On October 7, 2012, as the War called "Operation Enduring Freedom" - American's longest war, with no exit plan in sight, enters its 12th year.........
Soon to be replaced, General Allen says he will issue his report after the election, on "troop strength" (note he did not say the words, troop withdrawals), as 68 to 69,000 US soldiers remain, along with over 132,000 private contractors.
If we are to believe that 80% of Afghanistan is "violence free", why aren't we leaving only Special Forces to combat the 20% of the country that is not violence free and bringing the bulk of our troops home? Does this success really mean that the 132,000 private contractors are still needed?
Isn't it time as a nation, that we make our voices heard?
After 11 years of war, for the US alone; losing a soldier per day, at a cost of 2 Billion a week, can a nation just ignore this war, based only on the hope of come December 2014, the war will end? Is there no "conditions based" end of the war?
And if not, why not end the war now? How many more will die?
Insider attacks now account for one in every five combat deaths suffered by Nato-led forces in Afghanistan, and 16 per cent of all American combat casualties, according to 2012 data. The rising death toll has alarmed Americans and raised new, troubling questions about the unpopular war’s direction.
“My brother is a martyr and the whole family is proud of his martyrdom but we blame the Americans for inciting him to shoot,” Nazar Khan says of Welayat Khan, an Afghan army soldier who killed US soldiers Specialist Mabry Anders and Sergeant Christopher Birdwell in Afghanistan on August 27, 2012.
The American patrol had the road blocked to ensure security. But the Afghan soldiers approaching in another convoy were not seen as a potential threat, and were allowed to pass. On board that convoy was Welayat Khan. Welayat Khan was sitting at the gun turret mounted on a vehicle in the Afghan convoy. At 8:10 in the morning, as his vehicle passed Anders and Birdwell, Welayat Khan took aim at the Americans and fired.
“They are trained to trust the Afghan soldiers,” Anders’ mother, Genevieve Woydziak, said.
"It’s so confused. Nobody knows what’s going on.”
KABUL: Afghan Army Sgt. Habibullah Hayar didn’t know it, but he had been sleeping with his enemy for weeks. “It’s not only foreigners. They are targeting Afghan security forces too,” said the 21-year-old Hayar, who was in Kabul on leave. “Sometimes, I think what kind of situation is this that a Muslim cannot trust a Muslim, even a brother cannot trust a brother. It’s so confused. Nobody knows what’s going on.”
October 1 2012.........
KABUL: A suicide attack on a joint Nato-Afghan foot patrol on Monday killed at least 13 people, including three Nato troops and four Afghan police, Isaf and Afghan officials said. Six civilians were also killed and 37 were wounded in the attack near a market in the eastern city of Khost, the provincial governor’s office said. Hospital sources put the number of Afghan dead at 10 with more than 60 wounded. A spokesman for Nato’s US-led International Security Assistance Force said he could confirm that three Nato service members had been killed, but that details of the incident were still unclear.
Claims by a Nato commander...........80% of Afghanistan free of violence?
KABUL: A senior Nato commander has said that 80 per cent of Afghanistan is free of violence but warned that an insurgency still rages in the south and east, “fuelled by fighters coming from Pakistan”. “About 80 per cent of Afghan territory and the Afghan population are not affected by security problems or violence,” Lt-Gen Olivier de Bavinchove said in an interview.
His claims contrast sharply with United Nations numbers showing that August was the second deadliest month in five years for Afghan civilians, with a total of 374 — more than 10 a day — killed and 581 injured.
Isn't it time you make your voices heard.......
Contact your representatives
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Soon the war in Afghanistan, when Obama took over as Commander in Chief,
will have it 6th commanding general,
- in 2009 when Obama started
General David McKiernan
then
General McChrystal who was "fired"
then
acting until a replacement named British General Sir Nicholas Parker
then
General Petraeus
then
General Allen current
and
awaiting confirmation now, Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr
Although Allen is not being forced out, "the president wants somebody who can take a fresh look at the effort in Afghanistan and isn't an architect of the current strategy," said David Barno, a retired Army general who headed the war in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.
The proposed change in command comes at a perilous time in the decade-old war as well as in the heat of a U.S. presidential campaign.