administration has been willing to sign a bilateral agreement with the Taliban, not including the Afghan government, a primary player, which is meaningless. The Afghan government has not agreed to negotiate release any Taliban prisoners, even tough the US did. Afghanistan War was a mistake. None of the airline hijackers were from Afghanistan, yet 17 of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia. I know they were based out of Afghanistan, yet why did we do nothing to the Saudi Arabia government other than to whisk their relatives out of the US? The Russians spent less time in Afghanistan than the US, and also accomplished nothing. We are experiencing the same. Nothing Accomplished (again). Afghanistan will collapse the moment we exit. Back to the Stone Age.

And today, the Taliban ,have renewed attacks in Afghanistan as if there were no agreement whatsoever. Again, for political gain, the Trump Administration has been willing to sign a bilateral agreement with the Taliban, not including the Afghan government, a primary player, which is meaningless. The Afghan government has not agreed to negotiate release any Taliban prisoners, even tough the US did. Afghanistan War was a mistake. None of the airline hijackers were from Afghanistan, yet 17 of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia. I know they were based out of Afghanistan, yet why did we do nothing to the Saudi Arabia government other than to whisk their relatives out of the US? The Russians spent less time in Afghanistan than the US, and also accomplished nothing. We are experiencing the same. Nothing Accomplished (again). Afghanistan will collapse the moment we exit. Back to the Stone Age.

And today, the Taliban ,have renewed attacks in Afghanistan as if there were no agreement whatsoever. Again, for political gain, the Trump Administration has been willing to sign a bilateral agreement with the Taliban, not including the Afghan government, a primary player, which is meaningless. The Afghan government has not agreed to negotiate release any Taliban prisoners, even tough the US did. Afghanistan War was a mistake. None of the airline hijackers were from Afghanistan, yet 17 of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia. The Russians spent less time in Afghanistan than the US, and also accomplished nothing. We are experiencing the same. Sad.

This may seem like the appropriate time to dust off your DVD of "Charlie Wilson's War," Hollywood's pseudo-documentary of how we got into Afghanistan some 40 years ago. The problem is that the demands of good story telling do not match those of anything resembling historical accuracy. Another great classic, Gillo Pontecorvo's, "Battle of Algiers," was long a standby for audiences wishing to see an oppressed colony triumph over its oppressor, in this case, France. The problem is that what appeared like a victory in a movie actually resulted in decades of nightmarish conflict by forces within Algiers. (Ironically, the Times reported in the opening stages of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that U.S. officers were using "Algiers" as a training film.) For some historians, all that we have sacrificed and all the deaths in all of the armies were made worthwhile because the defeat that the Soviet Union was dealt by what one writer called "the largest covert operation in history," freed the world from the menace of communism. The question now is whether the world is actually a safer place. It may take another 40 years to begin to answer that question.

Re: Body counts One way to end a war. Surrender. It worked in Viet Nam. Get ready for the last-hour rooftop helicopter evacuations. Life got tough for our abandoned S Viet Namese ex-allies. Collaborators from a particular perspective. Prison camps, re-education programs. All-round general repression. The scars still show. But the worst was over in a few years. I wonder how magnanimous the Taliban will be. Yeah. I know. Girls will still get to go to school. Women will be treated with the greatest attention. Non-believers and other riff-raff will enjoy indulgences only dreamed of in Sweden. Or maybe not. And if not: Then what was it all for? The wedding receptions blown-to-bits. The boys and now girls returning with PTSD. Speaking of worthless body-counts, ''a My Lai every day'' was the hard lesson from Viet Nam. When was it forgotten?

WHY are we turning Afghanistan over to the terrorists and then promising to release more terrorists? There are no provisions that we know of that protect women-who were forbidden to go to school, work, and were stoned to death by the Taliban. Are there provisions that protect art and culture because the Taliban previously destroyed ancient relics like the Buddhas of Bamiyan. This is a debacle.

The deal allows a continuing CIA presence so it’s far from a full withdrawal even if things go as planned RE regular troop withdrawals.

I’m old enough to remember the saying... who wants to be the last man killed? Which will create more problems than the republicans who got us in care to remember

The US military has been strengthened and is now the greatest military in the world --- according to Trump. He has increased the defense budget as proof of his accomplishment. I guess that the Taliban didn't get the memo. They believe that they have defeated the US since all forces will be withdrawn in 14 months. They may have a point. Oh. BTW-- Whatever happened to Trump, Graham, McConnell and the R assertion that setting a timetable for withdrawal was a disaster. Didn't McConnell urge Obama not to follow through on a campaign pledge to withdrawal troops? Will the Taliban be invited to Camp David to sign a " peace treaty"? How about we reduce the defense budget by 30% or will Trump declare we need more spending. After all the Taliban, without a navy, airforce, without advanced military weapons, without highly trained and equipped soldiers just forced the US to withdraw. But hey we have our eyes on you, Mr. Taliban. Also, all troops will be out of Afghanistan before November. BTW- did I mention that the US spends almost $ 1 trillion per year on our military.

The minute we leave the whole thing collapses

As a Vietnam veteran I can almost guarantee that the Taliban will take over the government of Afghanistan within 12 after the last US solider leaves the country. This whole miserable mess is an updated replay of the catastrophe of Vietnam from which we learned nothing and the political leadership of this country failed to take heed of the warnings given by the veterans at the beginning.

As of today it appears that the deal has been nixed by the Afghanistan government. So look for this to fall apart very soon.

How could this "peace" go wrong? First it is not a peace treaty--it is a withdrawal treaty. It does not get the troops out of Afghanistan--it reduces the troops to the level they were at when Trump became the occupant of the Oval Office. Much is contingent on the Afghani government agreeing to release 5000 Taliban prisoners. The Afghani government, unlike Pompeo and Trump, are clear they did not agree to the release. How can this deal go forward when the AFG government is not included in the negotiations? Do you think normal Afghanis will think the US sold them out like it did the Kurds? I think this deal has about as good a chance of success as the denuclearization of No Korea.

I am not sure what is in it for the United States with this agreement. Trump gets to say "he" ended the war, but it will go on and maybe get worse. If I had any faith that Donald Trump knows the difference between and enemy and an ideology, I might think this was a good thing.

I have seen this movie many years ago. It starred Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. The title was “Peace With Honor”. It too had minor characters to be left behind to assist a government which had no say in the script of the film. The ending was not good for many of the “extras”, the population or the government. And the ending for the Afghans will not be good either. But, there needs to be an ending to this endless money pit where empires go to die. Perhaps the reasons for this “war” were sound, but, the execution of the conflict was lacking. I have little hope that some of our “investment” will be protected. However, that would require Trump to listen to the experts. And that in high probability will not happen.