ANOTHER FAKE REGIME

Afghanistan’s national election held this week is a sham... The candidates include US groomed politicians, and drug-dealing warlords... Washington is hoping to build a compliant Afghan “democracy” that will continue to offer bases to US troops and warplanes. Afghanistan’s majority, the Pashtun tribes, have little voice in the election charade. (And) The largest, most popular party in Afghanistan, Taliban, and its smaller ally, Hisbi-Islami, have been excluded as “terrorists”...
Washington’s current plan is to install a new, post-Karzai Afghan client regime in Kabul, and keep control of the 400,000-man Afghan police and army who fight for US dollars. The tame Afghan regime will then “invite” some 16,000 US soldiers and airmen, plus large numbers of tribal mercenaries, to stay on and keep Taliban at bay..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/04/06-3

AFGHANISTAN WAR BY NUMBERS

Number of US military personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001: 2,150

Number of US service members wounded in Afghanistan badly enough to go to hospital since 2001: 19,415

Current annual cost of keeping a US soldier in Afghanistan: $2.1 million

Number of US troops now in Afghanistan: roughly 51,000

Annual average unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans2002-2012; 10% (average annual unemployment rate for vets of previous wars: 6.3%)

Afghan civilians killed in political violence or war 2006-2012: 14,728

Amount of money US has spent to rebuild Afghanistan: $100 billion

Proportion of the $100 billion wasted or misspent or stolen or given to militants or not received by intended recipient: 85%

Population of Afghanistan: 30 – 34 million

Amount of US aid since 2001 per person: roughly $3,333

Per capita annual income of Afghanistan: $470

Number of Taliban willing to run for elective office while there are US troops in that country: 0

Number of US and allied foreign troops killed by members of supposedly friendly Afghanistan National Army in 2012: 62 . (The number is much less this year [12], but only because joint operations were suspended for a long period).

Number of women allowed by the election commission to run for president of Afghanistan in 2014: 0

Percentage of annual Afghanistan gross domestic product from the opium trade: 25%

Percentage of the remaining 75% of the annual Afghanistan gross domestic product from foreign aid: 97%.

http://www.juancole.com/2013/10/american-quagmire-afghanistan.html

AFGHANISTAN EXIT

"… the exit from that country is going to take more time and effort. No seacoast, no ships, bad roads, high tolls, IEDs.  Trucking stuff out is problematic; flying it out, wildly expensive, especially since a lot of the things are really, really big. Take MRAPs, for example -- that’s Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles -- 11,000 of them, weighing 14 tons or more apiece. For that workhorse transport plane, the C-17, a full load of MRAPs numbers only four.

The equipment inventory keeps changing, but estimates run to 100,000 shipping containers and about 50,000 vehicles to be removed by the end of 2014, adding up to more than $36 billion worth of equipment now classified as “retrograde.”  The estimated shipping bill has quickly risen to $6 billion, and like the overall cost of the war, it is sure to keep rising. 

Seven billion dollars worth of equipment -- about 20% of what the U.S. sent in to that distant land -- is simply being torn up, chopped down, split, shredded, stomped, and, when possible, sold off for scrap at pennies a pound.  Toughest to break up are the weighty MRAPs.  Introduced in 2007 at a cost of $1 million apiece to counteract deadly roadside bombs, they were later discovered to be no better at protecting American soldiers than the cheaper vehicles they replaced.  Of the 11,000 shipped to Afghanistan, 2,000 are on the chopping block, leaving a mere 9,000 to be flown to Kuwait, four at a time, and shipped home or “repositioned” elsewhere to await some future enemy. 

The military is not exaggerating when it calls this colossal destruction of surplus equipment historic.  A disposal effort on this scale is unprecedented in the annals of the Pentagon. The centerpiece of this demolition derby may be the brand-new, 64,000-square-foot, $34-million, state-of-the art command center completed in Helmand Province just as most U.S. troops left, and now likely to be demolished.  Or the new $45 million facility in Kandahar built as a repair center for armored vehicles, now used for their demolition, and probably destined to follow them. Taxpayers may one day want to ask some questions about such profligate and historic waste, but it’s sure to keep arms manufacturers happy, resupplying the military until we can get ourselves into another full-scale war.

So this exit is a really big job, and that’s without even mentioning the paperwork.  All those exit plans, all the documents to be filed with the Afghan government for permission to export our own equipment, all the fines assessed for missing customs forms (already running to $70 million), all the export fees to be paid, and the bribes to be offered, and the protection money to be slipped to the Taliban so our enemies won’t shoot at the stuff being trucked out.  All that takes time.

But when it comes right down to it, the United States has a surefire way of ending a war, no matter when it actually ends (or doesn’t).  When we say it’s over, it’s over..." 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/01-6>http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/01-6

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS WILL COST $4-6 TRILLION

"Costs to U.S. taxpayers of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will run between four and six trillion dollars, making them the most expensive conflicts in U.S. history… While Washington has already spent close to two trillion dollars in direct costs related to its military campaigns in the two countries, that total “represents only a fraction of the total war costs”… The single largest accrued liability of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the cost of providing medical care and disability benefits to war veterans…"

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/iraq-afghanistan-wars-will-cost-u-s-4-6-trillion-dollars-report/>http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/iraq-afghanistan-wars-will-cost-u-s-4-6-trillion-dollars-report/

AFGHANS DEMAND WITHDRAWAL OF U.S. FORCES

"Hundreds of residents of Afghanistan's eastern province of Wardak are marching on Kabul Saturday demanding US special operations forces pull out of their territory...  the Karzai-appointed Ulema Council, whose members represent the country’s Islamic clerics, issued a statement seconding the call for withdrawal... "
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/03/16-1>http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/03/16-1

KARZAI ORDERS U.S. FORCES OUT OF PROVINCE

"... Last week President Karzai banned Afghan forces from calling in US or NATO airstrikes on residential areas, following the deaths of 10 civilians on a raid in the eastern Kunar province... (This week)... Karzai... said that troops belonging to the U.S. military's special forces are “harassing, torturing and murdering innocent civilians... and ordered NATO's International Security Assistance Force to stop all special force operations out in Afghan's Wardak province and demanded that all U.S. special forces must be gone from the province within two weeks..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/24>http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/24

U.S. LOST THE IED WAR

"... an ...  important story has been quietly unfolding: the U.S. loss of the pivotal war of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the Taliban... the U.S. troop surge could not reverse the very steep increase in IED attacks and attendant casualties that the Taliban began in 2009... the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organisation (JIEDDO)... spent more than 18 billion dollars on high-tech solutions aimed at detecting IEDs before they went off... (but) the Taliban simply produced and planted even larger numbers of bombs to continue to increase the pressure of the IED war...
"The counterinsurgency strategy devised by Gen. David Petraeus... pushed thousands of U.S. troops out of their armoured vehicles into (dismounted) patrols on foot in order to establish relationships with the local population... The main effect of the strategy, however, was a major jump in the number of “catastrophic” injuries to U.S. troops from IEDs...

"A June 2011 Army task force report described a new type of battle injury – “Dismount Complex Blast Injury”– defined as a combination of “traumatic amputation of at least one leg, a minimum of severe injury to another extremity, and pelvic, abdominal, or urogenital wounding”... the number of triple limb amputations in 2010 alone had been twice the total in the previous eight years of war..."

http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/10/how-the-u-s-quietly-lost-the-ied-war-in-afghanistan/

AFGHAN GOV'T COULD COLLAPSE AFTER NATO LEAVES

"A new report on Afghanistan warns that the departure of Nato forces in 2014 could be followed by the government's collapse and even civil war... (because) the Afghan police and army are unprepared for security responsibility..." 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19868043>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19868043

AFGHAN CASUALTIES OUTNUMBER U.S. BY 10:1


"As 2,000th American soldier killed in Afghanistan makes headlines, estimates put Afghan civilian dead at over 20,000... for every US soldier killed in a war that fewer and fewer seem willing to defend or explain, ten innocent Afghan civilians—doing their best to go about their under constant violent threat—are killed in war that eleven years later shows no sign of ending."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/30

JOINT PATROLS CURBED
U. S. anti-Islam film part of reason

"Nato says it is restricting operations with Afghan troops following a string of deadly attacks on its personnel by rogue Afghan security forces... Fifty-one Nato troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers so far this year - 15 in August alone... Only large operations will now be conducted jointly, with joint patrols evaluated on a case-by-case basis... "events outside of and inside Afghanistan" related to the anti-Islam film were part of the reason for its restrictions on joint operations..."

http://bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19632779

LAST GASP OF THE INSURGENCY

"US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has described attacks by members of the Afghan security forces on coalition troops as the Taliban's "last gasp".
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19627164

Reminiscent of...
"We feel right now that we have, as I mentioned, broken the back of the insurgency."
--Marine Lt. Gen. John Sattler, Nov. 18, 2004, after the U.S.-led offensive against Fallujah in Iraq
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0523-22.htm

NATO AIRSTRIKE KILLS 8 WOMEN

"A NATO airstrike has killed at least 8 women and girls and injured at least 7 females in the eastern province of Laghman while they were collecting firewood..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/16-0>http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/16-0

INSIDER ATTACK KILLS 4 U.S. TROOPS, WOUNDS 2

"Four American soldiers and an Afghan police officer have been killed in southern Afghanistan following an attack suspected to involve members of the Afghan police... four soldiers were found dead and two wounded... All six casualties were understood to be members of the US special forces..."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/09/201291643935935407.html>http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/09/201291643935935407.html

ATTACK ON BRITISH AIRFIELD

"... the insurgents who attacked a British airfield in southwestern Afghanistan on Friday, killing two U.S. Marines, wore U.S. Army uniforms and destroyed six Harrier fighter jets... about 15 insurgents carried out the attack... Fourteen of the 15 were killed. One was captured... Besides destroying six planes, they destroyed three refueling stations on the base and damaged six aircraft hangars... Eight military members and one civilian contractor were also injured in the assault..."

http://news.yahoo.com/attackers-afghanistan-wore-us-uniforms-010844344.html>http://news.yahoo.com/attackers-afghanistan-wore-us-uniforms-010844344.html

"An audacious Taliban attack on a heavily fortified base in southern Afghanistan did far more damage than initially reported, destroying or severely damaging eight attack jets in the most destructive single strike on Western matériel in the 11-year war... causing more than $200 million in damage... Six of the jets, which each cost between $23 million and $30 million when they were first acquired by the United States Navy... were completely destroyed and two more were so severely damaged it was unlikely they could be repaired. Also badly damaged were three refueling stations and three soft-skinned aircraft hangars..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/world/asia/green-on-blue-attacks-in-afghanistan-continue.html?_r=2

GREEN ON BLUE KILLINGS: AFGHANS STUNG BY U.S. SUBJUGATION

"... Afghans are killing Western troops because the US and NATO are in occupation of their country. The Taliban does not need to "infiltrate" the Afghan National Army or the Afghan National Police. Every Afghan knows they are occupied; every Afghan feels keenly the embarrassed sting of subjugation... The Afghans are saying: "You have invaded my country, occupied it for more than ten years, killed thousands of us, and you can’t even respect my religion when I am working for you?"...

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/2012910101359505641.html>http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/2012910101359505641.html

NO WOMENS' RIGHTS TO PROTECT
The fate of TV actresses in the capitol

"... prominent American women claim American forces are necessary in Afghanistan to protect the gains made in woman’s rights.... 3 women in Kabul were attacked by a group of men because of their work as television actresses. One of the women was murdered. After seeking treatment at the hospital, the two survivors were taken to prison, where they face intrusive virginity tests and possible charges of prostitution or collusion in the attack. They face long prison sentences. This is not the Taliban; this is woman’s rights in Afghanistan today..."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/11>http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/11

"The hatred of the people here is the reason she was killed, I am 100% sure."
--Yaqin Ali Khalili, owner of a shop that the women frequented.
"We have already sent them to the forensic office to do an examination, to make clear whether these girls are having illegal relations with anyone," said prosecutor Ghulam Dastegir Hedayat, responsible for western Kabul, where the killing took place..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/06/afghanistan-attack-female-actors>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/06/afghanistan-attack-female-actors

AFGHANS TURN AGAINST U.S.
General explains

"... A 15-year-old “tea boy” at a U.S. base opened fire on Marine special forces trainers exercising at a gym, killing three of them and seriously wounding another; a 60- or 70-year-old farmer, who volunteered to become a member of a village security force, turned the first gun his American special forces trainers gave him at an “inauguration ceremony” back on them, killing two; a police officer who, his father claims, joined the force four years earlier, invited Marine Special Operations advisers to a meal and gunned down three of them, wounding a fourth, before fleeing, perhaps to the Taliban."
"General Allen... suggested... some insider attacks might be traced to religious fasting for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, combined with unseasonable summer heat, leaving Afghans hungry, tetchy, and prone to impulsive acts, guns in hand."
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175587/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_losing_it_in_washington/

NON JUDICIAL PUNISHMENT FOR URINATING ON CORPSES




"Despoiling of the dead is illegal under the Geneva conventions as well as under US military law.... (Yet) Three of the Marines involved in the video that surfaced in January of soldiers urinating on the corpses of Afghans have received "nonjudicial punishment" on Monday for their roles in the incident. Because they received "nonjudicial punishment," their names do not have to be released. There are no criminal charges; the military describes it as "an administrative matter.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/27-8

ANGELS TO PROTECT TRAINERS AGAINST ATTACKS BY AFGHAN TRAINEES

"... after a spate of attacks that included the killing of six Marine trainers this month.... the military decreed that American and NATO service members should always carry a loaded magazine in their weapons, to save precious moments if attacked by Afghan forces. Another initiative, now a priority, is a program named “Guardian Angel” that calls for one or two soldiers to monitor the Afghans during every mission or meeting... The “angels,” whose identities are not disclosed to the Afghans, must be prepared to fire on anyone who tries to kill a coalition service member...
"Only a handful of the 31 attacks this year have clearly been a result of Taliban activity like infiltration. That suggests a level of malaise or anger within the Afghan forces that could complicate NATO’s training program, which relies on trust and cooperation... the military is realizing that it ultimately does not fully understand what is driving the attacks..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/world/asia/afghan-attacks-on-allied-troops-prompt-nato-to-shift-policy.html?_r=2

U.S. HELPS REWRITE AFGHAN SCHOOLBOOKS

"Afghanistan's.. education ministry has endorsed a new history curriculum for school students that deletes nearly four decades of the country's war-torn past... not much mention of (the Taliban) or the US-led forces that drove them from power and have stayed for more than a decade... the civil war and the Taliban regime had been wrapped up in just a few lines... US military officials say they had no discussions on content in the books, some of which were paid for with US money. But a spokesman for the US military in Kabul, David Lakin, added: ''Our cultural advisers reviewed the social studies textbooks for inappropriate material, such as inciting violence or religious discrimination."
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18579315

... TO COUNTERACT PREVIOUS U.S. SCHOOLBOOKS

"Taliban in Madrassas with texts our taxes designed.... Look up texts our taxes spawned at University of Nebraska Omaha. Hate texts, illegally pushing one established religion, and glorifying murderous warfare for Allah. Delivered to Afghanistan Taliban to create militant terrorists. The neocon plan was to aim them at "godless communists." Another "initiative" that started what we cannot now stop. No exit plan."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/23/260889/-School-Vouchers-create-Madrassas-here

"... during the presidency of Ronald Reagan — when all vision was still focused on the Cold War — the United States got itself into the business of sponsoring militant Islamic schools for Afghanistan, then a nation under the influence of the Soviet Union... The U.S. Agency for International Development was funding the foreign aid program that was essentially schooling this new generation of terrorists...
The plan: Flood rural Afghanistan with millions of schoolbooks preaching and teaching Islamic militancy. Books reportedly filled with language celebrating jihad (holy war), violent images of war... Primers from which boys learned math by counting pictures of soldiers, tanks, guns and land mines.
The purpose: Create a generation of militant Islamic freedom fighters — another term might be terrorists — who would rise up and run the godless Soviet communist forces out of Afghanistan. Which they did. Then they stuck around."
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3453