Obama to mark Memorial Day but questions linger over Afghanistan troops

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/25/obama-memorial-day-afghanistan-troops

Obama to mark Memorial Day but questions linger over Afghanistan troops
Tom McCarthy in New York
Monday 25 May 2015 07.00 EDT

Proclaiming “the first Memorial Day since our war ended in Afghanistan”, President Barack Obama prepared to pay an annual visit to Arlington National cemetery Monday as questions lingered about the role of the nearly 10,000 US troops expected to remain in Afghanistan into the next year.

In March, the White House announced a delay in anticipated troop withdrawals, citing ongoing security concerns. According to the administration, US forces currently fill “non-combat” roles including coordinating drone strikes and counter-terrorism missions and training Afghan security forces. The residual force is about 10% of the peak force in 2011.

Yet the continued troop presence in Afghanistan seems to give the lie to repeated vows by the Obama administration that the war was over or ending, including a 2010 declaration by Vice-President Joe Biden that the US would be out of Afghanistan by 2014 “come hell or high water”.

In his visit to Arlington last year, Obama laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and announced that “by the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will finally come to end”.

--

Why are we still in Afghanistan?


http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/14066.html

U.S. Troops Patrolling Poppy Fields In Afghanistan (Photos)
Posted on October 18, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog

Preface: As many have noted, the U.S. government has – at least at some times in some parts of the world – protected drug operations. (Big American banks also launder money for drug cartels. See this, this, this and this. Indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis. But that’s beyond the scope of this post.)

#t=0

~snip~

Public Intelligence has published a series of photographs showing American – and U.S.-trained Afghan – troops patrolling poppy fields in Afghanistan. Public Intelligence informs us that all of the photos are in the public domain, and not subject to copyright, and they assured me that I have every right to reproduce them.

We produce these photos and the accompanying descriptions from Public Intelligence without further comment.



U.S. Marines with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, patrol through a poppy field during Operation Lariat in the Lui Tal district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 16, 2012. The Marines conducted the operation to disrupt enemy logistics and establish a presence in the area.



U.S. Marines with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, patrol through a poppy field on their way to Patrol Base (PB) Mohmon in the Lui Tal district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 17, 2012. The Marines joined with coalition forces at the PB to begin conducting operations in the area.



U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. John K. Silvernail with Golf Company, 2D Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, takes a knee in a field of poppy during a halt in a security patrol in Musa Qal’eh, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 16, 2012. Marines conducted the patrol to disrupt enemy tactics in the battle space.



An Afghan boy stands watch over his family’s poppy and wheat fields as U.S. Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6 patrol by in Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan April 24, 2012. Marines conducted the patrol to interact with the local populace and gather information on enemy activity in the area.



U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Noel Rodriguez, a team leader with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, communicates with an adjacent squad while on patrol in Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 1, 2012. Marines patrolled to provide security in the area and interact with the local populace.



A field filled with opium poppy plants can be seen April 11, 2012, in Marjah, Afghanistan. Heroin is derived from raw opium gum, which comes from opium poppies.



A field filled with opium poppy plants can be seen April 11, 2012, in Marjah, Afghanistan. Heroin is derived from raw opium gum, which comes from opium poppies.



U.S. Marines with Combined Anti-Armor Team (CAAT), Weapons Company, 2D Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, conduct a satellite patrol through a poppy field in Marjah, Afghanistan, April 16, 2012. CAAT patrolled over a five day period to erect Patrol Base Sledgehammer Four and disrupt insurgent activity in the area.



Landscape photo of poppy flowers in Habib Abad, Helmand province, Afghanistan, April 4, 2012. U.S. Marines and Afghanistan National Army soldiers conducted a patrol to disrupt insurgency activity.



Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier conducts a satellite patrol, April 17, 2012, Marjah, Afghanistan. The ANA took part of a 5 day operation to erect Patrol Base Sledgehammer 4 to disrupt the insurgence activity in the area

.. Many more pics at link.

I'll bet my next SS check that the CIA is also involved with the drug trade.

[jakeXT]

1. Destroying your enemy from within

NATO’s once vital supply link to Afghanistan via Russia closes

KABUL, Afghanistan — A logistics route through Russia that carried as much as 40 percent of the supplies for NATO’s coalition at the height of military operations in Afghanistan has finally shut down.

Using sea, rail and truck transport, the Northern Distribution Network connected Baltic and Caspian Sea ports with Afghanistan through Russia, Central Asia and the Caucuses.

The northern routes were more expensive than bringing supplies through Pakistan, but complicated relations between Washington and Islamabad often led to the shutdown of Pakistan routes for periods of time.

The agreement with Russia survived numerous ups and downs in relations between the West and Russia. But Moscow officially ended cooperation when the United Nations mandate for military operations in Afghanistan expired in December, NATO officials said.

http://www.stripes.com/news/nato-s-once-vital-supply-link-to-afghanistan-via-russia-closes-1.347249

Funding

Referring to the economic base of terrorism, Sergun noted that “reliable cash-flow channels include various non-governmental organizations and foundations. For example, in the states of the Arabian Peninsula there are about 200 such organisations.”

In addition, “a major source of income is control over drugs production and trafficking. This activity brings the Islamists of the Middle East and Central Asia up to US $500 million a year.”

In general, he said, under the slogan of struggle for ‘pure Islam’, international terrorism is becoming a form of transnational crime. “In fact, it has become a lucrative business with capital turnover running into billions, with drug trafficking, hostage-taking, smuggling weapons and precious metals,” said the head of the GRU.

In search of additional sources of funding, jihadists purposefully develop links with nationalist organizations, pirates and separatists

http://in.rbth.com/world/2015/04/23/jihad_turns_global_42775.html

2010

Russia's top drugs official gave a list of Afghan and Central Asian drug barons to U.S. anti-drugs tsar Gil Kerlikowske Sunday, but criticized U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan for failing to stem opium output.

Russia is the world's biggest per capita user of heroin -- all of it flowing from Afghanistan -- and President Dmitry Medvedev has called drug abuse among the country's youth a threat to national security.

"I handed him (Kerlikowske) over a list of nine ... people living in Afghanistan or elsewhere in Central Asia and involved in drug trafficking by supplying wholesale batches of narcotics," Russia's drug enforcement chief Viktor Ivanov told a news conference.

Moscow is willing to prosecute the suspects.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/23/us-russia-usa-drugs-idUSTRE64M1UZ20100523

2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticized the international US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) for doing too little to eradicate heroin production in the Central Asian state.

MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticized the international US-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) for doing too little to eradicate heroin production in the Central Asian state.

“The international forces are doing practically nothing to eradicate drug production in Afghanistan,” Putin said at a meeting of the Russian Security Council. He said that there had been “a significant increase in drug production on Afghan territory and emerging sustainable drug trafficking routes to other countries, regretfully including Russia.”

Russia remains highly concerned about the persistant threat of terrorism and drug trafficking from Afghanistan, particularly after international combat troops leave in 2014. According to Russia’s federal drug control watchdog, heroin production in Afghanistan rose 40-fold in the past decade.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20130508/181039938.html#ixzz3bIUkdHAp