Clinton Backs Obama's Move to Keep US Forces in Afghanistan

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

By KEN THOMAS, ASSOCIATED PRESS KEENE, N.H. — Oct 16, 2015, 4:56 PM ET

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday she supports President Barack Obama's decision to keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when he leaves the White House in 2017.

Clinton said Friday in an interview with CNN that Obama's moves were an example of "a leader who has strong convictions about what he would like to see happen but also pays attention to what's going on in the real world."

The president had originally planned to keep only a small U.S. military presence by the end of his presidency. But military leaders have said the Afghans need more support from the U.S. to fight the Taliban and maintain gains made during the past 14 years.

Clinton, who served as Obama's secretary of state during his first term, said the U.S. wants to bring its troops home and "we certainly don't want them engaged in on-the-ground combat. We want them to help support and train the Afghan army."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/clinton-backs-obamas-move-us-forces-afghanistan-34530962

[arcane1]

1. Wow, those Taliban sure are a hardy bunch, aren't they?

The largest military in all of human history has been fighting them for 14 years, and still hasn't defeated them.

And those darned Afghani's... 14 years of training and they haven't learned shit.

It's almost as if that's not our real reason for staying there

[restorefreedom]

8. almost....

I mean you'd think they were after minerals or government contracts or something....

i guess we should be less cynical

[bumprstickr]

2. here's how it goes

the US breaks a country by invading........billions in contracts go to defense industries............the country is broken........
chaos results..................the US stays in country to keep the peace................How many times has this happened?

[EX500rider]

9. Afghanistan was broken before we got there...unless you think the Taliban was doing a great job...

[bumprstickr]

11. do you mean the same Taliban that got arms from the US?

[EX500rider]

12. No I don't...the Mujahideen fighting the Russians were not the Taliban..

...since the Taliban weren't founded till 1994.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban

[Bradical79]

20. Also, from the bit that I've read

A lot of their arms are old Russian models left over from their pullback, and older stuff. I guess it's easier and cheaper to maintain a lot of these old models, and anything new they can get from Pakistan manufacturers across the border.

[bumprstickr]

21. point taken.

[Lychee2]

31. You shouldn't "take" his point.

They just changed names.

[truebluegreen]

27. In a sense, Afghanistan has always been "broken."

Thinking of it as a nation state that could be conquered and ruled was the first, and fatal, mistake. The "president" is really more like the mayor of Kabul; the various tribes control the rest of the "country."

[EX500rider]

30. So true...to them the foreigners live in the next valley over...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Of course she supports this.

In this, she is his heir.

And she loves war.

[elehhhhna]

26. Shes dick waving to show how tough she is.

[tecelote]

4. Hillary and Barack just protecting America's financial interests.

Nobody profits like a war profiteer.

[davidpdx]

13. +1

[Lychee2]

14. Afghanistan also has about $1 trillion in mineral wealth.

The US verified this in 2010, but the Russians knew about it when they were there.

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?_r=0

[McKim]

17. This is What is is All About: Mineral Resources

Thank you, Lychee2 for reminding us of what is really behind all of this. It is a resource war with window dressing about helping women and bringing democracy.

[Demeter]

5. True colors revealed, yet again

and lesson about hypocrisy still unlearned.

[peacebird]

6. How much of her superpac $ comes from military industrial corporations?

Or is she truly as much a war hawk as she appears to be? Rattling sabers against Iran, approving a continuation of our current war in the Middle East...?

[Lychee2]

15. It's worse than that.

Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton's State Department

Even by the standards of arms deals between the United States and Saudi Arabia, this one was enormous. A consortium of American defense contractors led by Boeing would deliver $29 billion worth of advanced fighter jets to the United States' oil-rich ally in the Middle East.

Israeli officials were agitated, reportedly complaining to the Obama administration that this substantial enhancement to Saudi air power risked disrupting the region's fragile balance of power. The deal appeared to collide with the State Department’s documented concerns about the repressive policies of the Saudi royal family.

But now, in late 2011, Hillary Clinton’s State Department was formally clearing the sale, asserting that it was in the national interest. At a press conference in Washington to announce the department’s approval, an assistant secretary of state, Andrew Shapiro, declared that the deal had been “a top priority” for Clinton personally. Shapiro, a longtime aide to Clinton since her Senate days, added that the “U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army have excellent relationships in Saudi Arabia.”

These were not the only relationships bridging leaders of the two nations. In the years before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, the philanthropic enterprise she has overseen with her husband, former president Bill Clinton. Just two months before the deal was finalized, Boeing -- the defense contractor that manufactures one of the fighter jets the Saudis were especially keen to acquire, the F-15 -- contributed $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to a company press release.

The Saudi deal was one of dozens of arms sales approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department that placed weapons in the hands of governments that had also donated money to the Clinton family philanthropic empire, an International Business Times investigation has found.

Under Clinton's leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation, according to an IBTimes analysis of State Department and foundation data. That figure -- derived from the three full fiscal years of Clinton’s term as Secretary of State (from October 2010 to September 2012) -- represented nearly double the value of American arms sales made to the those countries and approved by the State Department during the same period of President George W. Bush’s second term.

The Clinton-led State Department also authorized $151 billion of separate Pentagon-brokered deals for 16 of the countries that donated to the Clinton Foundation, resulting in a 143 percent increase in completed sales to those nations over the same time frame during the Bush administration. These extra sales were part of a broad increase in American military exports that accompanied Obama’s arrival in the White House. The 143 percent increase in U.S. arms sales to Clinton Foundation donors compares to an 80 percent increase in such sales to all countries over the same time period.

American defense contractors also donated to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and in some cases made personal payments to Bill Clinton for speaking engagements. Such firms and their subsidiaries were listed as contractors in $163 billion worth of Pentagon-negotiated deals that were authorized by the Clinton State Department between 2009 and 2012.

The State Department formally approved these arms sales even as many of the deals enhanced the military power of countries ruled by authoritarian regimes whose human rights abuses had been criticized by the department. Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar all donated to the Clinton Foundation and also gained State Department clearance to buy caches of American-made weapons even as the department singled them out for a range of alleged ills, from corruption to restrictions on civil liberties to violent crackdowns against political opponents.

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton also accused some of these countries of failing to marshal a serious and sustained campaign to confront terrorism. In a December 2009 State Department cable published by Wikileaks, Clinton complained of “an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority.” She declared that “Qatar's overall level of CT cooperation with the U.S. is considered the worst in the region.” She said the Kuwaiti government was “less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and facilitators plotting attacks.” She noted that “UAE-based donors have provided financial support to a variety of terrorist groups.” All of these countries donated to the Clinton Foundation and received increased weapons export authorizations from the Clinton-run State Department.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Clinton Foundation did not respond to questions from the IBTimes.

By David Sirota @davidsirota [e-mail]
Andrew Perez @AndrewPerezDC [e-mail] on May 26 2015 8:44 AM EDT

Much more at the link:

http://www.ibtimes.com/clinton-foundation-donors-got-weapons-deals-hillary-clintons-state-department-1934187

[peacebird]

19. Good grief. Just when I thought "we came, we saw, he died" could not get any worse......

[Robbins]

7. Are you surprised?

Neocon hawk Cinton is buddys with bush and Kissinger.we will never leave afghanstain.

Bin laden is dead and taliban never attacked us but who cares about facts.

Bernie running is all that is keeping me from washing my hands of democratic party as well as GOP.

[Geronimoe]

10. Hello Vietnam

[Major Hogwash]

32. Hello Laos

And Cambodia, coming soon to a war theater near you.

[cpompilo]

16. Its the poppy crop, stupid! And the Taliban are out to destroy it!

[bigdarryl]

18. What's Bernie's position on this

[riversedge]

22. That is what I was wondering.

[bigdarryl]

25. If he's smart he would go against it

[riversedge]

35. Sanders follows Clinton on this one...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251698209

[MADem]

37. It's the very same.

I guess it's OK if you're him, or something...?

[Doctor_J]

23. there's a surprise

[olddots]

24. yup its the opium

drugs & oil .Conserve the dumbth and oppress critical thinking about war , poverty ,population and polution because profit rules wrapped in religion and flags .

[truebluegreen]

28. Because of course she does.

Gotta protect all our (war profiteers') interests and scoop up the Afghanis' natural resources along the way.

[riversedge]

33. Sanders just said the same--Will you say the same crap about Sanders as you Hillary?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251698209



............truebluegreen
28. Because of course she does.

View profile
Gotta protect all our (war profiteers') interests and scoop up the Afghanis' natural resources along the way.

[truebluegreen]

34. Yup. Why?

[Major Hogwash]

29. Is anyone surprised by this?

I think it is common knowledge that when it comes to wars, Hillary is willing to send everyone else's kids to fight and die in them.

[riversedge]

36. Were you suprised by Sanders backing of Obama keeping troops in Afgan?