[Peace-discuss] AoTA & NfN in NG

[C. G. Estabrook]

> On Jul 7, 2016, at 8:33 AM, David Green via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/2016-07-07/obama-continues-killings-us.html <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.news-2Dgazette.com_opinion_letters-2Deditor_2016-2D07-2D07_obama-2Dcontinues-2Dkillings-2Dus.html&d=CwMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=c6igX2D84H9Uix4PwKV7aNwuQZZaxgPmK3H3LSidoVs&s=Dm31q3UtM6LWNcnDODjHLJwE8h23qbqcujTmyQOVdLQ&e=>
> 
> http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/2016-07-07/criticism-wars-unfair-veterans.html <http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/2016-07-07/criticism-wars-unfair-veterans.html>
[Here are two regime-friendly accounts of the Obama administration's ongoing war in MENA (Mideast and North Africa), from the Council of Foreign Relations and Vox. Obama is the first president - ever - to carry on war throughout two terms. He was elected twice as the anti-war candidate (against McCain and Romney). We were the more deceived. His task - successfully completed - has been to mollify and distract Americans, who have a natural inclination not to kill people around the world. But war protects the worldwide hegemony of the US economic elite. Obama's been their good and faithful servant, and Clinton will be as good.]

Obama Will Maintain Troops in Afghanistan Through End of Term

U.S. President Barack Obama said he will maintain about 8,400 U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan through the end of his term, a break with earlier expectations that he would reduce troop levels to 5,500. Obama said that the security situation in Afghanistan remains "precarious" fifteen years after the U.S. invasion and that Afghan security forces were not as strong as they needed to be (NYT). In 2011 Obama had said that all U.S. troops would leave Afghanistan by his 2012 election (USA Today) and he declared an official end to the U.S. combat mission in the country in 2014. At the peak of the conflict the United States had 100,000 troops in the country.

"Now, more than 8,000 troops will remain, and it will be up to Mr. Obama’s successor to order any further reductions. The president recently loosened the rules of engagement for American troops to give them the ability to fight the Taliban directly, and more flexibility to carry out airstrikes or wage ground combat. Mr. Obama cast his decision as a vote of confidence in Afghanistan’s government, led by President Ashraf Ghani, as well as in the support of NATO members and other partners, who have contributed 6,000 troops. But it also underscores the fact that American hopes of building an Afghan force capable of securing the entire country had fallen short," Mark Landler writes for the New York Times.

"Instead of blaming Pakistan for all of the country's ills, even though Pakistan clearly continues to enable Taliban and Haqqani operations from Pakistan, Afghan politicians and power brokers need to take a hard look at their own behavior in recent years and realize they have much to do to clean their own house to avoid disastrous outcomes for Afghanistan. Not all corruption or nepotism can or will disappear. But unless outright rapacious, exclusionary, and deeply predatory governance is mitigated, the root causes of the insurgency will remain unaddressed and the state-building project will have disappeared into fiefdoms and lasting conflict," Vanda Felbab-Brown writes for Vox.

"The effectiveness of the National Unity Government continues to be undermined by poor governance and internal friction between President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, and their supporters. A significant worsening of the political and security situations in Afghanistan over the next twelve to eighteen months is therefore plausible. More specifically, there is a growing risk that the current National Unity Government in Kabul could collapse because of a defection by Abdullah, a severe economic crisis, the establishment of a parallel government, or a coup d’état. There is also a growing possibility that the Taliban could gain substantial territory in one or more cities. These contingencies would amount to a strategic reversal for the United States, since Washington was instrumental in helping create the National Unity Government in 2014," Seth G. Jones writes in this CFR Contingency Planning Memorandum...
> 

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