U.S. "Secures" War in Afghanistan, Also War Criminals

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-boardman/59062/u-s-secures-war-in-afghanistan-also-war-criminals

“This year we will conclude our combat mission in Afghanistan.”
— President Obama, May 27, 2014

U.S. "Secures" War in Afghanistan, Also War Criminals
Afghanistan | War
by William Boardman | October 18, 2014 - 8:46am

Actually, in line with U.S. policy of permanent war somewhere, our combat mission in Afghanistan has been extended indefinitely. Amidst the more clamorous public freak-outs over ISIS and Ebola, the moment of Afghan war extension went largely unnoticed in the media, and went without serious discussion in public or the vacationing Congress. It’s just more war, and just more of the same old war at that, what’s to discuss?

The more war moment occurred on September 30, when the U.S. and Afghanistan signed a 30-page Bilateral Security Agreement that, among other things, prolongs what is already the longest war in U.S. history well into the indefinite future. The agreement also prolongs the backdoor war on Pakistan. On May 27, President Obama said, “This is the year we will conclude our combat mission in Afghanistan.” That statement is now “inoperable.” Maybe the next president will end the Afghan war.

Under the security agreement, the U.S. will keep about 9,800 troops in Afghanistan, where their combat missions will include special forces operations in-country and Afghan-based drone strikes in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan. A similar agreement between NATO and the Afghan government will keep another 2,000 or so foreign troops in the country. The U.S.-NATO troop level of 12,000 compares with troop levels in Afghanistan in 2002 – or troop levels in Viet-Nam in 1963 – in similar efforts to suppress an indigenous insurgency with “advisors” and other euphemisms.

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AFGHAN GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION. One of the ideas behind the United States’ role in arranging the new Afghan government was to reduce Afghan corruption. A UN report found that in 2012, 50% of Afghans receiving free public services had to pay bribes to get them. Any reduction in corruption would have to be huge to be meaningful. According to generally accepted ballpark figures, the U.S. has spent more than $100 billion ($100,000,000,000) in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan since 2001, of which about $85 billion has apparently been stolen. In a 2012 ranking, only North Korea and Somalia were considered more corrupt than Afghanistan. President Ghani recently announced the re-opening of an investigation into the Kabul Bank scandal, in which $1 billion disappeared and 10% has been recovered. Full recovery would still be a drop in the bucket, suggesting that the investigation’s true purpose may be to serve as a check on former President Karzai. In April 2014, even the Pentagon realized that U.S. policy since 2001 has fostered corruption in a corrupt state, through this war on which the U.S. has spent close to $1 trillion. Lacking any useful solution of its own, the Pentagon pretty much blamed then-President Karzai for the mess the U.S. has fostered.