GWOT: USA losing the unwinnable war

[boutons_deux]

U.S. 'not winning' in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary tells Congress

promising to brief lawmakers on a new war strategy by mid-July that is widely expected to

call for thousands more U.S. troops.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-idUSKBN1941Y1?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28Reu ters+Politics+News%29

[boutons_deux]

Ask, and you shall receive

Trump gives away his authority to decide troop levels in Afghanistan

He’s letting the Pentagon decide on its own how many soldiers to send into Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump has given Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis complete authority to determine troop levels in Afghanistan, a U.S. official told Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-troops-idUSKBN19431H) on Tuesday.

Mattis confirmed the report (http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/national/mattis-trump-delegated-decisions-afghan-troop-levels-article-1.3246887), but said it doesn’t mean there will be a change in U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan.

He hasn’t decided yet how many more forces will be sent to the country, or when, but during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, he said there would be a new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan by the middle of July (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/world/asia/mattis-afghanistan-military.html).

The United States and its allies “are not winning in Afghanistan right now (http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/13/jim-mattis-not-winning-afghanistan-239488),” Mattis said, adding that “we will correct this as soon as possible.”

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-authority-afghanistan-mattis-eb7b7be4e2d1

16 more years, Go For It! :lol

you have to fucking stupid (or poor with no future) to sign up for army, marines, reserves and get fucked up in Repugs stupid fucking wars.

[TDMVPDPOY]

if Russian couldn't win there..

then why is America still there wasting taxpayers money? afghan has natural resources worth fighting for? wheres the ROI? oh wait, only roi for the elite shareholders

[boutons_deux]

16 years, American military hasn't won shit since 1945

[boutons_deux]

Fueling 'Perpetual War,' Trump to Send 4,000 Troops to Afghanistan


https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/06/16/fueling-perpetual-war-trump-send-4000-troops-afghanistan

[pgardn]

16 years, American military hasn't won shit since 1945

The former Yugoslavia is at peace mostly because we bombed the shit out of the Serbs.
And for whom, an Islamic minority getting slayed. The Europeans did the negotiating and some ground fighting and we did the pummeling.

Would you like to retract your statement?
It was Dollar Bill Clinton so you should be proud.

[boutons_deux]

The US Military Can’t Get Out (No Matter the Country or the Conflict)

there’s a simple rule for American military involvement in the Greater Middle East:

once the U.S. gets in, no matter the country, it never truly gets out again.

(https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/20/us-military-cant-get-out-no-matter-country-or-conflict)It’s a remarkable record and one to keep in mind as you consider Hartung’s account of President Trump’s fervent decision to back the Saudis in a big league way not just in their disastrous Yemeni war, but in their increasingly bitter campaign against regional rival Iran.

After so many decades of nearly unending conflict leading only to more of the same and greater chaos (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176094/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_tomorrow%27s_news_today/),

you might wonder whether an alarm bell will ever go off in Washington when it comes to the U.S. military and war in the Greater Middle East -- or is Iran next (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/18/donald-trump-syria-iran-isis-james-mattis)?

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/20/us-military-cant-get-out-no-matter-country-or-conflict (https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/20/us-military-cant-get-out-no-matter-country-or-conflict)

[boutons_deux]

U.S. Special Ops Forces Already Deployed to 137 Nations in 2017

“Today we commemorate sixteen years of a permanent fight against drugs in a ceremony where all Colombians can recognize the special counternarcotic brigade’s hard work against drug trafficking,”

Part of a $10 billion (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/plan-colombia-how-washington-learned-to-love-latin-american-intervention-again/2016/09/18/ddaeae1c-3199-4ea3-8d0f-69ee1cbda589_story.html?utm_term=.6c19c7240bdc) counter-narcotics and counterterrorism program, conceived in the 1990s, special ops efforts in Colombia are a much (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/21/covert-action-in-colombia/?utm_term=.c7916a007b35)ballyhooed (https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/08/should-us-troops-fight-the-war-on-drugs/green-berets-value-is-proven-in-war-on-drugs) American success story.

Today, however, more than 460,000 acres of the Colombian countryside are blanketed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-side-effect-of-peace-in-colombia-a-cocaine-boom-in-the-us/2017/05/07/6fb5d468-294a-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.21c49372e49f) with coca plants, more than during the 1980s heyday of the infamous cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/12/03/escobar-killed-in-medellin/36339ba2-8021-4942-8c7a-00604b95070a/?utm_term=.dc58a8823c0e).

U.S. cocaine overdose deaths are also at a 10-year high and first-time cocaine use among young adults has spiked (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-side-effect-of-peace-in-colombia-a-cocaine-boom-in-the-us/2017/05/07/6fb5d468-294a-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.77072f39d9da) 61% since 2013.

For all their abilities, tactical skills, training prowess, and battlefield accomplishments, the

capacity of U.S. Special Operations forces to achieve decisive and enduring successes—strategic victories that serve U.S. national interests—have proved to be exceptionally limited,

Special Ops at War

“We operate and fight in every corner of the world,” boasts General Raymond Thomas (http://www.defense.gov/About-DoD/Biographies/Biography-View/Article/709270/general-raymond-a-thomas-iii), the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM). “On a daily basis, we sustain a

deployed or forward stationed force of approximately 8,000 across 80-plus countries.

They are conducting the entire range of SOF missions in both combat and non-combat situations.” Those numbers, however, only hint at the true size and scope of this global special ops effort. Last year, America’s most elite forces conducted missions in 138 countries—roughly 70% of the nations on the planet,

Just 3% of U.S. commandos deployed overseas were sent to Africa in 2010. Now that number stands at more than 17%, according (https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/u-s-special-operations-numbers-surge-in-africas-shadow-wars/) to SOCOM data. Last year, U.S. Special Operations forces were deployed to 32 African nations, about 60% of the countries on the continent. As I recently reported (https://news.vice.com/story/the-u-s-is-waging-a-massive-shadow-war-in-africa-exclusive-documents-reveal) at VICE News, at any given time, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and other

special operators are now conducting nearly 100 missions across 20 African countries.

for all their magnificence and all those successes, for all the celebratory ceremonies they’ve attended, the wars, interventions, and other actions for which they’ve served as the tip of the American spear

have largely foundered, floundered, or failed.

a recent report to Congress by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found:

districts that are contested or under “insurgent control or influence” have risen (https://sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2017-04-30qr-section3-security.pdf#page=8) from an already remarkable 28% in 2015 to 40%.

Year after year, U.S. special operators find themselves fighting (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-directs-pentagon-to-target-al-qaeda-affiliate-in-syria-one-of-the-most-formidable-forces-fighting-assad/2016/11/10/cf69839a-a51b-11e6-8042-f4d111c862d1_story.html?utm_term=.aa410e001576) new waves of militants across multiple continents, including entire terror groups that didn’t exist on 9/11.

there is

remarkably little evidence that even enduring efforts by Special Operations forces result in strategic victories or improved national security outcomes.

And yet, despite such boots-on-the-ground realities, America’s special ops forces and their missions only grow.

Not a single member of the House or Senate Armed Services Committees

has questioned why, after more than 15 years of constant warfare, winning the “current fight” has proven so elusive.

None of them has suggested that “support” from Congress ought to be reconsidered in the face of setbacks from Afghanistan to Iraq, Colombia to Central Africa, Yemen to the southern Philippines.

“We are a command at war and will remain so for the foreseeable future,”

SOCOM’s Thomas explained to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Not one member asked why or to what end.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/us_special_ops_forces_already_deployed_to_137_nati ons_in_2017_20170627