The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– $1 Trillion Motherlode of Lithium and Gold Discovered in Afghanistan
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H/t reader squodgy:
“Confessions of an Economic Hitman really comes into focus with Afghanistan now!”
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Special crop protection & harvesting operations …
– UK plans ‘significant uptick’ in Afghanistan special ops – reports
H/t reader squodgy:
“Personally I have never been in any doubt who co-ordinates world conflict & merely uses the USA to take the can.”
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– ‘US doesn’t want Afghanistan war to end – it’s cash cow for Pentagon, contractors’
H/t reader sqoudgy:
“Will the American people believe it? Ha!”
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FYI.
Trump is a bought and paid for Rothschild puppet, just like Hillary Clinton.
Trump and Clinton have always been the swamp.
https://youtu.be/4eMPVQic4Pg
H/t reader I.G.
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– Ron Paul Institute Statement On Trump’s Afghanistan Speech:
Authored by Daniel McAdams via The Mises Institute,
Like me, many of you watched President Trump’s train wreck of a speech on Afghanistan earlier tonight. It’s nearly midnight and I am still reeling.
I guess it was too much to ask to hear him admit the obvious and draw the obvious conclusions:
After 16 years – the longest war in US history – no one even remembers what we are fighting for in Afghanistan.
The war is over.
Not another American (or innocent Afghan) life for one of the most convoluted and idiotic wars in history!
Trump of 2012 and 2013 said just that. Candidate Trump said just that.
Then tonight he told us that once you sit in that chair in the Oval Office you see things differently.
What does that mean?
Read moreRon Paul Institute Statement On Trump’s Afghanistan Speech
FYI.
Like in Syria?
– Video Emerges Of US Allowing ISIS Fighters To Escape Safely in Syria
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In a widely anticipated national address, President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he will not pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying he’s committed to a new strategy aimed at winning the nation’s longest war, now in its 17th year. Admitting that his “original instinct was to pull out” of Afghanistan – Trump’s core campaign pledge was to reduce US intervention in offshore conflicts – Trump effectively admitted he had been wrong, and said he’s arrived at three “fundamental conclusions” about America’s core interests in Afghanistan:
– In Angry Tweetstorm, Ron Paul Lashes Out At “Neocon” Trump:
Roughly around the time Trump started his Afghanistan speech, Ron Paul tweeted out a cautiously optimistic note: “Hoping for the best in tonight’s @realDonaldTrump speech but fearful that foreign intervention is only going to get worse. #Afghanistan.” Alas it was not meant to be, and over 20 tweets later in what proved to be the angriest tweetstorm of the night, Ron Paul had come to a conclusion: Trump is now nothing more than the latest neocon, one whom even Lindsey Graham applauded.
Below is a chronological rundown of Ron Paul’s progressively angier tweets, as he was live commenting on Trump’s speech:
Read moreIn Angry Tweetstorm, Ron Paul Lashes Out At “Neocon” Trump
“Change you can believe in!” …
“I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am President, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.”
-Barack Obama
And now: “Make America great again!”
– Afghanistan – Trump To Announce Four More One-Year Wars:
Updated below
—
This evening Trump will announce a new “path forward” in the occupation of Afghanistan. According to the usual leaks it will be very same path the U.S. has taken for 16 years.
Several thousands soldiers from the U.S. and various NATO countries will (in vane) train the Afghan army. Special Forces and CIA goons will raid this or that family compound on someone’s say-so. Bombs will be dropped on whatever is considered a target.
Trump will announce that 1,000 or so troops will be added to the current contingent. About 15,000 foreign troops will be in Afghanistan. About three contractors per each soldier will be additionally deployed.
Trump knows that this “path forward” is nonsense that leads nowhere, that the best option for all foreign troops in Afghanistan is to simply leave:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – 21 Nov 2013We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Their government has zero appreciation. Let’s get out!
But neither the military nor the CIA nor the local Afghan government will let the U.S. leave. Fear mongering is abound: “What happens if Afghanistan becomes a hotbed for international terrorists?” But few if any international terrorist incident in the “west” were ever organized in Afghanistan. In all recent incidents the culprits were locals.
Read moreAfghanistan: Trump To Announce Four More One-Year Wars
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– McMaster And Mattis Have Twelve Months To Succeed In Afghanistan:
Recently we learned that Erik Prince, founder of the security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Steve Feinberg, financier, and owner of DynCorp International, a leading military logistics, and training contractor, approached the Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, with their plan to use contractors instead of American troops to stabilize Afghanistan. The meeting was arranged at the behest of President Trump’s advisors who want to ensure their boss is apprised of the full range of options in Afghanistan.
The Secretary decided to stick with an in-house solution, that is to say, more of the same, for a war we are, in his words, “not winning.” Secretary Mattis is no enemy of contractors, but hopefully, he reflected on what Messrs. Prince and Feinberg said before he briefed President Trump last week on the way ahead in Afghanistan.
Read moreMcMaster And Mattis Have Twelve Months To Succeed In Afghanistan
– Billions of dollars’ worth of arms against Syria:
Over the last seven years, several billion dollars’ worth of armament has been illegally introduced into Syria – a fact which in itself is enough to disprove the myth according to which this war is a democratic revolution. Numerous documents attest to the fact that the traffic was organised by General David Petraeus, first of all in public, via the CIA, of which he was the director, then privately, via the financial company KKR with the aid of certain senior civil servants. Thus the conflict, which was initially an imperialist operation by the United States and the United Kingdom, became a private capitalist operation, while in Washington, the authority of the White House was challenged by the deep state. New elements now show the secret rôle of Azerbaïdjan in the evolution of the war.
How were the jihadists of Aleppo supplied with Bulgarian weapons?
During the liberation of Aleppo and the capture of the Saudi military staff who were on site, Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva noted the presence of weapons from her country in nine warehouses abandoned by the jihadists. She carefully noted the information on the boxes, and once she returned home, she investigated the way in which the weapons had been delivered to Syria.
– Taliban Awash in US Arms, Vehicles, Complicate Afghan War:
Read moreTaliban Awash in US Arms, Vehicles, Complicate Afghan War
– Botched US Drone Strike Kills 15 Afghan Police:
The US has tried to bolster the Afghan government in Helmand Province with air support in their fighting against the Taliban, but the support appears to have gone horribly wrong today, as a US drone attacked and killed at least 15 Afghan police.
The airstrike was targeting what the US thought was a Taliban compound in Helmand’s Gereshk District, but was actually a site used by Afghan security forces to meet and plan operations against the Taliban. A number were inside when the US attacked.
– ‘Rogue’ SAS squadron investigated over executions of unarmed Afghan civilians – paper:
The series of killings allegedly took place during the final stages of Britain’s involvement in the Afghan war, the Times reported, citing a major Royal Military Police (RMP) investigation codenamed ‘Operation Northmoor’. Part of the RMP inquiry is said to have focused on a specific SAS squadron dubbed a “rogue” unit.
Read more‘Rogue’ SAS squadron investigated over executions of unarmed Afghan civilians – paper
Young ISIS recruits brandishing handguns shoot prisoners in the back of the head in a brutal new execution video from the terror group.
The two boys – both dressed in black – force their captives to kneel in front of them in front of a building in Afghanistan.
Sickening footage shows them brutally pulling back the heads of the two terrified men, accused of being spies, before the younger of the two jihadists starts ranting at the camera.
The ‘cubs of the caliphates’ – a name given to youngsters who have been brainwashed with ISIS ideologies and trained to kill – then point their guns at the hostages before shooting them.
Savage footage also shows three more men murdered – this time by four heavily-armed adults standing next to an ISIS flag.
The so-called Islamic State has released several videos showing young children carrying out brutal executions of adults and training with weapons as they pledge allegiance to ISIS.
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– Pentagon To Send 4,000 Troops To Afghanistan In Trump’s Largest Deployment Yet:
Two days after Trump ceded unilateral authority on Afghan troop deployments to the Department of Defense, the Pentagon wasted on time and according to AP, the Pentagon will send 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan to support existing forces and in hopes of breaking a stalemate in a war that has now been passed on to a third U.S. President. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump’s young presidency.
According to AP, the decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, and was prompted by “the rising threat posed by Islamic State extremists, evidenced in a rash of deadly attacks in the capital city of Kabul, has only fueled calls for a stronger U.S. presence, as have several recent American combat deaths.” Asked for comment, a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said, “No decisions have been made.”
Read morePentagon To Send 4,000 Troops To Afghanistan In Trump’s Largest Deployment Yet
– Defense Secretary Mattis: “We Are Not Winning the War in Afghanistan”:
Secretary of Defense James Mattis said the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan in Congressional testimony on Tuesday, vowing to offer a new strategy to lawmakers this summer that will call for the deployment thousands of additional troops to the country.
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H/t reader squodgy:
“Can’t let the awful Taliban take control of Opium Poppy production again….prices would rocket!!!!!”
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–Britain planning to deploy more troops to Afghanistan:
The United Kingdom is planning to send more troops to Afghanistan where insecurity is increasing despite the fact that the US and its allies have deployed thousands of forces there since 2001.
“The UK is prepared to increase its contribution to troops in a non-combat role to demonstrate our continued support for the NATO mission in Afghanistan,” a government source said Thursday.
The United States currently has around 8,400 soldiers in Afghanistan with about another 5,000 troops from NATO allies. Britain currently has about 500 troops in Afghanistan.
Read moreBritain planning to deploy more troops to Afghanistan
https://twitter.com/kurt_nimmo/status/864198113984036865
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