US general pledges to secure symbolic Kandahar

US general pledges to secure symbolic Kandahar

news.yahoo.com

KABUL – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan pledged Monday to retake the symbolic Taliban home ground of Kandahar in a campaign that builds on early signs of progress from the huge infusion of American and foreign forces.

"We're absolutely going to secure Kandahar," Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters traveling with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who arrived Monday to talk with his commanders and Afghan officials.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The end is nigh.

Not the end of the world, but the end of OEF-A: Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan.

The Taliban have been routed in Marjah by NATO while Pakistani forces continue their northward offensive against the Taliban. All that really stands now is the securing of Kandahar. By the end of the year over 100,000 US troops will be on the ground in Afghanistan. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are collapsing.

Along with the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September, this heralds the start of a new chapter in the Global War on Terror.

Once Kandahar is pacified, major operations will be able to transition to the Horn of Africa and the Trans Sahara. In other words the war is entering endgame and our long struggle since 11 September 2001 will soon be complete.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 8/3/10 by MikeboydUS]

Yes.

And I distinctly remember Bush in his first speech calling for a war on terror saying that it would be a long and difficult struggle taking years to bring to a successful conclusion. He also cautioned against the urge to bail out of the war on terror before it was successfully concluded.

And so - despite the many naysayers here on ATS and such as obama saying "the iraq surge has failed" - it may turn out that Bush was simply correct in his original assessment.

Imagine that!

reply to post by centurion1211


There are people on here who still won't admit that the insurgency in Iraq has collapsed. All thats left are a few active cells, something better suited for law enforcement, e.g. the Iraqi police, to handle.

What I hope does not happen, is the wrong people taking credit for the successes of others. When all is said and done I hope that the Pentagon gets all the credit that it is due.

The U.S. will NEVER win in Afghanistan.

Watch this video that was from today on the "Godfather Of Taliban" explaining why the U.S. will lose:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

He says when the religion of Islam is threatened, they will come from all over the world to fight the U.S.

Originally posted by Emerald The Paradigm
The U.S. will NEVER win in Afghanistan.

Watch this video that was from today on the "Godfather Of Taliban" explaining why the U.S. will lose:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

He says when the religion of Islam is threatened, they will come from all over the world to fight the U.S.

If the US was threatening Islam I would agree with you, but we are not.

Instead, we are helping Muslims defeat radicals who have tried to hijack Islam. What Bin Laden represents is not Islam, but a cult.

[edit on 8/3/10 by MikeboydUS]

It appears that the much touted Marja offensive was much to do about nothing. Rather than it being a town of 80,000 people as widely reported it was in fact just a series of widely scattered familiar villages over 125 square kilometers in terrain and has absolutely no strategic importance other than as a propaganda piece to promote the idea all is well.

It amazes me there are people who still believe a word our corrupt government says!

It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict.

Marja is not a city or even a real town, but either a few clusters of farmers' homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley.

"It's not urban at all," an official of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who asked not to be identified, admitted to IPS Sunday. He called Marja a "rural community".

"It's a collection of village farms, with typical family compounds," said the official, adding that the homes are reasonably prosperous by Afghan standards.

IPSNews.com

[edit on 8/3/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


That is a crock of nonsense.

This is a UNHCR district profile of the area from 2002, the population of the area has grown since then.
www.aims.org.af...

The two governmental clinics and private pharmacies are in the main bazaars of Nad Ali and Marja.

The secondary schools are in Changir, Shin Kalli, and main bazaar of Marja, Zarghoon Kalli, and Syed Abad blocks.

The primary schools are in Chai Mirza, Loy Bagh, Nakil Abad, Shalki 31, Khushahal, Dahna 29, Zabar Abad, Groop 6, 31 Gharby, 1B Block, Marja, Block 6D, Camp Mirja, Block 11, Dahna 66,Buland Awa Wakil Wazir, Block 73, west of Marja blocks.

The madrassa is in Marja main bazaar.

A map of the Nad Ali district:
www.aims.org.af...

Marja is very poor and lacks adequate facilities, but is still a well populated town.

As you can see from Google earth
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/63db73f8b08f.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by MikeboydUS


That's a pretty picture of farmlands!

They do have a bazaar there, swells to a few thousand people at the market.

There are hardly 20,000 people in the whole huge swath of land.

Besides you might want to rethink your assertion that an alleged hot bed of Taliban activity has grown steadily in population since the invasion swelling to an alleged four times it's size.

Just saying. The government is feeding us a load of rubbish.



[edit on 8/3/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


That news story is a crock and you know it.

It blatantly tries to say that the place is not a town, yet the UNHCR knows its a town with schools, a madrassa, a bazaar, and clinics.

The area is rural and 80,000-125,000 people live in that district that Marjah is in. I know you are smarter than what youre saying here. You and I both know that in third world countries, where food is abundant people breed like rabbits.

That picture isn't even the whole town, I zoomed in so people could see the roads and properties. Look at it real close. Each one of those plots of land has homes on them. That is compacted.

You have to understand they don't farm like in the US. I was over there and saw this first hand. You don't see massive farms like in the states. These are a few acres or less.



[edit on 8/3/10 by MikeboydUS]

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
reply to post by centurion1211

 

There are people on here who still won't admit that the insurgency in Iraq has collapsed. All thats left are a few active cells, something better suited for law enforcement, e.g. the Iraqi police, to handle.

What I hope does not happen, is the wrong people taking credit for the successes of others. When all is said and done I hope that the Pentagon gets all the credit that it is due.

The wrong people - i.e. obama and his minions (sycophants) - are ALREADY taking credit for winning the war in iraq.

The very same people (here on ATS and in the media) that said during the presidential campaign that the war in iraq was a failure.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

It amazes me there are people who still believe a word our corrupt government says!

Tell me whose words do you take. It is obvious that you, like we, get your information from a number of resources.

Why is yours so credible and others aren't?

There is no doubt the general is spouting propaganda. But isn't that wise on his behalf. I mean why else would they announce an operation publicly.

reply to post by centurion1211


When you think about it, its absolutely absurd for them to take credit.

They did nothing but interfere and act as an obstacle.
The vast majority of the polticians have no right to take the credit and honor away from the military.

The military did this and did it with one hand tied behind its back.

reply to post by jam321


Oh that's simple if it is anywhere remotely different than the Government puts out it has to be closer to the truth.

The truth is our troops in Afghanistan are security guards for opium fields and oil pipelines. They are there to prop up a weak corrupt government that helps to make those things possible.

That's no fault of our troops by the way.

It's the fault of the people who order them into harm's way.

The government is trying to sell us on the idea that the Afghan surge is working and going to work.

Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.

You would have to be a couple bricks shy of a load to believe that it's going to be any different for us, just because we are us!

Duh!

reply to post by jam321


Double post caused by computer gremlins!



[edit on 8/3/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

The government is trying to sell us on the idea that the Afghan surge is working and going to work.

Are they really trying to sell it to us?

I have my doubts. Despite all the complaints about bringing our troops home and ending the war, where are the protests?

Who or what group is trying to end the war? I just don't see them. Sure, you hear about a website here, a petition there, a little anti-war everywhere.

But there is no legit movement that will stop this war.

9 years and counting. Americans have already showed the government how sincere they are about stopping this war.

Now, I believe Obama wants to end the war. A lot of brownie opoints for him. Really can't blame him. IMO, what you are hearing is for the Talibans. The US is using propaganda to break their will.

The General has stated that we will secure Kandahar. Now the Taliban knows it and are probably making evacuation plans as we type.

Don't you love those computer gremlins..

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


We don't guard the poppy fields and why would we build a pipeline in Afghanistan now. We don't need one there. India might like one there, but we have no need for one.

Alexander, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane all made it through Afghanistan, but that doesn't matter because we are not conquering Afghanistan.

We are working with those who have inherited the legacy of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panjshir. You know the Mujahideen leader and hero of the Afghan resistance who helped set up the first legitimate government in Afghanistan in 1992. The same government that was destroyed by the Taliban in 1996. He was assassinated by Al Qaida on Sep 9, 2001. We are preserving his legacy of a legitimate Afghan republic.

[edit on 8/3/10 by MikeboydUS]

Just to reiterate the objects of the currant operation:

This latest offensive is called Operation Moshtarak (Dari for Together). Generally the objectives are as follows:

- The AQ will never be defeated but the goal is to render them ineffective by denying central population areas such as Kandahar and Marjah as bases of operation. If forced to the countryside they are much less able to launch sizable offensives.

-Deny the AQ access to the poppies. Helmand alone produces more heroin than any country on the planet, and Marjah is at the center of that trade. By some estimates, this center alone supplies the Taliban with a monthly income of $200,000.

-As AQ is forced out of population areas there is a governance vacuum taken over by agents of the Afghan government. Ie. Karzai will install a Government In A Can, pro Karzai and everything else Karzai stands for Inclucing Poppi Production!

reply to post by MikeboydUS

We don't guard the poppy fields and why would we build a pipeline in Afghanistan now. We don't need one there. India might like one there, but we have no need for one.

Why did the U.S. get involved in Afghanistan: For the same reason it got involved in Korea and Vietnam: anti-Communist cold war politics. Later, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. did nothing to seriously oppose the Taliban government once it was established in the 1990s. While diplomatic relations were broken by Clinton, Afghanistan was not put in the list of “rogue states,” since that would have prevented the U.S. corporation, UnoCal from continuing its negotiations with the Taliban government for the construction of a pipeline for oil through Afghanistan to help secure U.S. energy companies control over oil and natural gas from former Soviet Republics. In the cold war and post cold war period these policies produced death and destruction through the world. There is a concept that is used by students of politics and international relations. It is called “blowback.” There is an old Chinese warning: be careful what you wish for; you may get it. What united Ronald Reagan and Osama bin Laden, George H.W. Bush and the King of Saudi Arabia, our various governments and our non European allies, was opposition to Communist, socialist, populist and humanist movements among the people, maintenance of a status quo based on exploitation and oppression. Once the Soviet Union was destroyed, the unity between the major league exploiters, so to speak, and the minor league ones inevitably broke down. Now we come to blowback and there really is a lot of it. With Saudi money, an international group, Al Qaeda, the base, was established in 1988 to continue and spread the holy war in Afghanistan through the Muslim World. But why worry? These people were fighting “our” battles in the past against “our” enemies, revolutionary forces fighting for socialism and national liberation, the forces that the ruling class of our country had spent so many trillions to search and destroy. In the “post-Soviet world” “we,” meaning the capitalists of the advanced countries, could do with them and everyone else what “we wanted.

www.politicalaffairs.net...

The second important player in Afghanistan is Chevron. In 2005, Chevron merged with Unocal - an energy company that had been in talks with the Taliban after the Soviet army was driven out. Unocal had negotiated an agreement to build a pipeline through Afghanistan. According to Richard H. Matzke, president of Chevron Overseas Petroleum Inc., "Another mega-project on the drawing board is called the Central Asian Oil Pipeline. This is a proposal by Unocal and the Saudi company Delta. They want to build a $2.7 billion pipeline from the heart of Turkmenistan, south through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea. Oil would then move by tanker to the fast-growing economies of East Asia." The above quote is an "American" corporation executive with an "American" company describing the plans to deliver oil, not to America, but to the economies of East Asia. Unfortunately, American troops are being used to accomplish this agenda.

sundaygazettemail.com...

reply to post by plumranch

If forced to the countryside they are much less able to launch sizable offensives.

Also makes it easier for us to attack them without so many civilian casualties.

As AQ is forced out of population areas there is a governance vacuum taken over by agents of the Afghan government. Ie. Karzai will install a Government In A Can, pro Karzai and everything else Karzai stands for Inclucing Poppi Production!

Very true. But don't people want the US not to get involved in how other people run their country?

Afghan government officials are not rushing to oust the man they chose to bring fresh and credible governance to a town just seized from the Taliban, but his newly disclosed violent criminal record in Germany will be investigated further, officials said Saturday.

Court records and news reports in Germany show that Abdul Zahir, who has been appointed as civilian chief in Marjah, served part of a more than four-year prison sentence for stabbing his son in 1998. An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, also confirmed Zahir has a criminal record in Germany.

www.abovetopsecret.com...&addstar=1&on=8285783#pid8285783