It has struck me that (1) the situation in Afghanistan has continued to relentlessly deteriorate over the past year (2) but it has become less and less an issue ever mentioned by USA politicians and (3) less and less frequently covered by the USA news media and political blogs.
The Taliban ever more rapidly has been regaining territory and power. They now control more territory (~55%!) than at any other time since 2001, civilians deaths are rising quickly, the Afghan Defense Forces are struggling to maintain their numbers and morale, and the Taliban attacks have become more audacious (https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/01/middl...ntl/index.html). One example of the last: the recent attack that killed the powerful police chief of Kandahar province and wounded Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley, the overseer of the NATO military advisory mission in Afghanistan. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Gen. Scott Miller narrowly escaped without serious injuries. This is quite amazing to me - a successful Taliban strike at the very highest levels of the USA/Afghanistan command structure within what was thought to be a highly secure area.
Although from time to time a "human interest" connection results in an event in Afghanistan making the USA news (such as the killing of Brett Taylor, a popular Utah mayor who deployed to Afghanistan as part of the National Guard), for the most part the events in Afghanistan just are no longer spoken of much, either in the news or by USA politicians.
This is in contrast to prior to and ramping up to the 2016 election, during which there was a relentless use of the bad news coming from Afghanistan by leading Republicans and the right wing media to attack the Obama administration/Democrats as weak and unable to protect the USA from "the Islamic terror threat."
Now that Trump is in power I guess this is no longer a problem and as far as the Republicans as concerned it has all gone away I add that I believe the silence from the Democrats is that they too simply want it to all go away. Neither side has a solution and neither now see this issue as anything but a political nightmare for them, so the best strategy is to not bring it up.
Too bad if you are Afghanistani, right? And how long until the Taliban become powerful and confident enough to directly threaten USA interests again?
The Taliban ever more rapidly has been regaining territory and power. They now control more territory (~55%!) than at any other time since 2001, civilians deaths are rising quickly, the Afghan Defense Forces are struggling to maintain their numbers and morale, and the Taliban attacks have become more audacious (https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/01/middl...ntl/index.html). One example of the last: the recent attack that killed the powerful police chief of Kandahar province and wounded Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley, the overseer of the NATO military advisory mission in Afghanistan. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Gen. Scott Miller narrowly escaped without serious injuries. This is quite amazing to me - a successful Taliban strike at the very highest levels of the USA/Afghanistan command structure within what was thought to be a highly secure area.
Although from time to time a "human interest" connection results in an event in Afghanistan making the USA news (such as the killing of Brett Taylor, a popular Utah mayor who deployed to Afghanistan as part of the National Guard), for the most part the events in Afghanistan just are no longer spoken of much, either in the news or by USA politicians.
This is in contrast to prior to and ramping up to the 2016 election, during which there was a relentless use of the bad news coming from Afghanistan by leading Republicans and the right wing media to attack the Obama administration/Democrats as weak and unable to protect the USA from "the Islamic terror threat."
Now that Trump is in power I guess this is no longer a problem and as far as the Republicans as concerned it has all gone away I add that I believe the silence from the Democrats is that they too simply want it to all go away. Neither side has a solution and neither now see this issue as anything but a political nightmare for them, so the best strategy is to not bring it up.
Too bad if you are Afghanistani, right? And how long until the Taliban become powerful and confident enough to directly threaten USA interests again?
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2FQhxZN
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