USA's Unfinished Wars
- Thread starter Ocean Breeze
- Start date
U.S., Taliban plan to sign peace deal Feb. 29
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the signing would go ahead provided that a week-long reduction in violence holds across Afghanistan.
source: WAPO
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that the signing would go ahead provided that a week-long reduction in violence holds across Afghanistan.
source: WAPO
Robert Fisk is the worlds most decorated journalist.
I have actually met him, after his talks at Auckland University circa 2010.
I digress.
AMERICA IN RETREAT.
................................
MARCH 20, 2020
Trump Should Have the Guts to Call His Middle East Troop Redeployments What They Are: a Retreat
by ROBERT FISK.
...............................
Few can forget the words of Tony Blair’s government aide hours after the World Trade Center was destroyed on 9/11. “It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury,” wrote Jo Moore. Donald Trump obviously thought the same thing.
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps over America, he has ordered US troops to abandon three vital military bases in Iraq – to spare them further attacks from Iranian-supported Iraqi Shia fighters.
Trump has always boasted of the need for withdrawals – but this was a retreat. The official line – that the US was “repositioning [sic] troops from a few smaller bases” – was almost as laughable as the final US Marine abandonment of Beirut in 1984 after months under fire from Shia militias. Almost four decades ago, the Americans said they were “redeploying to ships offshore”.
As in Napoleon’s “redeployment’” from Moscow. Or the British ‘redeployment’ from Dunkirk. Now US forces are going to “reposition” from their bases at al-Qaim, Qayyarah and the K-1 air base near Kirkuk in Iraq. As in George Washington’s ‘repositioning’ from Brooklyn Heights in 1776, I suppose, or the British “repositioning” from Kabul in 1842.
Back in 1984, President Reagan said the Americans would not “cut and run” from Lebanon. But they did. In January this year, Trump said of Iraq: “If we leave, that would mean that Iran would have a much bigger foothold [sic].” He was trying to smother a letter written by Marine Corps Brigadier General William Seely who had just told the truth about US strategy to the deputy director of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, Major General Abdul Amir. The US led coalition, Seely had told his Iraqi opposite number, “will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement.”
Whoops! Generals are not always expected to tell the truth. Seely, obviously an honest guy, didn’t shy away from the facts. But the Pentagon did. The letter, claimed Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley called Seely’s letter a “mistake”. It was, he said, “poorly worded” and “implied withdrawal” – which he said was not happening. Now we know that it is indeed happening.
Withdrawal is exactly what Seely meant. Far from being ‘poorly worded’, Seely’s letter was all too accurate. But that, I guess, is a soldier’s life under Trump. Tell the truth, and the liar in the White House will have you slapped down – before proving that you were honest all along.
more
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/0...-troop-redeployments-what-they-are-a-retreat/
This article was originally published in "the Independant".
I have actually met him, after his talks at Auckland University circa 2010.
I digress.
AMERICA IN RETREAT.
................................
MARCH 20, 2020
Trump Should Have the Guts to Call His Middle East Troop Redeployments What They Are: a Retreat
by ROBERT FISK.
...............................
Few can forget the words of Tony Blair’s government aide hours after the World Trade Center was destroyed on 9/11. “It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury,” wrote Jo Moore. Donald Trump obviously thought the same thing.
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps over America, he has ordered US troops to abandon three vital military bases in Iraq – to spare them further attacks from Iranian-supported Iraqi Shia fighters.
Trump has always boasted of the need for withdrawals – but this was a retreat. The official line – that the US was “repositioning [sic] troops from a few smaller bases” – was almost as laughable as the final US Marine abandonment of Beirut in 1984 after months under fire from Shia militias. Almost four decades ago, the Americans said they were “redeploying to ships offshore”.
As in Napoleon’s “redeployment’” from Moscow. Or the British ‘redeployment’ from Dunkirk. Now US forces are going to “reposition” from their bases at al-Qaim, Qayyarah and the K-1 air base near Kirkuk in Iraq. As in George Washington’s ‘repositioning’ from Brooklyn Heights in 1776, I suppose, or the British “repositioning” from Kabul in 1842.
Back in 1984, President Reagan said the Americans would not “cut and run” from Lebanon. But they did. In January this year, Trump said of Iraq: “If we leave, that would mean that Iran would have a much bigger foothold [sic].” He was trying to smother a letter written by Marine Corps Brigadier General William Seely who had just told the truth about US strategy to the deputy director of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, Major General Abdul Amir. The US led coalition, Seely had told his Iraqi opposite number, “will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement.”
Whoops! Generals are not always expected to tell the truth. Seely, obviously an honest guy, didn’t shy away from the facts. But the Pentagon did. The letter, claimed Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley called Seely’s letter a “mistake”. It was, he said, “poorly worded” and “implied withdrawal” – which he said was not happening. Now we know that it is indeed happening.
Withdrawal is exactly what Seely meant. Far from being ‘poorly worded’, Seely’s letter was all too accurate. But that, I guess, is a soldier’s life under Trump. Tell the truth, and the liar in the White House will have you slapped down – before proving that you were honest all along.
more
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/0...-troop-redeployments-what-they-are-a-retreat/
This article was originally published in "the Independant".
They shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction!
Operation Desert Storm!
"After a 2020 attack near Baghdad International airport, outgoing Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi condemned America's assassination and stated that the strike was an act of aggression and a breach of Iraqi sovereignty which would lead to war in Iraq. He said the strike violated the agreement on the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq and that safeguards for Iraq's security and sovereignty should be met with legislation.[144] The media office of the Iraqi military's joint operations forces posted a photo of a destroyed vehicle on fire after the attack.[145] The speaker of Iraq's parliament Mohammed al Halbousi vowed to "put an end to the U.S. presence" in Iraq."
Yes. They should of stayed.
If you start something, no matter how stupid, you have an obligation to see it through.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to Jean Cretien and his government for not being stupid on this matter and 11 years of surpluses.
Apologise to every country they have maimed and destroyed, pay restitution, retract 800 bases around the world, take in refugees that USAs wars have created, and abeyance to U.N. resolutions would be a good start.
Nah , he should just flatten Christchurch and Wellington .That way you could appreciate what maimed and destroyed means .
So who should take the lead in world matters then? NZ? Iceland? Britain? Germany? China? Russia? Who should be taking in all the Syrian refugees? Russia? Where is the UN mandating a task force to take the lead from the USA?
Well, I guess we could start with the Confederate States of America, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan.
With dear leaders pull back that is happening anyway. Putin's work has rewards it appears.
Are you trying to say Russia should take the lead on world conflicts? History suggests they tried and the world asked the USA to help fight back against it, no?
It isn't always bad.
But it is exactly what America was created not to do. The founding principle of hands off international affairs
was lost post World War Two.