Tag: afghanistan

Despite Biden Admin Claiming Afghan War is Over, Air Force Admits It Will Never End

As the United States is only halfway through finally withdrawing from the horrendous war on Afghanistan, the military-industrial complex has come forward confirming the unfortunate yet unsurprising — Even when it’s over, it’s never REALLY over.

According to The Defense Post, on Tuesday, June 8th, acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth revealed to members of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that the Air Force was “preparing for ‘over-the-horizon’ strike capabilities in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops from the country”.

“Post-withdrawal strike capability”, in other words, meaning “even after we no longer have boots on the ground, we’re still going to bomb you into oblivion”….

This comes as no surprise as the Biden Administration has openly fed the war machine since taking office. On the very first day of Joe Biden’s presidency a large US military Convoy was documented entering into Syria.

Shortly thereafter, not even 2 months into the presidency Biden followed in the footsteps of his predecessors by authorizing (illegally) an explosive bombardment in Syria.

Just as much then, as it is now with the news of these prolonged bombardments in Afghanistan, more than likely much to the delight of recently appointed US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin — Formally a board member for a weapons manufacturer Raytheon, who has been handing out billion dollar contracts to his former employer like candy.

Keep reading

CIA Seeks Bases For Spying, Attacks In Afghanistan Despite Hyped “US Exit”

20 years into the US war in Afghanistan, the troops are going to leave, and the CIA is going to stay. The question right now is how that’s going to happen, and where exactly the agency is going to be basing its operations from.

There is no question that the CIA will be spying, and carrying out strikes in Afghanistan, but after decades mostly doing things out of US bases in Afghanistan, they’re going to need to find a new base, and there is no obvious choice.

Officials are describing “last-minute” efforts to find bases to operate from, which probably shouldn’t be so last-minute since the pullout has been a deal in place since at least early 2020, and could be seen coming well before that.

Pakistan is seeing consideration, as the CIA used to have a base there for their drone war. The US and Pakistan aren’t on such good terms now, however, and Pakistan reportedly wants to be able to sign off on who the CIA is attacking from their territory.

Keep reading

Afghanistan: Nearly 1,600 Child Casualties in Airstrikes Over Past Five Years

Almost 1,600 children were killed or wounded in airstrikes in Afghanistan over the past five years, according to a report from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

The report analyses data released earlier this year by the UN and found that between 2016 and 2020, there were 3,977 civilian casualties from airstrikes in Afghanistan, 1,598 of which were children. Out of that number, 785 were killed, and 813 were wounded.

About 50 percent of the civilian casualties were caused by the US and its NATO coalition partners. The rest were at the hands of the Afghan Air Force, which is entirely propped up by the US.

From 2018 to 2019, the US dropped bombs on Afghanistan at a higher rate than it did during the height of the surge in 2011. In 2019, the US Air Force was responsible for more than two-thirds of child casualties from all airstrikes.

The Trump administration loosened the rules of engagement in Afghanistan, which led to the uptick in airstrikes. Last year, a report from Brown University’s Costs of War Project found that civilian casualties in airstrikes rose 330 percent from 2016 to 2019 due to the relaxed rules of engagement.

Since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in February 2020, the US has reduced its airstrikes in the country, although the US has occasionally bombed the Taliban since. In March 2020, US Central Command stopped publishing reports on Afghanistan airstrikes, so there’s no way to know for sure at what rate the US bombed the country that year.

While US bombings decreased in 2020, the Afghan Air Force significantly escalated its airstrikes. The UN found that civilian casualties resulting from airstrikes by the Afghan Air Force during the first six months of 2020 had tripled, compared to the same time period in 2019.

Keep reading

Why The Main Argument Against Withdrawing US Troops Is Bogus

Former National Security Advisor and literal psychopath John Bolton has a new opinion piece out in Foreign Policy titled “‘Bring the Troops Home’ Is a Dream, Not a Strategy“, which should surprise no one and enrage everyone at the same time. The fact that this reptile continues to be elevated on mainstream platforms after consistently revealing himself to be a bloodthirsty liar is all the evidence you need that we are trapped inside a globe-spanning empire fueled by human corpses.

John Bolton has pushed for deranged acts of mass military slaughter at every opportunity. He not only remains one of the only people in the world to continually insist that the Iraq invasion was a great idea, but has actually argued that the destabilization and chaos caused by the invasion cannot be attributed to Bush’s war because you can’t prove that “everything that followed from the fall of Saddam Hussein followed inevitably, solely, and unalterably from the decision to overthrow him.” There are harrowing accounts of Bolton threatening, assaulting and intimidating anyone with less power than him if they got in his way; he once threatened to harm the children of former OPCW Director General Jose Bustani because Bustani was interfering in attempts to manufacture consent for the Iraq war.

Keep reading