Report: U.S. Seeks to Keep 10,000 Troops in Afghanistan | Democracy Now!

Great. Now I have to update VP Biden’s comment from the debate on 10.11.12:

But we are leaving. We are leaving in 2014. Period *Wink*.

That’s better.

But, really, this isn’t news. Almost every article I’ve read about the 2014 “withdrawal” from Afghanistan included a “with a possible presence until 2024” statement somewhere, the only detail missing had been the number of troops (and, of course, the number of “defense” contractors).

(via theamericanbear)

This is how we “ended” the war in Iraq as well.

(via cognitivedissonance)

Yeah, lot of people think we’re totally out. No. No. No. Look at our history. When do we EVER leave a country?

(via americanfascism)

Americanbear is right, this isn’t news at all. I feel like I’ve been screaming it for close to a year now.

(via americanfascism)

politics-war:

Soldiers and their families wait with their kit their base at Topcliffe in North Yorkshire as they prepare to leave with 4 Regiment Royal Artillery for deployment in Afghanistan.

Picture: John Giles

Reddit is having trouble handling the load right now, but HuffPo collected all of his answers.

He only answered 10. Most of them were meaningless — someone asked him how he balances his hobbies with being president, and another asked him for the recipe for the White House beer. Questions about Bradley Manning, Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, drones, and the NDAA were ignored entirely. Obama’s most meaningful response was about Afghanistan:

“What was the most difficult decision that you had to make during this term?”

The decision to surge our forces in afghanistan. Any time you send our brave men and women into battle, you know that not everyone will come home safely, and that necessarily weighs heavily on you. The decision did help us blunt the taliban’s momentum, and is allowing us to transition to afghan lead - so we will have recovered that surge at the end of this month, and will end the war at the end of 2014. But knowing of the heroes that have fallen is something you never forget.

Any explanation of why we were in Afghanistan at all was missing. And even the answer he provided was an outright lie. The war in Afghanistan is not ending on 2014, because Obama recently signed a deal to keep it going until 2024. I would’ve liked to reply and say this, but mods decided to close the comments for some reason. And it’s not these gawking idiots would even care. Last time I was stupid enough to wade through r/politics and mention any of these things, my comment was downvoted 14 times, without a single response telling me why.

Obama ended it by saying, “…this is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run.” That’s not true. This is an example of a person ignoring all the uncomfortable questions, and instead choosing to answer the ones where he can easily provide pre-established talking points. If this process was democratic, he would have to explain why we’re fighting in Afghanistan. He’d have to explain why he tried to keep troops in Iraq, why he’s assassinating Americans without due process, and why he’s currently fighting in court to defend the provisions in the NDAA that give him the power to lock up American citizens without due process. This undemocratic process is how the debate in America is controlled. They are the ones who choose which questions they answer. Don’t expect these issues to be brought up at any point during the election, because Obama and Romney are in full agreement on them. As Wikileaks showed us in a leaked CIA report in 2010, these people depend on public apathy to continue doing things that are unpopular.

“The Afghanistan mission’s low public salience has allowed French and German leaders to disregard popular opposition and steadily increase their troop contributions.”

jonathan-cunningham:

sinidentidades:

On a day of deadly violence that underlined the vulnerability of Afghans, , more than 30 civilians were killed by Taliban suicide attackers and a Nato air strike on Wednesday.

Civilians are regular victims of the fighting that now affects most of Afghanistan, and last year a record number of innocent people were killed, according to UN data, but it is unusual for both parties in the conflict to exact such a toll within the span of a few hours.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a bomber struck in a market near the gates of a large military airbase. As crowds gathered at the site of the attack, a second man drove up on a motorbike and detonated another suicide vest. Together they killed 21 civilians and injured at least 50, the provincial police chief, Abdul Razzaq, said.

In Logar province, which lies south of Kabul but near the eastern border with Pakistan, a Nato air attack on a village home killed up to 18 civilians who had gathered to celebrate a wedding, local government and security officials said.

The attack targeted Taliban fighters who had taken shelter in the house, but among the bodies that angry villagers brought to the provincial capital were at least five women and seven children, according to a photographer from the Associated Press who saw the dead.

It is not clear whether the insurgents sought permission to enter the house, or forced their way in at gunpoint. 

Civilians? I think you mean militants. 

(via other-stuff)

U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit

Scott Olsen went out there wearing a bike helmet lol

shortformblog:

The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops.

The coalition routinely reports attacks in which a coalition soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But it does not report the instances in which an Afghan wounds U.S. or NATO troops or misses his target.

So, what don’t we know? Do we want to know?

A colonel just published a report about how the military is deliberately deceiving the public on Afghanistan. The U.S. has always done this, and we shouldn’t be shocked.

(via dibin)

poptech:

Education against all odds in Afghanistan – audio slideshow

As they say, education is light.
Every member of society should have knowledge.
Through knowledge we can solve all our problems.

(via philosophicallust)

mohandasgandhi:

leftish:

Hakim interviews survivors of the Afghan Massacre who concur that it was most definitely more than one soldier (perhaps as many as 16-17), accompanied by helicopters running cover…

Watch the video. These are accusations which are not outlandish, given the evidence and the history of similar situations with the U.S. military, and must be taken very seriously.

zainabsrevolution:

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — An arena where the Taliban used to execute women provides a chilling and incongruous setting for one teen girl’s unlikely Olympic dream.

But the dusty floors, broken mirrors, and poorly-lit hallways inside Kabul’s Ghazni stadium have been the training base for 17-year-old Sadaf Rahimi.

Dressed in a track suit, red lace up boots and a blue bandana, she is on course to become Afghanistan’s first female Olympic boxer and only the third Afghan sportswoman to compete at an Olympic Games.

“The first time I hit someone it was in my village, I was 11. It was actually my cousin,” she told CNN during a break from training. “Afterwards he said I hit him so hard that I should become a boxer!”

She did just that. A wild card from the Olympic committee has propelled the student towards the London games this summer, a daunting prospect given the modest resources at her disposal.

(via dibin)

disobey:

UK teenager arrested and charged for anti-war Facebook post.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivated U.S. Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to allegedly kill 16 Afghans, including 9 children: he was drunk, he was experiencing financial stress, he was passed over for a promotion, he had a traumatic braininjury, he had marital problems, he suffered from the stresses of four tours of duty, he “saw his buddy’s leg blown off the day before the massacre,” etc.

Here’s a summary of the Western media discussion of what motivates Muslims to kill Americans: they are primitive, fanatically religious, hateful Terrorists.

Even when Muslims who engage in such acts toward Americans clearly and repeatedly explain that they did it in response to American acts of domination, aggression, violence and civilian-killing in their countries, and even when the violence is confined to soldiers who are part of a foreign army that has invaded and occupied their country, the only cognizable motive is one of primitive, hateful evil. It is an act of Evil Terrorism, and that is all there is to say about it.

(via theeducatedfieldnegro)

Afghan probe finds that two women were raped during the recent massacre that left 16 civilians dead

People in the area have been saying that more than one soldier was involved, but I wasn’t sure one way or the other; U.S. forces went into the area after the attack took place to see what happened, and there may have been some confusion as to who they were and what they were doing. I remember Russia Today reporting that it was a group of soldiers, but again, I took it with a grain of salt because they’re very pro-Putin and do what they can to damage the U.S.

Now? This pretty much seals it. It was more than one lone psycho, and the U.S. is lying about it.

(via knowledgeappliedispower)

The shocking murder last weekend of 16 Afghan civilians — 9 of them children — by a U.S. soldier is raising many questions about the war. Coming right after the accidental burning of several Qurans at a U.S. base last month, which sparked mass protests across the country, it seems reasonable to ask: what is coming next?

The sad answer is that there probably won’t be a huge public reaction to the killings. The burning of the Qurans — which the U.S. claims was accidental — was a fresh outrage to many Afghans.

While the Taliban often claims the U.S. disrespects Islam and wants to destroy it, few Afghans had any real reason to believe that in their daily lives. The Quran burning shocked the Afghan public enough for some political opportunists to whip up protests in response.

In contrast, Sunday’s mass murder is not a new outrage for Afghanistan. While the deliberate killing of civilians is (thankfully) rare, many Afghans do not distinguish between accidental and deliberate civilian death.

Last May, U.S. helicopters in Kunar province came under rocket fire from insurgents; in responding they accidentally fired back at what turned out to be children gathering firewood, killing 9.

General Petraeus was quick to apologize for the incident, but nevertheless the reaction in Kabul was angry and resentful: many simply could not believe that children could be accidentally mistaken for insurgents. Sunday’s mass killing is still shocking and upsetting — but it is no longer surprising.

Sunday’s mass murder, in other words, is not a game-changing event. The game has already changed, and many Afghans are not surprised when the U.S. kills a bunch of civilians.

There’s always a steady rise of civilian deaths thanks to the raids throughout the country every night by the joint special operations force; and combine that with drones that make followup attacks on rescue workers. These things happen all the time. It was the same with My Lai in Vietnam — it wasn’t a one-time thing, it’s just that that particular massacre snuck through the cracks and got media coverage. Watching the president and government officials over the last few days try to apologize for this is making me a little sick. They apologize every time things like this happen, and it always continues.

(via proletarianinstinct)