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By Maj. Danny Sjursen
The whole charade plays best as farce. Absurdity incarnate. The sight of former President George W. Bush receiving a medal from Democrat Joe Biden – once an ardent opponent of Bush's war policy – in Philadelphia for "his work with veterans," on Veterans Day no less, induced nothing short of a gag from this veteran of two Bush wars – Iraq and Afghanistan.
George W. Bush, after all, led the U.S. military – to which I've dedicated my adult life – into two ill-advised perpetual wars, one of which was objectively illegal and immoral. In that war, in Iraq, some 7,000 American troops – including three of mine – were killed fighting in an unwinnable quagmire. Furthermore, though it slipped the attention of an American citizenry best known for its provincial inwardness, at least 250,000 Iraqis – mostly civilians – were killed. In a just world this would be labeled what it is – a war crime – but in this era of American hegemony, the populace simply sighs with apathy.
They've been profoundly corrupt and often meant little, but Afghanistan's elections have long been enough to provide the illusion of a functioning democracy. The Trump Administration is in ongoing discussions on maybe backing away from that.
The Wall Street Journal reported ongoing discussions are being held at the behest of US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been pushing the idea of telling the Afghan government to simply indefinitely suspend the presidential election, which is supposed to happen in April.
The US interest in this plan is apparently centered on the attempts to negotiate with the Taliban on settling the ongoing war, with officials, including Khalilzad, believing that such negotiations would be too hard in the middle of a nationwide election.
"Hey, Afghanistan government: the US now owns you, by virtue of the money the Federal Government sends you; so in terms of your so-called 'sovereignty', fergettaboutit!!" - official White House souse.
Afghanistan's Taliban will negotiate with the central government in Kabul only after the United States agrees to leave the country, according to a senior Russian diplomat.
Zamir Kabulov, Russia's special envoy for Afghanistan, announced the Taliban's demands on Monday after hosting an international summit on the country's crisis that was attended by other members of a security bloc led by Russia and China. The Taliban want the United States to undertake a number of "confidence-building measures," starting with a deadline for a full withdrawal from the country.
Perhaps this is the reason why US Under Secretary of State David Hale got so thoroughly unhinged about this meeting with the Taliban and Russia, as to characterize them in the very negative way he did; he knew both what the Taliban wanted (a timetable for US military withdrawal), and that the US government would refuse these terms, immediately and unequivocally.
The most elite US-trained forces in Afghanistan suffered a devastating defeat to the Taliban in what's often referred to as the country's "safest district" over the weekend, in yet another sign the war is a lost cause.
Early on Sunday, a company of roughly 50 Afghan special-forces commandos was almost entirely destroyed in the rural district of Jaghori, according to a report from The New York Times.
Over 30 of the US-trained commandos were killed, The Times said, in a district that is "famous" for how peaceful it is.
Seventeen years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, many residents of the country have changed their minds for the worse on the Americans.
The war, by many measures, keeps getting worse. As Sputnik News recently reported, Afghan authorities control or influence a mere 55.5 percent of the country, according to the US Military's Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the lowest figure since the government oversight authority began keeping tabs on it in November 2015.
Despite the grim landscape, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told an audience of students at an influential Washington university on Monday that "the Taliban are not in a winning position." That same day, a suicide bomber in Kabul targeted demonstrators protesting the lack of security against the Taliban provided by the government, and the militants made further gains in the east.
On November 9 Moscow hosted a conference on Afghanistan that involved delegates from Kabul and Taliban and that was attended by an observer from the United States.
Russia is baffled at the United States' attempts to accuse it of hindering dialogue between the Afghan authorities and the radical Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), especially on the background of the recent consultations in Moscow that involved both parties, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
"We took notice of the statement US Under Secretary of State David Hale made at a conference organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on November 8, where he said in particular that Russia is allegedly hindering peace talks with the Taliban movement," the ministry said. "Such statement cannot but be baffling on the background of Russia's persistent efforts in cooperation with the regional partners to facilitate the launch of the process of intra-Afghan reconciliation."
Hale should have had his bloody head examined, before coming up with this codswallop.
I think in fact, Hale may have been jealous about how well this meeting went, and without US governmental supervision.
With the Taliban carrying out offensives against several provinces around the country at any given time, the Afghan government has been forced to prioritize who gets reinforcements. This weekend, that meant sending special forces to the Jaghori District of Ghazni. The Shi'ite dominated district was long seen as "safe."
That's not panning out, however, as the Taliban are not only routing Shi'ite militias, but defeating the reinforcements as well, killing at least 25 commandos and continuing to advance deeper into the district.
On the surface, the district is only important in that it gives the Taliban a route to attack the important provincial capital, which it has long contested. It may be more significant, however, in that the reinforcement strategy is failing.
On Friday talks opened between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Moscow, in an unprecedented moment where both sides have come together for formal face-to-face talks hosted by the Russian government.
Following a press conference wherein Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged "I am counting on you holding a serious and constructive conversation that will justify the hopes of the Afghan people," the talks commenced behind closed doors.
This is Moscow's first successful attempt to get all sides at the same table as a prior summit was deemed a failure when Afghan government authorities refused to attend. And while Kabul high officials are nowhere present for this week's talks, members of the government-appointed Peace Council are attending the event. Notably, among the dozen nations to send envoys to the event is the United States; however, the US has merely sent a diplomat from the American Embassy in Moscow as an observer.
Color me more than slightly optimistic, that something will come of this.
Brown University has released a new study on the cost in lives of America's Post-9/11 Wars, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The study estimates between 480,000 and 507,000 people were killed in the course of the three conflicts.
This includes combatant deaths and civilian deaths in fighting and war violence. Civilians make up over half of the roughly 500,000 killed, with both opposition fighters and US-backed foreign military forces each sustaining in excess of 100,000 deaths as well.
This is admittedly a dramatic under-report of people killed in the wars, as it only attempts to calculate those killed directly in war violence, and not the massive number of others civilians who died from infrastructure damage or other indirect results of the wars. The list also excludes the US war in Syria, which itself stakes claims to another 500,000 killed since 2011.
This study reminds me that, as Karl Marx so succinctly stated, all wars are economic in origin.
In Afghanistan, you have the pipelines; the rare earth minerals, and the poppy crops; in Iraq, you have the pipelines; and in Pakistan, you have an embarrassment of resources: Natural Resources of Pakistan
The US government's MO, in more recent years, post 9/11, has been to destabilize, regime change, insuring that they are installing a US-centric government, then selling that countries only through "approved corporations, and only in US dollars.
But that even one person dies, let alone numbers like these, are appallingly immoral, and as though the US government, collectively, will be able to continue these practices with complete impunity.
Unfortunately, however, as history has taught us, the US government may find itself on a "bridge too far" from one of these future military misadventures, and unable to extricate itself from the potentially very brutal results of these wars.
The US serviceman killed in an insider attack in Kabul is identified as Brent Taylor, a mayor from Utah. While shocking to some back at home, this is only the latest such incident in a war that even top brass now call unwinnable.
North Ogden city mayor Major Brent Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan with the Utah National Guard at the beginning of this year. Taylor's trip to Afghanistan was the fourth such deployment for the father of seven and was due to last one year.
Instead, Taylor was gunned down in an "apparent insider attack" in Kabul on Saturday. The gunman was reportedly a member of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces – whom Taylor was deployed to train and advise. The gunman managed to wound another US service member, before other Afghan forces killed him.
Taylor's death was mourned by Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox, who wrote that the Afghan war "has once again cost us the best blood of a generation."
Condolences to this man's family and friends.
But this death again, begs the questions, as to why the US government is still fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan for 17 year, when the people the US military trains turn on their trainers?!?
And to President Trump's people who may, on occasion, read this blog, I implore you to consider the reality, that doing something precisely the same way, over and over, yet expecting a different outcome, is a classic definition of insanity.
And this continued deployment of American and NATO Troops, has to be one of the most insane things I have ever seen this country do.
Had President Bush a modicum of respect for world history (which, of course, he believed he absolutely did not need as president), he would have understood why Afghanistan has been characterized as the "graveyard of empires" by those who had tried, and failed, to conquer the country.
The only guy who actually managed to hang on to Afghanistan, and that was only three years, through a series of dynastic marriages, and political alignments, was Alexander the Great.
So, we are finding ourselves in an unwinnable war, in a country which hates its US/NATO Overlords, whose people cannot be "pacified" no matter how many times the US remotely bombs its civilians in wedding ceremonies, and the Unhinged, Surveilled, State of Amerika, has utterly no exit strategy in sight.
This is a pretty damned lousy state of affairs, but one which must be met with fresh thinking, that still gives the US MOST of what it wanted from the war in the first place.
First, all US and NATO personnel need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, as quickly as is safely possible. The US should then negotiate (a word with which you are not unfamiliar, President Trump?!?) with whatever government is still standing in Kabul, for pipeline rights, the rare earth elements rights development, and, of course, the rights to the poppy fields, which have been doing a brisk business, after the US and NATO started their occupation.
You will recall, Mr. President, that it was the blinkety-blank pipeline routes which were the bone of contention between the US and the then-Taliban government, as the cost of those pipelines was then characterized by the Bush administration as "too high".
But of course, the lives of our military who died, or were maimed for life, were of utterly no consequence to the Bush administration, in their grab for these pipelines, to give US and favored international companies control over the money those pipelines represented, and all to be sold only for US dollars.
When Karl Marx made the observation that "all wars are economic in origin", one can see, very clearly, that control of these pipelines was not to bring representative democracy to the country, or defend the "American Way of Life"; it was all about the money those pipelines represented.
To those of you with young men and women who are thinking about joining the US military, please share this with them; they have the right, when they are dispatched to some hell-hole or another during their tour of duty, to understand precisely what, and whom, they are fighting for.
The US serviceman killed in an insider attack in Kabul is identified as Brent Taylor, a mayor from Utah. While shocking to some back at home, this is only the latest such incident in a war that even top brass now call unwinnable.
North Ogden city mayor Major Brent Taylor was deployed to Afghanistan with the Utah National Guard at the beginning of this year. Taylor's trip to Afghanistan was the fourth such deployment for the father of seven and was due to last one year.
Despite 17 years of war and occupation, the United States and its allies have been unable to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.
(*That's OK because thanks to The Genius of Trump we've seen our error Opium is not grown in Afghanistan . It is Created in the s**thole cities in the blue states and smuggled into the affluent neighborhoods in the Red States , and the short list of prescription related addiction providers include , and are limited to pharmaceutical corporations , which are the constitutionally protected people in the nation , or doctors , some of which practice while being registered as Democrats .
Afghanistan doesn't show up !)
The Afghanistan war cannot be won militarily and peace will only be achieved through a political resolution with the Taliban, the newly-appointed American general in charge of US and NATO operations has conceded.
In his first interview since taking command of NATO's Resolute Support mission in September, Gen. Austin Scott Miller provided NBC News with a surprisingly candid assessment of the seemingly never-ending conflict, which began with the US invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001.
"This is not going to be won militarily. This is going to a political solution," Miller said.
In his first interview as commander, Gen. Scott Miller says the more aggressive posture was needed because of heavy casualties among Afghani forces.
When Gen. Scott Miller took over the war in Afghanistan on Sept. 2, Afghan soldiers were being killed and wounded at near record numbers.
He instituted a more aggressive policy of helping the Afghan military track and defeat the Taliban — what he calls "regaining the tactical initiative" — but in an exclusive interview with NBC News on Tuesday, his first since taking command of U.S. and coalition forces here, he also says he recognizes that the solution in Afghanistan will be political, not military.
"This is not going to be won militarily," Miller said. "This is going to a political solution."
Forgive me, but isn't this what the US has attempted to do in Afghanistan for the last 17 years, and in which it has failed, miserably to date?!?
I am having a Jean Luc Picard double face-palm, upon reading this.
Raziq was a classic product of America's failed policy in Afghanistan, wherein personalities have been propped up over — and sometimes at the expense of — institutions. Of the $557 billion America spent in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2011, just 5.4 percent went toward governance. Most of the money was spent on security, which enriched men like Raziq.
The United States is not engaged in a war of national survival in Afghanistan and, therefore, does not need to keep its military forces in the country.
And of course it is a good thing that nobody has been hurt by these devices. Obviously targeting anyone with packages containing explosive materials is terrible, even if those devices were not rigged with the intention of detonating and harming anyone, and it is a good thing that not a single one of them has done so. It is a good thing that none of America's political elites were targeted by the sort of explosive device that America drops on people in other countries every single day.
You know, the kind that actually explode.
Apparently some Acme comedy bombs mailed to a number of extremely rich people, which thankfully did not hurt anybody at all, are infinitely more newsworthy than the real bombs which maim and destroy children in Yemen on an industrial scale.
— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) October 24, 2018
As a Christian Pacifist Activist, the disconnect the writer of this post sees, looking at what is happening around this world, with the US complicit in so many deaths, in Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya, Niger, Somalia, and Iraq, is utterly and painfully true.
Folks, when people in power in this talk about the "honor", "glory" and "defending the American way of life" as valid descriptions of the wars in which the Unhinged, Surveilled State of Amerika is currently, and about to be, enmeshed, they are lying to you.
Simply put (and this guy was hopelessly wrong about a lot of things),when Karl Marx said that wars are economic in their origin, the man was absolutely, dead-on correct.
The war in Iraq?!? This was done to give the US and Western-centric corporations control over its oil.
The "undeclared war" in Yemen, where the US is enabling Saudi war crimes as I type this?!?
There is an issue that the article misses, in that controlling Yemen means controlling the waterways of Bab El Mandab; The Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, all points for moving oil in and out of the region.
The war in Libya?!? This was done to prevent Muammar Gaddafi from issuing a gold-backed currency, the gold dinar, which would have shredded the value of the US dollar in a heartbeat. New Hillary Emails reveal the true motive for Libya intervention.
The war in Afghanistan?!? To control the pipeline rights, rare mineral development, and control of the poppy crops, from which a booming market in illicit heroin is derived.
The coming war against Iran?!? First, this will be done to honor Trump's commitment to both Israel's Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, and his biggest American Supporter, Sheldon Adelson, who has supported the Trump Campaign with millions in overt, and covert funding, and secondly, to force this country to always sell its oil only in US dollars, post-regime change.
Of course, both Netanyahu and Adelson fully expect this war to be fully executed.... only at the costs of only US blood, and US money, not Israeli
Let's take a look at this last issue, shall we?!?
In FY 2018 the federal deficit was $779 billion.
With its desire for more and more wars, with which to enrich the US government financially, we are looking a Federal deficit of almost 780 billion dollars in fiscal 2018; that's a huge number to wrap my head around.
Instead of limiting spending in a reasonable and rational way, the US government appears to be miring the US public in an absolutely unpayable debt structure, from which there is no way out. This falls on the backs of hard-working Americans, who are desperately struggling to keep food on the table, and a roof over their heads. The people creating this unpayable debt have armies of lawyers and accountants on speed-dial, to insure that they get the best break possible with taxes.
Russia and China, which may well come to Iran's aid, should it be invaded, have weaponry the US military can only wet-dream about; sorry for being blunt, but because of their close relationship with both the Pentagon and Congress, and contributing lavishly to the campaigns of politicians on both sides of the aisle, our military industrial complex has been consistently behind the 8 ball, in staying at least two steps ahead of where our international competitors are, in terms of developing lower cost weapons that just... do the job brilliantly.
Please understand; as a Christian pacifist activist, I hate war; but if such a war happens, I want to see our brothers and sisters in uniform equipped with the best, most brilliantly crafted weaponry that actually works as advertised, and beyond.
So, we have a the US government hopelessly indebted to its creditors, and a potential coming world war, where our military doesnt' have the money, the manufacturing, the troop strength, or weaponry to insure a positive outcome in a world war, ultimately against Russia, and China.
This is a potential recipe for a complete, unmitigated disaster for this country, the consequences of which may be both horrific... and irreversible.
And we have a companion piece this morning, from blackistednews.com:
Saudi-led airstrikes hit civilians in Yemen
If We, the People, do nothing, in the most peaceful, logical way possible, to get US involvement in these US-enabled Saudi war crimes in Yemen to stop, then We the People are also, absolutely and unequivocally, complicit in these war crimes as well.
During the height of the Obama-era surge in Afghanistan, a massive number of insider attacks started cropping up. The Pentagon resolved this ultimately by virtually eliminating direct contact with Afghan forces.
But the Trump-era surge is starting to have the same problem, as they started bringing troops in more direct contact for "training" purposes, and insider attacks are again on the rise. The Pentagon, again, has announced they are halting nearly all face-to-face contact with the Afghan military.
US officials are downplaying the matter, saying it is standard practice now, and that all regular contact will continue with the Afghans, they'll just be contacting them by telephone or email instead.
Afghan officials also downplayed it, saying they can still go to the US side of the bases if they have to, and it's just the US troops that are being told to stay away from the Afghans.
(*We'll get Pompeo over there ASAP to give them their Regional Consensus !
whitehorse souve)
The officials in the US Department Defense, Pentagon, have confirmed that a US General had also sustained injuries during last week's deadly incident in Southern Kandahar province.
The US Army's second Security Force Assistance Brigade is slated to deploy to Afghanistan in an "advise and assist" mission as the fight against the Taliban shows no signs of ending from either side.
"The 2nd SFAB is a conventional unit with a special mission ready to answer the nation's call," US Army Brig. Gen. Donn Hill, who commands the unit, said Thursday in a prepared statement. In total, there are about 800 officers and noncommissioned officers in each security force assistance brigade, the Army Times reported last December. The deployment will start next spring, according to the Army.
The three top officials in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province were killed when their own guards opened fire on them at a security conference Thursday, the deputy provincial governor said, and a Taliban spokesman said the target was Washington's top general in Afghanistan, Scott Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO.
Agha Lala Dastageri, Kandahar's deputy provincial governor, said powerful provincial police chief Abdul Raziq was among the dead, along with Kandahar governor Zalmay Wesa, who died of his wounds at a nearby hospital.
Mr. Dastageri said provincial intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin also died inside the governor's sprawling residence where the attack occurred.
Two US citizens were wounded and a local police chief killed when Afghan guards opened fire at Austin S. Miller, the NATO and US forces commander in Afghanistan, after his meeting with Kandahar officials in the city.
The attack took place on Thursday afternoon after Miller's meeting with Kandahar's governor and the provincial police chief, General Abdul Raziq.
Raziq was killed in the attack at the governor's office, while two US citizens and several top Afghan officials, including the governor, were wounded, Pajhwok Afghan News reported. General Miller was safely evacuated from the area after the incident, NATO said.
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, who are now more likely to die from a drug overdose than from car accidents or firearms.
(*and nobody's making a pre-election info-mercial about it
Taliban officials issued statements over the weekend confirming for the first time a new round of talks on the peace process with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. The talks took place in Qatar, where the Taliban's diplomatic offices are located.
The Taliban rarely admits to talks ongoing at all, but even more significantly, officials revealed that the discussions are centering on the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan after 17 years, and that the US has agreed to that as a topic of discussion.
Reports coming after a Friday meeting in Doha, Qatar, between US diplomats and top Afghan Taliban officials suggest that Washington has agreed to discuss bringing its troops home and end America's 17-year war in Afghanistan.
During Friday's preliminary talks, US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad discussed with the Taliban conditions to bring about the end of the US's 17-year war in Afghanistan, according to two ranking Taliban officials speaking on condition of anonymity, as reported by Al Jazeera.
US Special Envoy on Afghanistan Meets With Taliban Officials in Doha – Report
"Six US delegates arrived in Doha to have a meeting with our [Taliban] leaders [and] agreed to discuss all issues, including the pullout of foreign troops," an unnamed Afghan Taliban official stated.
The only promise that is new about the promised peace plan is the way it will be forced on the Palestinians: no one has promised that the plan itself will be new. With Saudi Arabia and Egypt—the outside—brought onside with the promise of continued military aid despite their crimes against humanity and violations of international law and the Palestinians weakened by being silenced, economically crushed and stripped of any friends to help them, the United States and Israel are now free to attempt to impose a peace plan on the Palestinians.
Adding to a growing list of UN reports released recently all showing a surge in Afghan civilian casualties in different manners, a Wednesday report was released showing that civilian deaths are surging from US and Afghan government airstrikes.
This has been ongoing through the year, with a decrease in US airstrikes in Iraq and Syria leading to more warplanes committed to bombings in Afghanistan. More US strikes means more civilians getting hit, meaning the casualty figures are at multi-year highs.
The UN figures show 649 civilian casualties in the US and Afghan airstrikes in 2018's first nine months. This is 39% more than the same period in 2017, as well as more than the whole of last year. 60% of the casualties are women and children.
All these reports on all these different sorts of civilian casualties caused by the war show a general increase in violence against civilians on all fronts, with no signs of the violence slowing down any time soon.
17 years in Afghanistan, which have brought about nothing but more violence and misery for the Afghani people.
But the US government will not leave, because if our and NATO's military stay, we haven't lost this war.
This ham-fistedly, pig-headedly stupid rationale for keeping our military in Afghanistan will cost one hell of a lot more lives, both US and Afghani, until we finally get someone into the White House who realizes what an abysmal failure this war has been, and makes the right, moral decision.
That decision would be to evacuate US and NATO troops just as quickly as is safely possible, then negotiate with whatever government is left standing in Kabul for the pipeline rights; the rare earth mineral rights; and the rights to the opium poppy trade, which has skyrocketed since the inception o the US/UN invasion and occupation.
And I will assure you that, no, the images I am sharing below, have not been photoshopped.
Images: US military guarding Afghan poppy fields
An American C-130 transport plane has crashed in Afghanistan, killing at least 11 people, a US defense official has said. Among the dead are several US troop members and contracted civilians whose nationalities have not been disclosed.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for shooting down the C-130, according to AFP. However, this information has not yet been confirmed, and US authorities previously denied any hostile engagement.
"Our mujahideen have shot down a four-engine US aircraft in Jalalabad," AFP cited Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as saying. "Based on credible information, 15 invading forces and a number of puppet troops were killed."
Don't look for the Trump administration to pull out of Afghanistan any time soon.
In fact, expect just the opposite, as ill-advised as it is to continue pursuing a military solution to protect a US-installed corrupt government that is teetering on the brink of its own destruction.
The US has entered its 17th year in the Afghan war trying to prop up a government that is fundamentally flawed, corrupt to the core with a security force that still cannot defeat the Taliban on its own. In fact, corruption within the government has actually empowered the Taliban not only to stay the course but has increased its influence after it was all but defeated in 2001.
The UN said deliberately targeting and murdering civilians are serious violations of international humanitarian law that amount to war crimes. UNAMA has called for a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
Heavy fighting erupted in dozens of provinces across Afghanistan over the weekend, with reports over the weekend suggesting that these fights were heavily Taliban attacks timed to the 17-year anniversary of the US invasion.
Over 200 combatants were reported slain, with the Afghan Defense Ministry reporting 156 Taliban slain. Reports have 35 Afghan soldiers killed as of Saturday night, and 15 more killed overnight Sunday in Jawzjan.
The Defense Ministry has sought to rebrand all of that fighting after the fact, now saying that it was a series of "military crackdowns" as opposed to Taliban attacks. That the Afghan government lost territory, and the main highway is closed certainly raise questions about why they would've chosen these sites for "crackdowns."
Don't believe that the US government will ever leave Afghanistan, no matter how many on each side, are killed and maimed; this country's government will have its military in Afghanistan perpetually, because of the oil pipelines; the rare earth minerals; and it's control over opium production.
And ultimately, in not withdrawing its troops, the US government cannot be blamed for defeat.
To me, this is some wretchedly ham-fistedly, pig-headedly illogical thinking on the part of this government, which does absolutely nothing for We the People, but a great deal for Those the Monied (think: oil company executives and the military industrial complex)
And as a side note, here is a companion article: Most Americans would support US withdrawal from Afghanistan
After 17 years of war in Afghanistan, a comfortable majority of American veterans say they would support a decision by President Donald Trump to pull all U.S. troops out of the country, according to a survey released Monday by a Washington think tank.
The joint poll from RealClearPolitics and the Charles Koch Institute, a libertarian-oriented research organization, found that more than half of Americans are skeptical of continued U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, an assessment that is even more common among veterans.
According to the survey, 53 percent of Americans do not believe Washington has a clear strategic objective in the Afghanistan War. About 60 percent of veterans feel the same way.
17 years ago, the United States began its invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, officially launched to pursue al-Qaeda in general and Osama bin Laden in particular. Bin Laden is long since dead, but the US still has a massive war raging in Afghanistan, one which is going extremely poorly and shows no signs of ending.
On the war's anniversary, fighting raged particularly hard, with 14 different provinces across Afghanistan reporting Taliban attacks, and many of them leading to substantial battles. All told, over 110 people were reported killed in 24 hours, roughly half of them Taliban, and the rest included 19 civilians and 35 Afghan soldiers.
Taliban attacks looked to secure territory gains in several districts, including strategically important districts along the Kabul-Kandahar highway.The main highway in Afghanistan, and one of the few major paved roads in the nation, officials say it is closed to traffic until fighting is resolved.
Although none of the presstitute corporate media had much to say about it, yesterday, 7 October marks the 17th year after the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Within that 17 years, the Taliban presence and territory have been greater, tearing off hunks more territory than they initially controlled. The puppet coalition "government" is impotent in the extreme to deliver anything of substance to the Afghani people, and corrupt beyond belief.
So, why in heaven's name is the US still there?!? Well, here is what I can tell you; they cannot leave Afghanistan, because the US military/industrial complex cannot admit that they have been defeated here, just as they cannot admit that they have ultimately been defeated in Iraq and Libya, where things continually devolve from bad to worse for the Iraqi and Libyan people.
Once you understand that all wars are economic, and these wars of aggression in which the US government loves to embroil itself, are simply about control of resources, period, end of discussion.
In Iraq and Libya, it was about the oil (and in Libya, preventing Qaddafi from initiating a gold dinar as its currency, which would definitely taken a bite out of the US dollar, anther economic reason for his assassination.)
In Afghanistan, the Bush administration believed it had the perfect lie with which to persuade the American people that Afghanistan should be attacked; after all, they were hiding Bin Laden, the "alleged" mastermind of 9/11, and with the US sentiment angry at those who allegedly did this, and wanted to "do something about it".
Bush molded our collective national distress to his narrative for the reason Afghanistan should be attacked, and little was said here in the US about it invading and occupying that country in the summer of 2001, while US diplomats
were quietly telling the heads of other countries that this was going to happen. US planned war in Afghanistan long before September 11
Bush's negotiations with the Taliban went south right before the bombing on 9/11: New Book Details Bush/Big Oil Negotiations With Taliban BEFORE WTC
This article goes on to state: 'In the beginning of August, the Bush administration and its Big Oil cohorts delivered what amounted to an ultimatum to the Taliban.
"The Taliban representatives were reportedly told by Bush/Big Oil: Accept our offer of "a carpet of gold or you'll get a carpet of bombs."
And what members of this government can NEVER tell the friends or families, grieving over a military personnel's death in Afghanistan, is the following brutal reality: "I'm sorry, but your kid didn't die for honor, glory, or preserving the 'American Way of Life'; he died so that the US government, and business cartels who own it, will have unlimited access to Afghanistan's pipelines; its rare earth minerals, and, of course, control of the opium poppy crop, and weaponise the potent, cheap heroin which is created from it, and make sure it flows like water in countries we don't particularly like (such as Russia)."
This, my friends, is the whole, sordid, ugly truth as to why we are in Afghanistan; and unless a miracle happens, our country's military will be staying there in perpetuam.
Here's the sort of story that should never happen, especially in a country that prides itself on its humanity and openness to newcomers.
In 2013, Army Lt. Col. Patrick Schreiber and his wife put off officially adopting their teenaged daughter, Hyebin, who was born in the Republic of Korea. The reason? He was about to deploy to Afghanistan for a year. When he returned, they put through the paperwork, adopted her, and then started working on her citizenship. But Hyebin had turned 17 in the interim, which is a problem:
Spending $45 billion a year, and Erik Prince wants every dime
Did you read what happened earlier this week in Afghanistan? A suicide bomber set himself off in Nangarhar Province, east of Jalalabad on Tuesday and killed 14 people at an election rally. At least 43 were injured in the attack, according to the New York Times.
(*Sounds like we're there for the election meddling , on one hand , but the opium poppies must be ripe for harvest , at this time of year , and we need to get heroin into the blue states , where it will be moved into the red states so Trump can say that the nations heroin originates in the blue states , while the Republicans are on a roll putting the history of US corruption solely on The Democratic Party)
In his latest comments to reporters, US Central Commander Gen. Joseph Votel confirmed that the Afghan military and police and facing increasingly high numbers of battlefield casualties, following what he termed a "difficult and bloody summer."
This has been well-documented in recent months, with the Afghan military losing ground significantly to the Taliban. The casualties are further exacerbating Afghan military shortfalls, caused by poor recruiting, and large numbers of "ghost troops" who exist only on paper.
Gen. Votel sought to downplay this to the reporters, however, saying Afghan officials have acknowledged the casualties but have said they "will not deter them." Votel is also keen to see the Afghan military abandon attempts to defend territory and hold military checkpoints.
This has been a fluster-cluck of unimaginable proportions.
IF the NATO high command and US military and civilian leadership had half a brain together, they would get our and their troops out of this country as quickly as is safely possible, then negotiate with whatever government was left standing for rights to the pipelines; the rare earth minerals; and the opium crops.
Of course, that... would be logical. And unfortunately, logic and the geopolitical decisions made by our highest ranking officials in this country, have not had too close a relationship in a lot of years.
On September 3rd, a U.S Army sergeant major was killed by two Afghan police officers - the very people his unit, the new Security Force Assistance Brigade, was there to train. It was the second fatal "insider attack," as such incidents are regularly called, this year and the 102nd since the start of the Afghan War 17 long years ago. Such attacks are sometimes termed "green-on-blue" incidents (in Army lingo, "green" forces are U.S. allies and "blue" forces Americans). For obvious reasons, they are highly destructive to the military mission of training and advising local military and security forces in Afghanistan. Such attacks, not surprisingly, sow distrust and fear, creating distance between Western troops and their supposed Afghan partners.
President Ghani says Afghan forces have enough potential and have managed to save the country from "collapse".
In reaction to the possibility of privatizing the Afghan war, President Ashraf Ghani said he will not allow "foreign mercenaries" to operate in Afghanistan.
Addressing the 3rd Mayors National Conference, the president said the Afghan government forces have enough potential and have managed to save the country from "collapse".
"You should know that the work which is done by Afghans cannot be done by any foreign mercenary and foreign mercenaries will never be allowed in this soil," Ghani said.
Ghani's remarks come days after Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater security company, in an interview with TOLOnews, insisted the Afghan war will end "a few months" using his plan to send in few thousand contracted mentors to Afghanistan.
I hope and pray that President Trump will not take Prince up on his proposal; that would simply inflame the feelings of the Afghani people to the point where many more US and UN military will wind up getting shot at, maimed, and/or killed.
DEA agents discover another small town in America's Rust Belt with an overabundance of opioids
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) last week conducted inspections at several pharmacy locations in the Clay County, Tennessee town of Celina, following a massive spike of painkiller purchases from drug distribution companies.
According to the sales data, obtained by the DEA, several pharmacies purchased nearly 1.5 million pills in 2017, a number that is considered an anomaly of a rural area in America's Rust Belt region.
Home to just 7,800 people, the pharmacies last year purchased enough opioids to provide 270 pain pills for every man, woman, and child living in the small Tennessee town.
"Is This What We Destroy Lives For?" Iraq, Afghanistan Vets' Guilt, Unanswered Questions Spike Suicide Rate
While the VA report may call the jump in young veteran suicides an "urgent crisis," it unfortunately seems to be a crisis with no end in sight until the country is finally forced to reckon with its dark legacy of regime-change wars and military occupations around the world.
Marine Corps F-35 flies first combat mission in Afghanistan
Next day.
F35 Crashes In South Carolina
The former founder and CEO of Blackwater says he needs just six months and roughly 3,600 men to make the Afghan War look far different from the shitshow it is now.
In an interview with Afghanistan's TOLO News, Erik Prince once again pitched his idea to privatize the nearly-17-year-old conflict, offering up a force of "contracted veteran mentors" from the United States and NATO countries to serve alongside Afghan security forces.
"Well, I would say six months after the program is fully ramped up, you have a very different situation on the ground, I will commit to that," Prince said, outlining a plan to provide 36 contractors for each unit of Afghan security forces, who would serve for two to four years at a time.
Yes, you read that right: Erik Prince says he can turn the war around in six months while suggesting his contractors could be there for at least four years.
I have two words with which to describe this scenario; utterly delusional!!
Moscow is outraged at NATO's "errant" attacks in Afghanistan, which have become almost a daily reality, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"We are outraged at the fact that NATO's 'errant' attacks in the country have become almost a daily reality, while no one has been held responsible," the statement reads.
"We believe that the current situation is a result of gross miscalculations the US made in Afghanistan and the White House's reliance on the use of military force to resolve the situation in the country. We call on Washington to reconsider its short-sighted policy and opt for diplomatic measures aimed at launching an inter-Afghan dialogue," the Russian Foreign Ministry said, adding that Moscow called "for bringing those responsible for crimes against civilians to justice."
And where, please, is American outrage that so many innocents are assassinated daily by US/NATO troops?!?
Because the corporate Presstitutes, Warmongers never show us the images of the dead, twisted bodies of children who have been murdered, or maimed for life, because that is what the Diktat from the White House is: don't show those non-combatants what this war is like.
Well if they don't, my friends, as a Christian Pacifist Activist, I am duty-bound to show you the realities of this war, and witness to the hideous destruction of this country, courtesy of the US and NATO... And warning; these are atrociously graphic.
Images: Afghani children dead and dying from disease and starvation
IF these images nearly caused you to lose your lunch, congratulations; you may yet be at least a little human.
But it is high time that we peacefully and politely called our (alleged) Congressional Representatives, and told them that 17 years of this horrific military misadventure is quite enough.
Apparently, post-Vietnam, our military has never quite absorbed the reality that you cannot fight what is essentially a ground war from the air.
We have to peacefully and logically protest, to get our thoughts known, and call our and NATO'S military....home.
The Fakest Fake News: The U.S. Government's 9/11 Conspiracy Theory
A Review of 9/11Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth
For seventeen years we have been subjected to an onslaught of U.S. government and corporate media propaganda about 9/11 that has been used to support the "war on terror" that has resulted in millions of deaths around the world. It has been used as a pretext to attack nations throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.
It has led to a great increase in Islamophobia since Muslims were accused of being responsible for the attacks. It has led to a crackdown on civil liberties in the United States, the exponential growth of a vast and costly national security apparatus, the spreading of fear and anxiety on a great scale, and a state of permanent war that is pushing the world toward a nuclear confrontation. And much, much more.
With the defeat of ISIS in most cities in Iraq and Syria reducing the number of potential targets for US airstrikes in those countries, planes have been relocated in large numbers to Afghanistan. It has been well-documented that this has led to a soaring number of US airstrikes in Afghanistan, with nearly 3,000 strikes in the first six months of this year, double that of the previous year.
With these strikes largely confined to areas where the US has little ground presence of intelligence on the area, the large increase in strikes led to an equally large increase in the number of civilians getting killed in airstrikes, with nine killed in Kapisa last week in the most recent example.
The UN issued a statement on Tuesday voicing concern about the increasing civilian deaths from airstrikes, reiterating that all parties have an obligation to protect civilians from harm. The US and Afghan governments both say they are "aware" of the statement.
The last official figures on Afghan military deaths came out in 2016. 22 soldiers were killed on an average day, and this was so bad that Afghan and US officials decided that death tolls would subsequently be kept secret
Things have just gotten worse, and 22 deaths would be a comparatively mild day compared to media reports on the death tolls in recent days. In the past week, the average day has seen roughly 57 deaths among Afghan security forces.
The Pentagon's recent decision to more heavily publicize Taliban body counts, to try to sell the war to the administration, likely comes from the same place as the decision to keep Afghan military deaths secret, as this will just reveal the extent of the conflict's failure.
So let's call this one as what it is: a 17-year, unmitigated disaster.
IF US and NATO officials had one brain cell to share on this issue, they would immediately withdraw all Coalition troops as quickly as it would be safe to do this, then negotiate with whatever government was left standing in Kabul for the pipeline, rare earth, and opium poppy rights.
Ah, but of course, they won't, because such actions... would actually be logical.
The Pentagon's leadership has long opposed using body counts as war propaganda, particularly in Afghanistan, fearing that it would echo the failed strategy of Vietnam, and alienating people around the world.
But in recent months, efforts to sell President Trump on the Afghan War have changed that, with officials now eager to get gaudy death tolls out to the public to prove that the US and its allies will "remove all who oppose them at every turn," and are making progress in killing people.
Yet these same officials have long admitted this isn't an effective way to communicate how the war is going, and that fixation on body counts comes off as terribly morbid. Whether it is something to sell President Trump on the war is another matter.
Tags: AFGHANISTAN AFRICA ASIA CHINA IRAN IRAQ KOREA MIDDLE EAST SOUTH AMERICA SYRIA (*VS.) WHITE HOUSE
According to a NATO procurement document, the complex is expected to consist of more than 800 work spaces, Stars and Stripes reported Monday. The structure is planned to be a three-story, 120,000-square-foot concrete building. However, according to officials, additional details cannot be released during the bidding and design phase of the project, Stripes and Stripes reported Monday.
Fred on everything will save us!
I have no choice. I must don the mantle of greatness and take the reins of the country. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I will run for the office of dictator, or President in American parlance.
If Lindsey Graham complains that we need to kill more puzzled goatherds, I will have him inserted into the oil well on top of the Republicans and pseudo-Cubans, with Oprah tamped down on top as a sort of cork. There is nothing in Afghanistan that Americans need or want, except opium products, and private enterprise now provides these in abundance. Check the nearest street corner, or ask your kids.
Countries with nothing to fear do not fear the ICC.
Countries with nothing to fear do not fear the ICC. The United States and Israel are very afraid of the ICC. The murder of unarmed civilians is a war crime. So is torture. Israel's indiscriminate bombing of densely-populated civilian areas, its half-century occupation of Palestinian territory and its construction and expansion of Jews-only settler colonies on Palestinian land are all also illegal under international law. Neither Israel nor the United States has joined the ICC. Other leading human rights violators, including North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and Ethiopia, have either never joined or have withdrawn from the court.
The advisory also warns military activities linked to the bloody conflict in Syria have been ramped across Iran's airspace.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington are running high following Donald Trump's controversial decision to pull out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal re-introduce economic sanctions last month.
Flight Service Bureau, which provides safety information on airspace to airlines, said "without seeming alarmist", the deteriorating relationship between the US and Iran must be taken into account when planning flights in Iran's airspace.
This is getting just about as serious as is a heart attack: I find myself very alarmed at these developments.
Most parliamentarians in the Afghani parliament voted to revise the country's security agreement with the United States, including allowing permanent US military bases to remain on Afghan soil. This major development comes in light of Kabul, Beijing, Moscow, and the Taliban having attempting to organize a grand meeting to establish a solution to the US occupation in Afghanistan.
"The idea [of a revision] was put forward by some Parliamentarians in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday and was approved by the majority of the parliamentarians by means of a vote on Wednesday," 1TV channel reported.
This agreement allowed US military forces and bases to remain in Afghanistan after the US combat mission ended in 2014, the report said. However, security conditions continue to worsen as the number of civilians and security forces killed by terrorist attacks increases.
Many Tesla owners have lost all autopilot functionality as a result of the company's latest "over the air" software update, according to Jalopnik . Tesla knows about the issue and has promised to fix it by Friday of this week, according to the article, saying it was "a known issue".
Tesla has been sending out its latest "over the air" software update over the course of this week. The purpose of the software update was to increase the capabilities of Autopilot and help it further incorporate traffic lights, stop signs, lane changes and off-ramps.
As a reminder, numerous Tesla Autopilot incidents have occurred when a vehicle moves out from in front of a Tesla vehicle, and/or when there's an option to take an off-ramp nearby. Videos like this one, on YouTube, have confirmed the issue:
OK, it's official: Elon Musk needs someone he will listen to, and respect, to start managing the day to day nuts and bolts of the operation, so that flaws like the one indicated above stop from happening.
The foul-ups, bleeps and blunders these cars keep making are not good advertising for a financially or engineering-capable company, and Musk will loose both face, and money, if these problems continue.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has finally moved to investigate US war crimes committed during the 17-year long war in Afghanistan. This is welcome news as this is what the international civil society expects from the ICC. The US administration has long been using its influence over global bodies to the extent that it sees itself an "exceptional" nation. Now the Hague intends to prove that unlike other international bodies such as the UN Security Council or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this is not the case with the ICC, and that even if Washington moves to position itself in direct opposition not just to the investigations, but the court itself, it won't be able to stop justice from being served to the long-suffering people of Afghanistan.
As Americans mark the anniversary of 9/11, the war that was launched in response to those attacks shows no sign of ending.
Seventeen years later, American troops are still fighting and dying, civilian casualties are at record highs, and the Taliban now controls more territory than at any point since 2001.
Earlier this month, a new American general took control of the effort — the ninth change of command in what is now the longest war the United States has ever fought.
Outgoing U.S. commander General John Nicholson had a simple message as he handed over reigns to his successor after being in command for the last two years: "It's time for the war in Afghanistan to end."
Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh underlined his country's readiness to play a military advisory role in Afghanistan to fight against the ISIL terrorist group.
"I had a meeting with the Afghan ambassador to Tehran today. During the meeting, I declared the Islamic Republic of Iran's preparedness for advisory assistance to Afghanistan, in addition to its concerns (about the presence of the ISIL in the country), given Iran's experience in the fight against the ISIL," Falahatpisheh said on Wednesday.
He said that the real insecurities in Afghanistan are fomented by the ISIL which are supported by certain states, reminding that the ISIL terrorists massacre Shiites and Sunnis alike.
Iran's Permanent Ambassador to Vienna-based international organizations Kazzem Qaribabadi warned that Tehran will remain committed to the 2015 nuclear deal only if it can use the benefits of the internationally-endorsed agreement.
"As it has repeatedly been announced, full and sincere implementation of undertakings by all sides is a principled base for the nuclear deal's survival and if we want its survival, the remaining members of the agreement (Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany) should guarantee that Iran enjoys the nuclear deal's benefits by adopting proper practical measures," Qaribabadi said, addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors' meeting in Vienna on Wednesday.
He stressed the importance of time in this regard, and said, "Many more measures should be adopted to guarantee Iran's economic interests as stated in the nuclear deal."
It's been 17 years since 9/11 but there's still no end in sight for the war in Afghanistan
(*VICE going where ABCNNBCBS&FOX Fear To Tread , so we probably shouldn't mistake them for being anything other than independent )
At least 68 people have been killed, and 128 more were injured in an explosion in a crowd of protesters in the Afghan province of Nangarhar in the east of the country, the TV channel TOLOnews tweeted, quoting local health care officials. Mass media earlier reported that 50 people were killed in the explosion. On Tuesday, a representative for the provincial governor stated that a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of protesters who gathered in the Momand Dara district, Nangarhar province. He said that the protesters gathered demanding that the commander of the Achin district police forces, located near the Momand Dara district, be fired. There were also reports on September 11 of seven explosions that shook the area near three educational facilities in the Nangarhar province. France Press reported that a child was killed and four people were injured in a terror attack near a school in the city of Jalalabad.
"Now the Taliban will pay a price" vowed President George W. Bush, as American and British fighter planes unleashed missile attacks against major cities in Afghanistan. The US Administration claims that Osama bin Laden is behind the tragic events of the 11th of September. A major war supposedly "against international terrorism" has been launched [October 2001], yet the evidence amply confirms that agencies of the US government have since the Cold War harbored the "Islamic Militant Network" as part of Washington's foreign policy agenda. In a bitter irony, the US Air Force is targeting the training camps established in the 1980s by the CIA.
Donald Trump's top national security adviser has launched a bellicose attack on the International Criminal Court, describing it as "fundamentally illegitimate" and "outright dangerous" in a speech that has alarmed human rights groups.
John Bolton threatened to prosecute judges from the International Criminal Court (ICC) or ban them from entering the United States if the organisation pursues an investigation into the conduct of American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court," Bolton said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, in Washington D.C on Monday US time.
A minimum of 50 people died in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, TOLONews channel reported in Twitter quoting a deputy president of the provincial Council. Nangarhar public healthcare department said the explosion had carried away 30 lives. Channel One TV said earlier 25 people had died and another 60 had been wounded. A spokesman for the governor of the province said a suicide bomber had set an explosive device off in a crowd of protesters who had gathered for a demonstration in Momand Dara district. They were going to demand dismissal of the commander of the police force in Achin located near Momand Dara. Reports earlier on Tuesday spoke about a chain of explosions near three schools in Nangarhar. AFP said an explosion near a school in Jalalabad, the capital of the province, killed a boy and left four adults injured.
China will train Afghan troops on Chinese soil, Afghanistan's ambassador to Beijing said, describing the military cooperation as an effort to fight al Qaeda and Islamic State militants bent on attacking China from its western neighbour.
Afghanistan has also requested that China provide Afghan security forces with combat helicopters, Ambassador Janan Mosazai told Reuters in an interview.
Beijing last month dismissed reports that Chinese troops would be stationed in its war-torn neighbour, after it agreed to help Afghanistan set up a "mountain brigade" in the rugged Wakhan Corridor linking the two countries.
"But yes, there will be some training required, obviously, and that will take place in China," Mosazai said in the interview on Tuesday.
Forgive me, but did US Sec Def Mattis get the memo on this, or is the situation in Afghanistan so dire, that he dare not say a word against the deal?!?
This is huge, folks.
Beijing will train Afghan troops on Chinese soil, Afghanistan's ambassador to China said. The military cooperation will be part of an effort to fight Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants bent on attacking China from its western neighbor, Ambassador Janan Mosazai told Reuters. Kabul has also requested that China provide Afghan security forces with combat helicopters.
A US service member in Afghanistan has been killed in an apparent insider attack, according to NATO. One other has been wounded.
The attack occurred in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.
The service member has not yet been identified. He is the sixth American to be killed in Afghanistan this year, according to Reuters.
Upon departing as commander of US Forces Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson recently said that America's military strategy, revised a year ago under the Trump administration, is working.
At the same time, Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater [currently known as Academi], apparently doesn't share that view and intends to renew his offer to his friend, President Donald Trump, to replace US military forces with Private Military Contractors, or PMCs.
Despite the differences, and any similarities, the military solutions for peace in Afghanistan offered by Nicholson and Prince are both delusional.
In saying that the latest US military strategy is working, Nicholson believes the current military solution is having the effect of "advancing us towards reconciliation" with the Afghan Taliban.
It may seem paradoxical that any American interest would seek to deliberately prolong the Afghan quagmire. Costing trillions of dollars to the national debt, one would think that US planners are anxious to wind down the war and cut their immense losses. Not so, it seems.
Like the classic 1960s satire film, Dr Strangelove, and how he came to "love the A-bomb", there are present-day elements in the US military-security apparatus that seem to be just fine about being wedded to the mayhem in Afghanistan.
That war is officially the longest-ever war fought by US forces overseas, outlasting the Vietnam war (1964-75) by six years – and still counting.
After GW Bush launched the operation in October 2001, the war is now under the purview of its third consecutive president. What's more, the 17-year campaign to date is unlikely to end for several more years to come, after President Donald Trump last year gave the Pentagon control over its conduct.
The Taliban had all but eradicated the opium growers before the US invasion. So why is cheap Afghani heroin flooding into the United States?
In Afghan fields the poppies grow Between the crosses Row on row.
A surge in suicide bombings, brazen terror attacks on Kabul, and mass kidnappings in recent weeks in Afghanistan has indicated a significant and growing resurgence of both the Taliban and 'Islamic State' in the country after multiple failed attempts of the NATO-backed central government to strike ceasefire deals with the Taliban.
Most recently, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani survived what appeared to be an assassination attempt on August 21st, when a hail of shoulder-fired missiles landed near the presidential palace and in Kabul's 'green zone', interrupting his televised speech.
But it appears Afghan government forces and their US and NATO advisory partners are in the process of clamping down on the insurgency while delivering pay-back, as Reuters reports the head of Islamic State in Afghanistan has been killed in an airstrike on Saturday.
Rather than bringing 'peace and stability', training Afghans to a mythical self-sufficiency, or helping rebuild Afghanistan's shattered infrastructure, the time is long past for an honest appraisal of what western Allied forces are really trying to achieve in Afghanistan. There are a number of motives that readily reveal themselves.
The first relates to Afghanistan's geography. It is strategically located in close proximity to, or bordering upon, the United States' designated enemies, China, Iran and Russia. A map of US military bases shows that they closely follow the pipeline route, and are readily accessible to the poppy fields that once again produce more than 90% of the world's heroin.
So, now you know; this is a war, based on lies, which will keep going ad infinitum, because of Afghanistan's proximity to Chinese, Iranian, and Russian (branded: US enemies' borders); because of its embarrassment of riches, in rare earths, petroleum pipelines; and the processing and selling of its opium poppies.
When are you going to get tired of being lied to all the time by this Government, no matter which party is allegedly in control; its Deep State; and the Corporate Warrespondents and presstitutes, whose very job is to lie to you?!?
The Pentagon announced Wednesday that Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie has been selected to become the next commander of US Central Command, which oversees US troops in the Middle East and Central Asia.
He will also be promoted to General, receiving a fourth star.
McKenzie currently serves in the Pentagon as the Director of the Joint Staff, a high profile position often viewed as a stepping stone to more senior commands.
His selection requires confirmation by Congress.
(*FACT CHECK IT: Report comes from CNN )
With more than $700 billion spent (and at least $15.5 billion outright wasted) on America's long war in Afghanistan, it's easy to understand why President Donald Trump might pursue unusual options to finally bring the 17-year-old conflict to a close.
Allowing Erik Prince to take over the war effort should not be one of them.
Prince's priorities in Afghanistan don't seem to align with the Pentagon's. Just consider his leaked Afghan war plan published by BuzzFeed News back in December 2017, in which he proposed plundering Helmand Province of approximately $1 trillion worth of lithium, uranium, phosphorus, and other rare elements.
Doing that would risk reversing whatever progress American troops have made in the region thus far by fueling the jihadi narrative that the U.S. government is a purely predatory, imperial force focused on enriching itself and weakening Muslim countries.
In but the latest sign that an attempted central government-sponsored ceasefire with the Taliban has failed, a massive missile attack which appears to have targeted the Afghan president and cabinet members occurred in the heart of Kabul's government and diplomatic district on Tuesday morning.
During an annual Eid speech to mark the Islamic holiday given by President Ashraf Ghani, a volley of 20 missiles was unleashed, which can be heard in the background during the televised address.
According to the account by Afghan national news agency Tolo, which first reported the assassination attempt:
Half way through his message, the thud of falling rockets could be heard in the background. Without flinching, Ghani interrupted his speech and said: "If they are thinking the rocket attack will keep Afghans down, they are wrong."
On Sunday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced his intentions to offer a ceasefire to the Taliban for the Eid al-Adha holiday. Having pushed them for a response, the Taliban rejected the proposal Monday.
Analysts had previously predicted that while a public Taliban acceptance was unlikely, it wasn't clear they'd actually reject the deal. Ghani officials demanded the Taliban publicly take a position on Monday, however, and that position was a "no."
This means that the fighting will be continuing on both sides. One Taliban commander, asked to explain the decision, said that the leadership believes the ceasefire only benefits the US, and would prolong the US military presence in the country. The Taliban had repeatedly said no peace is possible while US troops remain.
IF US and NATO leadership had two brain cells to rub together on this issue, they would collectively evacuate troops as quickly as was safe, then negotiate with whatever government was still standing in Kabul for oil pipeline, and rare earth mineral rights, plus rights to the opium poppy production.
Of course, such negotiations... would be logical, and we can never have Americans seen as acting logically, can we?!?
The founder of Blackwater trashed the U.S. Army in his attempts to persuade Donald Trump to give him a big contract and fight the war privately.
Fox and Friends Co-host Brian Kilmeade sat nodding like a jackass while Prince's denigrating comments about the men and women in the armed forces flew right by him.
After Trump sent in more troops last year, Prince told Kilmeade Donald now owns the war and they are failing.
Kilmeade agreed that Trump has changed things up there, "Are you saying it's not as effective?"
"It is a continuous litany of death and failure. >>>
This week, Taliban forces occupied the important strategic city of Ghazni on the road from Peshawar to Kabul. It took three days and massive air attacks by US B-1 heavy bombers, Apache helicopter gun ships, A-10 ground attack aircraft, and massed warplanes from US bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and the 5th US Fleet to finally drive back the Taliban assault. Taliban also overran key military targets in Kabul and the countryside, killing hundreds of government troops in a sort of Afghan Tet offensive.
Afghan regime police and army units put up feeble resistance or ran away. Parts of Ghazni were left in ruins. It was a huge embarrassment to the US imperial generals and their Afghan satraps who had claimed 'the corner in Afghanistan has finally been turned.'
Efforts by the Trump administration to bomb Taliban into submission have clearly failed.>>>
A ceasefire is due to begin in Afghanistan on Monday and will "continue as long as the Taliban preserves and respects it", President Ashraf Ghani has said.
Initially, it marks the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday, and comes days after fighting in the central city of Ghazni and in a northern province.
The Taliban, which has said it will free hundreds of prisoners, is reportedly considering a four-day truce during the holiday, which runs from Tuesday to Saturday.
Supreme leader Sheikh Haibatullah Akhunzada is yet to give his final approval, however.
(*There's Always A Catch When It Comes To Delivering Peace .
That said , here's a BONUS catch:) Pompeo says 'time for peace' as Afghanistan announces ceasefire with Taliban
Members of the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) will take part in a meeting on Afghanistan scheduled to be held in Moscow on September 4, Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asia Department Zamir Kabulov told Izvestia. Russian diplomats have stressed many times that it is vital to engage the Taliban in the peace process because for one thing the movement controls more than half of Afghanistan. Russia first invited the Taliban to Moscow for talks on the situation in Afghanistan last year. The movement rejected that invitation but accepted the new one. Having agreed to participate in the Moscow talks, which involve Russia, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the Taliban also stepped up contacts with other countries. In particular, in July, US envoy for South Asia Alice Wells met with Qatari-based Taliban members for the first time in seven years.
Sometime late next year, possibly as early as September, news crews will gather in Afghanistan for a unique event: To interview an American serviceman or woman who was not born when the war they are fighting began. He or she will not remember 9/11, and will have grown up with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as background noise.
No doubt also a senior commander will be on hand to pronounce that the war against the Taliban is making progress, the same pronouncements the young recruit will have seen on TV all his or her life.
After 17 bloody years, the [second] longest war in US history continues without relent or purpose in Afghanistan.
There, a valiant, fiercely-independent people, the Pashtun (Pathan) mountain tribes, have battled the full might of the US Empire to a stalemate that has so far cost American taxpayers $4 trillion, and 2,371 dead and 20,320 wounded soldiers. No one knows how many Afghans have died. The number is kept secret.
For the second time this week, Taliban insurgents attacked and overran an Afghan Army base in the country's north, this time in Baghlan Province. The offensive lasted about five hours, and left the Taliban in control of the military base and a nearby police checkpoint.
Starting before dawn, Taliban fighters quickly overwhelmed the police checkpoint, killing nine police, then moved on to the army base. They got to the base in Baghlan-e Markazi District and took that as well, killing another 36 troops.
Baghlan Governor Abdul Hai Nemati says that reinforcements have been sent to try to recapture the area. Checkpoints in the area were reportedly set on fire by the Taliban, however, so not everything can be recovered
IF this administration, coupled with NATO, had two brain cells to rub together on this issue, they would immediately evacuate their troops in Afghanistan out of the country as quickly as was safely possible, negotiating with whatever government was left standing in Kabul for the rights to the oil pipelines, rare earth minerals, and poppy production.
Of course... that... would be logical.
ISIS has increased its efforts in order to expand its influence in Afghanistan. The local ISIS branch is believed to have about 3,000-5,000 members, including local Afghans, Pakistanis and Uzbeks.
According to available data, most of the terrorists are in the province of Nangarhar. However, cells of the terrorist group operate across the entire country.
Over the past few months, ISIS members have carried a series of terrorist attacks against government targets as well as engaged members of the Taliban in separate clashes and hit-and-run operations.
The ISIS expansion is fueled by fighters and field commanders, whom had fled Syria and Iraq where the terrorist group's self-proclaimed caliphate was recently defeated. Another factor contributing to growth of the ISIS influence is a poor humanitarian, economic and social situation in the country.
The latest conflicting reports about whether or not the Taliban has taken the strategic city of Ghazni between the Afghan capital of Kabul and Kandahar reflect the dilemma and difficulties that the American forces face today.
The concerns come despite the firepower and technology that the US has applied against an insurgent force, which has taken over more than 50 percent of the country. This is despite America having almost completely driven out the Taliban when it first invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.
The battle for Ghazni and indeed the effort to defeat the Taliban in remote areas of the country suggest that, notwithstanding the intelligence, technology and communications capabilities at its disposal, the US is losing the battle to secure the country.
If the Taliban occupies Ghazni by defeating Afghan forces, it effectively would cut off southern Afghanistan from the Kabul government, which would represent a significant development.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in Afghanistan has become a significant menace against the West despite the fall of the group's caliphate in Iraq and Syria, a top American commander warned this week.
In June, Brig. Gen. Lance R. Bunch, the top U.S. air commander in Afghanistan, noted that the ISIS wing has attempted to "establish" its own "caliphate" twice this year alone in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar along the Pakistan border, considered the group's primary stronghold in the region.
U.S.-NATO-assisted Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) have so far managed to thwart the ISIS attempt to establish a caliphate in Afghanistan, Gen. Bunch declared.
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Today my company honored and celebrated the Employee Recognition Night after a hiatus of 1 year. Its no longer called the Winter Gala and more appropriately called Employee Recognition Night but I could not comprehend the difference between them. Nonethless, a great endeavor on part of the CNSI owners and shows their committment to the employees. So here are the Key Highlights
a) Cal Ripken Jr. was the Chief Guest. For people who did not know that, all they needed to do was stroll to the hotel bar where they served decent scotch and you could meet the Hall of Famer.
b) Vik Mehta was hilarious and his ususal self and made some funny and yes sometimes offensive remarks. Always a great show but I am disappointed as he reads his jokes and one liners! And Vik some of your jokes are repetitive for people like me who have attended this event for some years now
c) Nagu, (for people who don't know him he is Oracle DBA for the Washington project) was in every frame clicked by the photographer that night. We could use him as background on our CNSI logo
d) Our President, was precise and thankful but tad bit slow but it was much concise than the previous ones
e) Vivek Gore was standing up and cheering on on every employee that was recognized. Either he did not have a seat on his table or was just naturally excited about the recognition. I could not since I was getting ready to dance!
f) Yes we danced to all tunes Indian, Punjabi, English, Arabic and Finally TAMIL :)
g) Aggh..the nice thing there were four lucky winners who get the BMW. Yes they are mortgaged for 3 years ..you know what i mean...:)
But overall a good event ,people had a nice time and it was a good break and a workout for me personally... Your comments..
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Gmail Server is down!!!
This is not the first time that Google mail has been down. Earlier it used to be the case that is a beta version of the mail but now after being almost 2 years into full operations these errors are a pointer to that Google is not immune to software glitches. We blame Microsoft but we cherish Apple and then apple becomes a self serving entity.The fact is that as the companies grow they are unable to maintain the same verve, enthusiasm and drive that made them reach their glory days. Look at the error message..."Oops the system is unable to perform your operation" If we are to implement such messages in our customer applications it is only considered lame but since it is Google people would recognize the coolness and the openeness of the developer to express their ideas. Apart from the growing clout of Google two things are crystal clear a) they cannot maintain the same velocity of change and innovation and b) they are still not a software services company since such downtime issues warrant more maturity in delivery and handling. What do you think ?
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 6:19 PM No comments:
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Persistence is Wow!! We can all use some of it!
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr the 30th President of US had to say this on Persistence
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
I think this is so remarkably true in my personal and professional life experiences. Just keep on plugging in and we shall work through all the issues surrounding us. After all it is all about Karma!!
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 9:42 AM No comments:
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
American Idol: Sanjay Malakar!!!!
I have never watched American Idol till yesterday. The reason for me to watch was because of Sanjay Malakar, an American born Indian from Federal Way, Washington. Yes, I watched it more out of curiosity of seeing him. Yes, I have to admit, I am just a music listener and by no stretch a discerning music buff. I have yet to vote for him and maybe I never participate in this process since there is already a perception that he is getting votes because of his nationality. Well if open nationwide voting are the rules of the game then everyone should accept it. I guess he might be getting a lot of support from the Indian community but I guess that is pretty much the case for every participant. No doubt, it is different case with the Indian population ( well it helps you in some cases). Again, I am not music guy to say whether he is deserving or not but he stands out of the crowd. As I saw the results today, I could see the clear isolation of Sanjay. Every participant who made it to the next round atleast shared a hug with the fellow participants but poor Sanjay was left to enjoy and savor his relief and joy into the next round with a lonely smile all by himself. Yes, by no stretch of imagination he is going to be theAmerican Idol but he is definitely a star. Why do I say so? The nation watched a young american girl (Ashley) cried crazy. Cried out of joy and disbelief after meeting with her star in Sanjay Malakar. Good Luck Sanjay!!!!
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 10:22 PM 1 comment:
Labels: American Idol, Entertainment, Media, Sanjay Malakar
Monday, March 19, 2007
Bob Woolmer: Cricketing Pressure Leads to Death
I am deeply saddened by the untimely death of Pakistan Cricket Coach Bob Woolmer. Today's sport have such high expectations and pressure that it is beyond words. Pakistan unexpected departure from the World Cup after getting defeated at the hands of rookies Ireland caused a lot of eyebrows and shouts for firing of the captain, coach and lot of other players on the team. But that pressure resulting in death just leaves me dumbfounded. My sincere condolences to the family of the coach!! I just wish people relaxed a bit and stop these money spinners ( bookies, advertisement companies, sponsors) creating bigger than life sized personalities and teams that the pressure is so onerous that we see such an unforntunate incident. The World Cup spirits are marred! Sportsmanship, the ethos of sports is getting lost in the ultra competitvness of the nations and players. My disappointment with the India team being outplayed by Bangladesh is just blown away! The Gentleman's game is on its lowest ebb!!!
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 1:00 AM No comments:
Labels: Cricket, Sports, World Cup 2007
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Cricket World Cup Begins: India vs. Bangladesh
Well the world Cup Cricket has begun few days back and had a share of interesting results like the tie between Ireland and Zimbave but for the 1 billion Indians, the world cup starts today as India takes on Bangladesh. yes, some would say, for us the Pakistan loss to WestIndies was a good omen but the saga starts today.....
We are in trouble,...lost Sehwag in 2nd over and his heir apparent Robin Uthappa was back after not scoring much. Tendulkar, he is still playing was back after a painful stint of 7 runs. all of a sudden Bangladesh looked like Australia. Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid is no longer dependable apart from a dependable friend (his persistence with Sehwag shows his dependability as a friend). Well lets see how far Ganguly and Yuvraj takes us...
Aagh..before all the Pakistani and the Indian community go wild about the lack of performance by the Indian team ....lets see how the match rolls on
We are in trouble,...lost Sehwag in 2nd over and his heir apparent Robin Uthappa was back after not scoring much. Tendulkar, he is still playing was back after a painful stint of 7 runs. all of a sudden Bangladesh looked like Australia. Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid is no longer dependable apart from a dependable friend (his persistence with Sehwag shows his dependability as a friend). Well lets see how far Ganguly and Yuvraj takes us...
Aagh..before all the Pakistani and the Indian community go wild about the lack of performance by the Indian team ....lets see how the match rolls on
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 12:28 PM No comments:
Labels: Cricket, Sports, World Cup 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
Catch Me If You Can
Do you remember Frank Abagnale Jr. , the subject of the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie "Catch Me If You Can" - one of the most notorious con men of the 20th century recently addressed as a featured speaker at a cutting-edge, computer-ruled event like the Wharton Technology Conference 2007. Well that is a significant role reversal from one who stole close to $3 million (mostly by writing bad checks), impersonated not only a pilot but also a pediatrician, and passed the Louisiana bar exam to today where he runs a highly successful security consulting firm out of Tulsa, Okla. -- works hard to keep up with today's computerized and Internet-based fraud. Well lets see if his 20th century con mind can catch the 21st century wiz kids since most of the fraud is going to happen over the Internet. Well there is no doubt that in USA, people tend to forget the past rather quickly. Take another instance of Michael Milken known for selling junkbonds, triggered the collapse of 1989, sentenced for 10 years! Today, he is termed as philanthropist, a financial innovator. Go figure....!!!
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 9:15 AM No comments:
Sunday, March 11, 2007
SOA Testing and MITA
I am finally giving in! After all my blog title is Just Express. I am currently trying to facilitate some MITA testing and performance discussions under the private sector technology group. Its tough to engage industry stalwarts in meaningful and detailed converstations since they are from organizations which compete on a day to day basis. But examples of IBM and Oracle working together are out there in the software world. I sincerely think that by sharing common points of pain and frustration, these converations, dialogs and collaboration will lead to more matured and evolved thinking and benefit the MMIS industry as a whole. Anwyay, I recently penned my thoughts on test aspect on their WIKI site. Here is the URL for it . http://www.mitahealth.org/wiki/index.php?title=Testing_Approach_to_SOA
You might have to register to post any comments on that write-up.
You might have to register to post any comments on that write-up.
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 12:01 AM No comments:
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Trick or Treat: Political Buffonery of Day light Savings Time Shift
As we approach the new day light savings time deadline, a look back shows yet another political decision costing the United States not only dollars but plenty of chaos and anxiety. As political Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, predicted that children would rejoice at the prospect of an extra hour of daylight trick-or-treating on Halloween. Well the country has been tricked into spending millions of dollars on a Y2K like problem and unforeseen dollars in lost productivity. Well that is definitely a costly treat for the kids at Halloween. Yes there would be savings for the less fossil fuel that would be burned but I would be pleasantly surprised if this would outweigh the costs and the anxious moments that are being spent on the IT fixes. Yes it means good quarterly revenue numbers for IT services firms and consulting organizations but I just wish politicians had a better set of advisors in the future otherwise we would be tricked into yet another political sucide.
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 9:50 PM No comments:
The Million Dollar Baby: Are you parenting one?
In this Wall Street Journal (WSJ) there was a report on how much money is being spend on raising kids from age 0-17. Well though the Government numbers were respectable at $16,000 per year, WSJ identified the numbers in the range of 800K to 1.6 million dollars for the period of 17 years. And to top it all, these numbers do not include college education. Initially I was just 'WOW' but then things started to settle in. The example of $800 stroller ( my wife and I discussed buying one, good we just discussed), a $1000 birthday party with a mermaid theme ( attended one that very weekend where the birthday for a 4 year old had a princess theme with a dressed up princess, customized 30 goodie bags and a clown too), $ 3000 annual family vacation trips, $4000 braces treatment and the numbers start to make sense. These kids are surely pampered and I am indeed jealous. The reason this article grabbed my attention was that I have been blessed with an angel girl recently and just reading these articles and numbers blew me away. But on the positive side I said, if I can not be a millionaire, at least I will have the satisfaction of raising one :).
Posted by Arvinder Singh at 9:46 PM No comments:
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Pope Francis Suggests Changing The Words To The 'Lord's Prayer'
The phrase "lead us not into temptation" isn't right, the pontiff says, because "a father does not do this." France's Catholic Church has changed the phrase in its version of the Lord's Prayer.
Pope Francis isn't pleased with the words to the Lord's Prayer — specifically, the part about temptation.
In an interview with an Italian TV network, the pontiff said that the current language of the Our Father prayer "is not a good translation."
and , the


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Dave Stanley, the former owner of the Reno Fly Shop, Owner/Guide at Truckee River Outfitters, accomplished fly tyer and all around great dude will be pulling back the curtain and showing us how to tie one of the most successful streamer patterns ever fished on the Truckee River.
Dave will be teaching you how to tie the Stanley Streamer next Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 here at the Reno Fly Shop. This will be the next installment of our winter tying sessions and hopefully not the last taught by Dave.
I will have a YouTube video soon to show you the steps but don't miss out learning to tie this from "the Man" himself. Registration is open and limited to 6 participants. Cost is $30 and includes all of the materials to tie your own. As always please bring your own vise and tools if you have them. Following the class we will have packages available of the materials to tie the Streamer at home.
Check back by the end of the week for the video to drop.


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text: Samuel Montalvo, Esq., is a U.S veteran who graduated Summa Cum Laude from Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico with a major in Business Administration and a minor in Marketing. He Graduated Cum Laude from the Inter American School of Law in Puerto Rico as well as from Oxford University in England where he completed Advanced Evidence and Trial technics. He represented the accused in criminal proceedings during his stay in the Public Defender office in San Juan Puerto Rico, worked Pro Bono in the Innocents Project and the Inter American Community Legal Office, where he worked with Low-Income people. He joined Community tax as a Resolution Practitioner after 10 years of working within the banking industry.


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animal control
BRIDGEPORT – At-large and unlicensed dogs are becoming a problem within the city limits. At its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 21, the city council pursued possible remedies with animal control contractor, Bill Zweigle, who also handles Mansfield dog issues. Zweigle said that some 75...
NCW Media Newspapers
- The Leavenworth Echo | Leavenworth, WA
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SYLVANIA Headlight Restoration Kit
I recently purchased a 2006 Chevy Malibu for my daughter. It was her first car so needless to say I was a little worried. Obviously, I wanted her to be able to see clearly at night. The problem was that her passenger side headlight was very dim. It was covered in a yellow film caused by UV rays, dirt and other debris. It was so bad that many of her friends would tell her that she had a headlight out. I knew I had to do something. That's when I found the SYLVANIA Headlight Restoration Kit. I will be the first to tell you, I am not a car guy! My automotive mechanic skills are limited to changing the wiper blades, adding wiper fluid and maybe changing a fuse. After watching the instructional video (below), this looked like a repair even I could do.
There are a lot of times I will watch a video and say, "wow that looks easy!" then when I attempt it, the results are no where near what was on the video. This is one case where it was just as easy, and I was shocked at how well it worked.
Overall the process took about 20 minutes. I would recommend watching the installation video first as it is a little easier to follow than printed directions. Of course that maybe me as I have always been a visual learner.
Either way, the end result had my daughter's headlight much cleaner and significantly increased her vision at night. For more information, visit https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/products/automotive/Pages/headlight-restoration-kit.aspx if your headlights are dim, you will be glad you did.
If your headlight lenses are not dirty, perhaps it's time to change the bulbs. You might want to try the SYLVANIA SilverStar zXe halogen headlights. These are SYLVANIA's whitest lights giving you better night viewing. These HID lights are 100% street legal and meet all DOT requirements. Give your car style and safety by upgrading your headlights and diode dynamics. Visit https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/products/automotive/Pages/silverstar-zxe.aspx for more details on these replacement headlights.


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In 2015, NCFE acquired CACHE. This has resulted in NCFE CACHE being the UK's 3rd largest Awarding Body.
Put simply, the NCFE CACHE awarding provides qualifications for those who care and educate. CACHE stands for the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education, and are the leading specialist Awarding Organisation for the Care and Education Sector.
NCFE CACHE is the UK's only specialist awarding organisation for the children, adult and healthcare sectors, with a portfolio of qualifications ranging from Entry to Level 5.


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