It ain't over til it's over: America's wars drag on no matter what officials say

[n2doc]

by Trevor Timm



In all three of the countries where the Obama administration declared US wars “over” in the past few years - Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya - the US military is expanding its presence or dropping bombs at an ever-increasing rate. And the government seems to be keeping the American public in the dark on the matter more than ever.

Pentagon leaders suggested this week that the US military wants to keep remaining 9,800 troops in Afghanistan from withdrawing in 2016, despite the fact that the Obama administration declared combat operations in the country “over” six months ago. The gradual extension of the Afghanistan War hasn’t been a secret to anyone who’s been paying close attention, but sadly it has happened far away from the pomp and circumstance of Obama’s now embarrassingly false State of the Union announcement that the Afghanistan War had ended.

Shortly after his January speech, the president signed a secret order that would keep the military fighting and killing in the region through 2015, then delayed any troop pull-out through 2016. Last month, the US was still dropping more than three bombs a day in Afghanistan. That’s a 260% increase over the month prior.

As the Council on Foreign Relation’s Micah Zenko remarked: “First it was al Qaeda, then the Taliban, now ISIS will be reason US military remains in Afghanistan.” There’s always going to be someone. What unnamed group will be holding our attention in 2020 when we still have troops fighting and dying there for nebulous reasons?

more
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/22/america-war-iraq-libya-afghanistan-endless

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Erect Bogeyman, wave flag, declare we need protection, give more money to the MIC.

Protection = as in Racket

[99th_Monkey]

3. You just nailed it.

US has to keep terrorizing ME people such that, anyone who suggests
cutting the MIC's obscenely humungus budget can be attacked and
shamed as a 'terrorist sympathizer', and of course to insure a steady
supply or pissed-off new terrorists, i.e. family & friends of ME people
unjustly murdered by US drones & military. cha-ching!

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I could have funded all of our retirement plans if I had invested in the Defense Industry

Sigh....
It's hell to have a conscience.

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!!

[Damansarajaya]

4. As the Cons love to say, "hey we're still in Germany too!"

as if one wrong justifies a thousand others . . .

[n2doc]

5. But we aren't droning Germans

Or South Koreans, or folks in other places other than the middle east and north Africa (to my knowledge). And the Germans aren't shooting back. Or setting off IED's.

[KoKo]

6. K&R

[uhnope]

7. BS article. Obviously the writer is nostalgic for the worst days of the Bush admin.

We are not in a boots-on-the-ground war in any of those places. Western forces--along with everyone else, actually--are doing the minimum necessary to keep the beheaders from getting even more power and from going to western countries to let off bombs or whatever. I don't have a big problem with that. Does the writer even understand that all sides are now fighting ISIS? Again, BS article

[jalan48]

8. "There's plenty of money to be made by supplying the Army with tools of the trade." C.J. McDonald

Seems like things haven't changed much over the years. Somebody's always out to get us so we have fight lots of wars. That whole 'foreign entanglements' stuff we were warned about is off the table.

[kentuck]

9. Strategically...

Afghanistan is in an important part of the globe.

[n2doc]

10. Only if we want to "contain" Russia and Iran.

Maybe we need to rethink the need for that policy.

[MisterP]

11. didn't you hear? we got out of Iraq and Afghanistan!