And then there’s Syria. The new Pentagon chief says he might revise the numbers upward or downward, but upward seems to be a much more likely choice, given the requirements of the military-industrial complex.
“Report: New Pentagon Chief Might Revise Number of Troops in Afghanistan, Iraq,” Fars News Agency, January 27, 2021 (thanks to Henry):
TEHRAN (FNA)- US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin might revise former President Donald Trump’s decision to scale down troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, citing Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby, the revision might go both upward and downward, depending on Austin’s assessment of the United States’ conflict strategy in the two countries.
“It stands to reason that the incoming administration will want to better understand the status of operations in both places and the resources being applied to those missions. Nothing has changed about our desire to defend the American people from the threat of terrorism, while also making sure we are appropriately resourcing our strategy,” Kirby was quoted as saying.
The spokesman was further cited as saying that any decision on troop levels will be made in consultation with the governments of Afghanistan ad [sic] Iraq.
The remaining US contingent may be too small to wage counterterrorism and train local forces while simultaneously ensuring enough security for American soldiers, the newspaper said, citing military officials.
On the other hand, sending more troops was described in the report as “politically perilous”….
terry sullivan says
democrats are morons
mortimer says
The successes of Trump’s Middle East policies are being dismantled and turned into chaos and bloodshed.
Will Tyson says
Europe is gone… at least 21% of newborns’ first names in 2018 were Arab-Muslim first names in France
https://fr-mb.theepochtimes.com/insee-au-moins-21-des-prenoms-des-nouveaux-nes-en-2018-etaient-des-prenoms-arabo-musulmans-998289.html/amp?__twitter_impression=true
America soon too
wth009 says
Why do I now look at the US government and their organizations as the terrorists?
cjk says
So Idi Amin’s son is running our military now?
william carr says
Somewhat racist is it not? Any way a person of colour in such a high position exposes the myth of ‘systemic racism’ in USA
Rob Porter says
william carr – call cjk;s comment “somewhat racist” if you choose, nevertheless it was not far from the mark and not much different to my reaction when seeing this man. Why? Because it’s not lost on foreign observers like myself that for political and appearance reasons America has on many occasions set aside ‘merit selection’ and chosen to bow to political correctness. It’s a pathetic practice. This ends up denying a job to a more competent white person, but then, this is America in contemporary times. In the case of Dr. Ben Carson he proved himself a very clever and competent neurosurgeon. On the other hand Colin Powell turned out pretty much a dope, his basis for supporting Barack Obama racist and shallow, but then, it looked ‘oh so good’ to make a black man Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice proved a nice person, but a lightweight Secretary of State. So lets see how this general turns out because nowadays most of America’s generals turn out to be not particularly bright. Not exactly George Pattons are they?
cjk says
Thanks because hypocrites like this W. Carr creep make me sick.
gravenimage says
Idi Amin was appalling–but not because he was African.
cjk says
Not even in the slightest. Just think he looks like Idi Amin a little and he’s sending in the warriors.. I notice you brought racism into the comment, Hypocritical, is it not?
Ade Fegan says
More troops ? … with Biden in charge of recruitment ??
Infidel says
Actually, why don’t we round up all members of BLM and Antifa, conscript them and send them to these theaters – Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria? They can in their spare time also learn about ‘islamophobia’ from the locals there, and in case the Taliban, ISIS or anyone else creates any problems, they can do what they did in cities like Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle or Atlanta, and start rioting there peacefully, just like they do here. Who’d notice?
I’m all in favor of a troop surge if those are the only troops we send! And we can have them stay there indefinitely until they intermarry w/ the locals (assuming that they can sell them on their adapted genders) and assimilate in those populations. Since religion means nothing to them, embracing islam will be no big deal
tgusa says
“round up”
Only if American troops who are patriots are rounded up and removed first. Doing that is likely to incite the people there to attack non blm and antifa types and they dont need any more reasons than they already have. The establishment wants to get along with muslims and occupying their territory is no way to get along. Just sayin.
It would take too long to list all the reasons why I no longer support the establishments foreign legion and the mission to no-where.
Infidel says
That’s precisely my point! People who are patriots and have no interest in the Middle East are the ones staffing missions there. In the meantime, we have BLM and Antifa anarchists rioting, destroying property and the like
They’ve shown their expertise: let’s put them to good use. Send them to Afghanistan to riot against the Taliban. Or to Iraq and Syria to riot against ISIS. Or Iranian backed militias. Sent them there, and recall all our patriotic troops back to help rebuild our cities, work on vaccine distribution and so on
tgusa says
I’m with you! Here is an idea, lets send establishment types over there to vaccinate all of them while protected by blm/antifa security teams. There is money to be made by streaming the resulting carnage on pay per view.
The establishment is lashing out because the muslim population of these countries have un-friended them on facebook and twitter.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Here’s a good question to ask: when has an Infidel nation ever fought an Islamic nation and reached a disposition advantageous to the Infidels? Never. So these endless wars will leave us endlessly short of peace.
Carol says
No Infidels have ever won against Koranimals since WWI, apart from the Russian conquest of Chechnya…
gravenimage says
Not exactly, Carol. Putin has allowed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov to impose brutal Shari’ah law in Chechnya. This Islamic savagery is not exactly a win for Infidels.
I would consider the founding and continued defense of Israel to be a win, though–unless you just consider this just a contuation of the implosion of the Ottoman Empire…
Infidel says
Not exactly. Spain did when it overthrew the Moors and expelled them back to Morocco. Russia did in the 19th century in response to Kazakh raids on the Russian frontiers w/ Turkistan: ethnic Russians living at the border were being taken captive and sold in slave markets in Buqhara and Xiva. The Russians invaded Turkistan, overthrew the khanates of those 2 places and annexed much of Turkistan. They only stopped at Afghanistan due to the Brits playing footsie w/ local muslim countries – Afghanistan and Iran in the Great Game
In fact, Russia had the right model on how to moderate a place. In areas like Siberia where there weren’t too many people, the Russians conquered the Siberian Khanate and de-islamized it. Whereas in other places like Turkistan, they cracked down on Islam and moderated it – something that the Brits never figured out in Afghanistan or Panjab/Sind (speaking of today’s Pakistan). An Infidel nation can win a war against an islamic one and reach an advantageous disposition, but for that, they have to believe that we are superior and islam is inferior, and the Romanovs had the sense to believe that, something that the Brits never seemed to.
gravenimage says
Muslim invaders were also driven out of Portugal, southern France, southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, and the Balkans. Then, the Ottoman Empire was driven out of the Levant, eventually leading to the founding of modern Israel.
Walter Sieruk says
Leaving aside the subject of Iraqi for a time and to focus on Afghanistan, as much a I dislike posting this specific statement it still needs to the still posted . Which is , Just maybe an increase in the number of troops send to Afghanistan to attempt to keep order and peace might be necessary.
Related to that statement is the terrible harsh reality that any “peace” agreement with Taliban is a “Deal with devil “ in other words a “fools deal.” The very idea of having actual, real, genuine productive “peace talks” with those brutal ,cruel misogynistic Taliban characters is an absurd and fool idea of folly.
One thing is for sure, even if even attempting to engage on “peace talks” with Taliban it would be best not to be naïve about them and take at face value anything that they might say or promise. To just “give trust away” to those Islamic characters who compose the Taliban would be foolishness and folly. For when trying to have genuine negotiations with the them ,it need to be kept in mind that there is an Islamic doctrine called TAQIYYA This is the Muslim dogma the lying and deception are good things to do, if and as long as the lies and deceit are done for the advancement of Islam.
For the deceptive and disingenuous Taliban have proven many times over, by their own actions, that they are a ruthless, brutal vicious gang of thugs with no honor. So in any kind of “dialogue” the Taliban will most likely speak the truth only when it happened to suite them. The rest of the time they will be speaking half-truths and also be outright lying. Likewise, the Taliban will keep their word in anything that they may happen to promise only and long as in fits into their agenda and no longer. So before engaging of the foolishness of attempting to have genuine “talks for a peace alliance” with Taliban, the officials of the current government would do well to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu found in THE ART OF WAR. For it instructs “We cannot enter into an alliance neighboring’s princes, until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more updated and current way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into a peace alliance with the Taliban until we know the actual intentions and real schemes.”
Furthermore, if attempting to engage in “peace talks” with Taliban it would be very naïve to take at face value anything that the Taliban might promise. For example, the Taliban might say that they will respect the rights of women and girls, for they ,many times, employ the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya In those so called “negotiations” with officials of the West .Taaqyia ids the Islamic teaching that lying and deceit
So it may be nothing but foolishness and folly to even try to have worthwhile constructive peace discussions with lying brutal cruel men who make up the Taliban . For having a genuine practical peace compromise with Taliban might be impossible
As the former US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had well-spoken when he said “There has never been – there never can be – successful compromise between good and evil.”
gravenimage says
You are right about the insanity of trying to make deals with the Taliban, Walter. Sadly, Afghansitan is 100% Muslim, and cannot be civilized no matter how much blood and treasure we waste there.
Fred van de Bunt says
A couple of tough bearded guys on donkeys living in dusty hot mountains that ride around with middle aged muskets on their shoulders are an enormous threat to the USA? If you believe that, then you believe the Christmas man also really exists. Weird guys there in the Pentagon.
Peter WF says
Hope he leads by example and sends himself.
tgusa says
On deep consideration of the establishments concerns over whites in the military I am leaning towards the support of SUD, a segregated unit deployment model. Unless America is directly attacked by a foreign nation troop deployment to foreign lands should be race and religion based in all instances just like here in America. As a result of the establishments policies I have also moved to a back the white policy because white lives matter to me. This movement should really be called the nl-wlm policy. If anyone has a problem with that they should take their complaints to establishment window one two or three. I tried the all lives matter policy but the establishment rejected that. I am just going along with what the establishment wants.
gravenimage says
Actually, the claim that everything in the United States is based on race and religion is mistaken–whatever the left is attempting to do now.
tgusa says
I’m talking about the primarily leftist infected establishment. You know, the ones making all the rules through their dictations. Bigotry racism and sexism are the three pillars of the left in America today. It doesn’t need to be 100 percent of everything for me to have a problem with it.
Aastra says
typical imperialistic america. successor of the brits. always have been creating endless wars.
tgusa says
Convenient of you. Tell me where you hail from and I will tell you all about you. Things you prefer to overlook or forget. If America had kept all the land we fought and died on (mostly for others) we would own half of the world. Its just not worth our people fighting and dying for others because they always screw it up later.
Chrissie01 says
honestly, you believe America fought altruistic wars? In Germany, for example, the altruism went as far as taking along all the gold (almost 50 tons) and all the 80 000 patents they found after WWII. Not to forget the leading scientific heads of the Nazis. Side effect of love of mankind…I guess, many, many people would like to do without. But a lot better than Stalin, that’s true. There’s always worse.
gravenimage says
Wait–you believe that America was wrong to defeat the Fascists? Good grief…
And the claim that the US forced German scientists to work for them as did the Soviets is quite false.
tgusa says
This was directed at Aastra but I will overlook that and comment on your post. War is war and it is and always has been a terrible human condition The nazis stole so much the distribution of recovered nazi loot back to the original owners still goes on today. Art gold treasure and keepsakes, you name it they took it. How would we know for sure that they didn’t steal the designs for those 80 thousand patents as well?
tgusa says
And I neglected to post this link with my comment. The nazis stole a lot more than just material loot.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/us-army-units
gravenimage says
True, tgusa.
tgusa says
From the site: “The things I saw beggar description…. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were… overpowering….I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’” General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a letter to Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, April 15, 1945
Eisenhower was a very smart forward thinking man and he gets very little credit for that.
gravenimage says
Aastra probaby also missed the part where Britons ended savage Muslim rule in India. Bad dhimmis!
This is why India is the largest democracy in the world today, instead of the largest Muslim-run state.
Chrissie01 says
India was and is Hindu mainland. It had been brutally occupied and plundered, first by Muslims and then by the Brits. The riches of the umma and then the crown did not come from any void. Says, btw, a member of a people who until this day is accused of having had world occupation plans. Accused – among others – by an empire where allegedly the sun never went down.
Infidel says
I don’t agree w/ Aastra’s views on America, but Britain wasn’t the one that ended the savage muslim rule in India. The Marathas did, and were joined by other non-muslim groups like the Rajputs, Jats and Sikhs. If anything, the Brits ended up saving the bacon of the Nizam of Hyderabad, which could probably have otherwise gone down, and playing footsie w/ Afghanistan and Iran against Russia. England may have been a crusading nation during the House of Plantagenet, but Britain has always been an islamophilic power
Aastra and Chrissie01 both seem to have bought into the old school Gandhian propaganda that the US was an imperialist power and that the Soviets were altruistic countries for supporting a dysfunctional India for 65 years, and into the modern woke segment of the British elite who seem glad to be able to focus their hatred on a country other than their own
Relic says
the military-industrial complex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgd6MccwZc&list=PL3b5eyyYA9DTVfNBqt52UICUKrZtksE6j&index=5&t=0s
Chrissie01 says
all else aside – I wonder how it happened that they managed to sell this primitive mix of obscenity, stupidity and endless repetitions in cat growl between four and a half notes to people as “music”.
OLD GUY says
The world is one screwed up mess. It got that way by the greed of power and bad ideologies. It’s not going to change, there will always be those who want that power. Our freedoms as individuals is vary limited at best and are always in jeopardy from those who think they should set the rules of societies.