BTW: US Just Signed Afghan Peace Deal With Taliban

MORE happening around the world than Coronavirus.
When nobody was paying attention...the Trump administration signed an historic peace deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops and end the US participation in the bloody 18 yr war.

Under the deal, US troops will be reduced to 8,600 from about 13,000 in the upcoming weeks. Further reductions will depend on the Taliban reaching specific counter-terrorism conditions. Part of the agreement included a promise from the Taliban not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the US or its allies.

President Trump is aiming to fulfill his promise to bring troops home from the Middle East as his re-election campaign ramps up.

nypost.com...

It's good to see this moving forward again and it's great to have a President making a real effort to make this happen.

Let's hope this progress continues and we can finally bring our troops home.

Thank you President Trump.

peace is the answer. there is zero need for warz.

for sure there is ZERO need in making 500k rockets.

but those pesky inter-nationalists, they thrive on war, profit, taxes, for us cattle.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Let's hope this progress continues and we can finally bring our troops home.

Thank you President Trump.

I have been keeping an eye on this and I am with you on the hope we can finally get the H out of there.

Here is the agreement.
U.S.-Taliban peace deal

When something majour happens and someone makes some kind of a deal to earn more money and start conflicts : Oh no its a big conspiracy , it was all because they can hide what they are doing and drown it in the latest big news they did.

When something good happens: Actually gets drown from the influx of big news.

In othwr words outsource war on/of T to old 3rd party chum?

a reply to: IAMTAT

First thought : Just wait for the stupid democrats saying this is wrong.

Second thought : Easier to make peace with the Taliban people than the crazy democrats.

Fluffy got it right (about Middle East) !

a reply to: IAMTAT

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
and go to your gawd like a soldier."

-Rudyard Kipling


Bring our troops home.

I was always against this war,and I am glad it may be coming to an end but-can some one remind me what it was all about as the result seems to be that the Taliban will take power back and rule Afghanistan and turn it into an Islamic state.
Why exactlly did so many have to die for a project that looks as though the ememy have won and not much will change in the country?
If I was a soldier who fought and lost friends in this war I wouldn't be very impressed with the result.

It wasn't what they said it was about-911 was done by the saudis and the taliban offered to hand over bin laden if the US gave proof of his involvement-Bush refused.
www.theguardian.com...

It wasn't about what they said about stopping the heroin trade-that increased exponentially after the taliban had previously been doing a good job of stopping the opium growers.
www.npr.org...

And it obviously wasn't what they said about making the country safe for women and children,as the taliban treat them like crap and will once again seize power soon,which Afghan women are very scared of.
www.wbur.org...

Ever get the feeling you've been had?

a reply to: IAMTAT

Does this mean that they can grow poppies without molestation from now on?

a reply to: Sookiechacha

Who cares?

Aren't you someone who wants legalization of all drugs?

Seems like a bit of "their country, their rules" sort of thing.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
I was always against this war,and I am glad it may be coming to an end but-can some one remind me what it was all about as the result seems to be that the Taliban will take power back and rule Afghanistan and turn it into an Islamic state.
Why exactlly did so many have to die for a project that looks as though the ememy have won and not much will change in the country?
If I was a soldier who fought and lost friends in this war I wouldn't be very impressed with the result.

It wasn't what they said it was about-911 was done by the saudis and the taliban offered to hand over bin laden if the US gave proof of his involvement-Bush refused.
www.theguardian.com...

It wasn't about what they said about stopping the heroin trade-that increased exponentially after the taliban had previously been doing a good job of stopping the opium growers.
www.npr.org...

And it obviously wasn't what they said about making the country safe for women and children,as the taliban treat them like crap and will once again seize power soon,which Afghan women are very scared of.
www.wbur.org...

Ever get the feeling you've been had?

Very much so, this war was never what they said it was about.

originally posted by: Sookiechacha
a reply to: IAMTAT

Does this mean that they can grow poppies without molestation from now on?

Quite the opposite. The Taliban were actually stopping the Opium production, the US helped that business thrive and built on it.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Speaking from anecdotal experience, I've spoken to a lot of Vietnam vets who said the war was more about marijuana and drugs, like heroin, than about liberating the people from Communism. Likewise, I lot of Afghani vets have told me it was all about protecting the poppy farms.

a reply to: djz3ro

Really?

Follow The Money: The Taliban's Growing Criminal Empire
www.military.com...

Where exactly does the Taliban get all this cash? The sources are many and varied. Narcotics are one of the principal sources of the Taliban's financing. Over the last two decades, Afghanistan has emerged as the principal source of the world's heroin -- producing around 90 percent of the world's supply. Afghanistan sits at the heart of a region called the "Golden Crescent," a rugged mountainous region incorporating northeastern Iran, Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, which is the center of the world's heroin production. Afghanistan is a "vertically integrated" heroin producer in that the entire process, from the cultivation of the opium poppy to the production of morphine and its subsequent conversion into heroin, all takes place within the country.
It does not appear that the Taliban is involved in the physical production of heroin or its antecedents. The Taliban's principal function in the drug trade is to organize the smuggling of heroin out of Afghanistan; smuggle in chemicals, principally acetic anhydride, which are necessary for the manufacture of heroin; ensure that government officials, either through bribery or intimidation, don't interfere with the heroin trade; and provide protection to the heroin factories. Because of its use for the synthesis of heroin by the diacetylation of morphine, acetic anhydride is a key ingredient in the manufacture of heroin and it is listed as a U.S. DEA List II precursor, and restricted in many other countries including, at least officially, Afghanistan.

originally posted by: Sookiechacha
a reply to: DBCowboy

Speaking from anecdotal experience, I've spoken to a lot of Vietnam vets who said the war was more about marijuana and drugs, like heroin, than about liberating the people from Communism. Likewise, I lot of Afghani vets have told me it was all about protecting the poppy farms.

So you support Trumps efforts to get us out of there.

Thank you for your support.

originally posted by: Sookiechacha
a reply to: IAMTAT

Does this mean that they can grow poppies without molestation from now on?

Proving yet again, how LITTLE you know before you post nonsense.

As someone above already posted a link to - the Taliban kept the opium trade at bay by outlawing poppy fields.

And it is no coincidence that the escalation of heroin addiction and deaths from opiod abuse sky rocketed once the Taliban was not in control and the poppies once again became a big farming industry in Afghanistan.

originally posted by: Sookiechacha
a reply to: DBCowboy

Speaking from anecdotal experience, I've spoken to a lot of Vietnam vets who said the war was more about marijuana and drugs, like heroin, than about liberating the people from Communism. Likewise, I lot of Afghani vets have told me it was all about protecting the poppy farms.

Yep, the fields were the target of the 2003 coalition of the willings' invasion of Iraq.

Halliburton got the oil fields
CIA got the poppy fields.

Both were given a US military escort into all the necessary zones.

Military Industrial Complex op. Once the US has things of value, they tend not to give them back, but rather become the overlord of who gets stuff and who doesn't.

a reply to: toolgal462

As someone above already posted a link to - the Taliban kept the opium trade at bay by outlawing poppy fields.

It wasn't about what they said about stopping the heroin trade-that increased exponentially after the taliban had previously been doing a good job of stopping the opium growers.

That links to here:

Opium Poppy Growth Booming In Afghanistan
January 19, 2014 www.npr.org...

JOHN SOPKO: They're growing more poppy now and introducing more opium than ever before.

My link is more recent.

I don't see any evidence that the Taliban has stopped getting their funding from narcotics and other unsavory trade.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

Bountiful Afghan Opium Harvest Yields Profits for the Taliban
May 2016
www.nytimes.com...

“There is no security concern for a single laborer being checked or robbed by the police,” Mr. Mutmain said. “The entire district is under Taliban control and the bulk of the harvesters are Taliban.” He added, “Actually, this is the Taliban regime — you can take your narcotics anywhere or anytime you want to sell them.”

The United Nations, which has described the Taliban behavior “more like ‘godfathers’ than a ‘government in waiting,’ ” says the insurgency extracts a large share of its expenses from the narcotics trade, which the agency put at roughly $3 billion a year within Afghanistan.

originally posted by: DBCowboy

originally posted by: Sookiechacha
a reply to: DBCowboy

Speaking from anecdotal experience, I've spoken to a lot of Vietnam vets who said the war was more about marijuana and drugs, like heroin, than about liberating the people from Communism. Likewise, I lot of Afghani vets have told me it was all about protecting the poppy farms.

So you support Trumps efforts to get us out of there.

Thank you for your support.

Did you support Obama's efforts to get us out of Iraq?
Brown man bad?
Orange man good?