PDA

View Full Version : That Afghanistan War Just Not Worth Our Time and Treasure



Kathianne
02-05-2024, 11:09 AM
Hmmm:

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/02/al-qaeda-opens-8-new-training-camps-5-madrasas-and-a-facilitation-network-to-iran-in-afghanistan.php




Al Qaeda opens 8 new training camps, 5 madrasas, and a facilitation network to Iran in Afghanistan
BY BILL ROGGIO | February 1, 2024 | @billroggio
Al Qaeda opened eight new training camps, five madrasas, a weapons depot and safe houses in Afghanistan that are used to facilitate the movement of its members to and from Iran. Additionally, “the relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaida remains close,” the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team reported.


The presence of new Al Qaeda training camps and other infrastructure inside Afghanistan was disclosed by the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which issued its latest report on Afghanistan on January 29.


The eight Al Qaeda camps have been opened in the provinces of Ghazni, Laghman, Parwan and Uruzgan. “Some camps might be temporary,” the Monitoring Team noted.


Al Qaeda is now operating training camps in 10 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. In its previous report, the Monitoring Team reported that Al Qaeda was operating training camps in Helmand, Zabul, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Badghis, and Kunar. An Al Qaeda leader known as Hakim al-Masri is “is responsible for the training camps and conducting suicide bomber training for TTP.”


In the central province of Panjshir, the former bastion of the anti-Taliban National Resistance Front, Al Qaeda has established a new base “to stockpile weaponry.” Al Qaeda is also operating five madrasas, or religious schools, in Laghman, Kunar, Nangarhar, Nuristan and Parwan provinces.


Al Qaeda and the Iran connection


In Herat, Farah and Helmand provinces, Al Qaeda “maintains safe houses to facilitate the movement [of members] between Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” as well as safe houses in Kabul.


At least one Al Qaeda safe house in Kabul was exposed in July 2022, when the U.S. killed Ayman al Zawahiri, the co-founder and previous emir of Al Qaeda. Zawahiri was killed in a drone strike as he sheltered in a safe house that was run by a lieutenant of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is one of the Taliban’s two deputy emirs as well as the current interior minister. Sirajuddin’s powerful Haqqani Network is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization for its close ties to Al Qaeda. Sirajuddin and many of his top lieutenants are also labeled as Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the U.S.


The Monitoring Team’s previous report noted that Al Qaeda operated safe houses in these four provinces, but did not disclose that the infrastructure in Herat, Farah and Helmand were used to facilitate travel of leaders and members to and from Iran.


Herat, Farah and Helmand provinces are on the border with Iran, where Al Qaeda leaders are known to shelter. The Monitoring Team noted that “individuals travelling to provide liaison between Al Qaeda’s de facto leader, Saif al Adel, in the Islamic Republic of Iran and senior Al Qaeda figures in Afghanistan, including Abdul Rahman al-Ghamdi.”


“Six new Al-Qaida operatives were reported to have moved to eastern Afghanistan to join Katiba Umar Faruq under the leadership of Abu Ikhlas al-Masri.”


A previous Sanctions and Monitoring Team report noted that Abu Ikhlas al-Masri, a veteran Al Qaeda leader, had reestablished his unit in Kunar province after the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021. Prior to his capture by U.S. forces in 2010, Abu Ikhlas al-Masri ran training camps in Kunar, where he served as Al Qaeda’s chief of operations. Abu Ikhlas al-Masri and other Al Qaeda, Islamic State and other terrorist leaders and operatives were freed from Bagram prison after it fell to the Taliban in the summer of 2021.


The presence of top Al Qaeda leaders inside Iran has been documented by the U.S. government in numerous designations over the years. Other senior leaders known to have been operating inside Iran include ‘Abd al Rahman al Maghrebi, Yasin al Suri, Sa’ad bin Laden (now deceased), and Mustafa Hamid. [For a list of Al Qaeda leaders, operatives and facilitators operating in Iran, see FDD’s Long War Journal report, U.S. identifies additional al Qaeda leaders in Iran.]


In addition to keeping tabs on senior Al Qaeda figures inside Iran, the U.S. Treasury and State Departments have repeatedly exposed Iran’s “secret deal” with the Sunni jihadists. Under an agreement with the Iranian regime, Al Qaeda has maintained its “core facilitation pipeline” inside Iran. The Iranians have allowed this facilitation network to operate even though Iran and Al Qaeda are on opposite sides of the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.


Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Gunny
02-05-2024, 07:42 PM
Hmmm:

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2024/02/al-qaeda-opens-8-new-training-camps-5-madrasas-and-a-facilitation-network-to-iran-in-afghanistan.php

The US lost sight of why it was there. Everybody should have been on a plane or boat back to the World the day after bin Laden died. All that trying to fix the place and its people was a joke. What happens when you get too involved with those around you on mission.

Black Diamond
02-05-2024, 08:33 PM
I know I am not exactly Bill Kristol. But I wanted a permanent military presence in Afghanistan.

Kathianne
02-05-2024, 11:37 PM
The US lost sight of why it was there. Everybody should have been on a plane or boat back to the World the day after bin Laden died. All that trying to fix the place and its people was a joke. What happens when you get too involved with those around you on mission.

I can live without 'fixing the place,' but terrorists have been training and occupying Afghanistan for a long time. I do not think we should have pulled out totally, certainly not like we did. While there were efforts to educate the women and some other social justice attempts, I do not have a problem with not doing those 'cultural' issues, which just pisses the leaders off. Just remain a 'strong,' (oxymoron with Biden), presence-destroying any camps, etc.

Gunny
02-06-2024, 06:07 PM
I can live without 'fixing the place,' but terrorists have been training and occupying Afghanistan for a long time. I do not think we should have pulled out totally, certainly not like we did. While there were efforts to educate the women and some other social justice attempts, I do not have a problem with not doing those 'cultural' issues, which just pisses the leaders off. Just remain a 'strong,' (oxymoron with Biden), presence-destroying any camps, etc.No, we should not have pulled out like we did. We should never have put ourselves in the position that some idiot could come along and accomplish that.

Recap: We "punished" the Taliban by removing them from power and at one time had them hiding in Pakistan. 20 years later we left, and who was there to take back over? Certainly not that corrupt, sometimes-useful idiot Karzai who cut and ran the second he got the chance. His brother's opium business was done under the Taliban and so was he. Point is, unless or until we -- the US specifically as worst -- accept those people for who and what they are and where their mindset is, we need to stick to the simple stuff like blowing stuff up as retaliation and let whoever's left deal with the fallout.

They've been there fighting whoever forever playing the long game while we get pissed if we have to wait more than a day for our Amazon order. They're like ants. If we aren't going to kill them all, we are accomplishing nothing. Nobody likes to hear it or say it, but that's the only way to deal with these barbaric psychos. They don't want anything we have to offer, and certainly not to be like us. To them we are weak.

Better those people had never met us than give them hope only to run out on them. THAT just flat pisses me off. Yet they sit around in Washington extolling the virtues of their make-believe selves:rolleyes:

Speaking of ... I don't seem to recall hearing anyone on the right throwing up Biden's debacle every chance in this election year. See how easily we forget and move on?

Kathianne
02-06-2024, 07:45 PM
No, we should not have pulled out like we did. We should never have put ourselves in the position that some idiot could come along and accomplish that.

Recap: We "punished" the Taliban by removing them from power and at one time had them hiding in Pakistan. 20 years later we left, and who was there to take back over? Certainly not that corrupt, sometimes-useful idiot Karzai who cut and ran the second he got the chance. His brother's opium business was done under the Taliban and so was he. Point is, unless or until we -- the US specifically as worst -- accept those people for who and what they are and where their mindset is, we need to stick to the simple stuff like blowing stuff up as retaliation and let whoever's left deal with the fallout.

They've been there fighting whoever forever playing the long game while we get pissed if we have to wait more than a day for our Amazon order. They're like ants. If we aren't going to kill them all, we are accomplishing nothing. Nobody likes to hear it or say it, but that's the only way to deal with these barbaric psychos. They don't want anything we have to offer, and certainly not to be like us. To them we are weak.

Better those people had never met us than give them hope only to run out on them. THAT just flat pisses me off. Yet they sit around in Washington extolling the virtues of their make-believe selves:rolleyes:

Speaking of ... I don't seem to recall hearing anyone on the right throwing up Biden's debacle every chance in this election year. See how easily we forget and move on?


I haven't forgotten. I don't think it was just conservatives either. It was immediately after pull out that his approval tanked and never came close to recovering. I think he'd proven his incompetence with that.

Gunny
02-07-2024, 11:47 AM
I haven't forgotten. I don't think it was just conservatives either. It was immediately after pull out that his approval tanked and never came close to recovering. I think he'd proven his incompetence with that.I can't say. He proves his incompetence daily. All he has to do is open his mouth. His handlers won't even let him do the traditional 3 min SB halftime interview this year. Who are you rooting for and what's your favorite SB snack are apparently questions they fear he will f- up:rolleyes:

He has screwed up so much here at home since Afghanistan, and Afghanistan didn't physically happen to us while inflation and other bad policy has, I don't see it as much of a consideration for most. Currently, foremost around these parts is his incompetence and dereliction of duty in upholding his obligation to protect the US/states from invasion. People can mince words all they want. IMO, it is nothing less.

His only insurance against me calling daily for his impeachment daily if not more is Harris. I'm pretty sure the invisible Dem powers that be behind the scenes know this just as they knew it running Biden as Obama's VP. There IS "worse". "By comparison" sells.

Kathianne
02-07-2024, 12:03 PM
I can't say. He proves his incompetence daily. All he has to do is open his mouth. His handlers won't even let him do the traditional 3 min SB halftime interview this year. Who are you rooting for and what's your favorite SB snack are apparently questions they fear he will f- up:rolleyes:

He has screwed up so much here at home since Afghanistan, and Afghanistan didn't physically happen to us while inflation and other bad policy has, I don't see it as much of a consideration for most. Currently, foremost around these parts is his incompetence and dereliction of duty in upholding his obligation to protect the US/states from invasion. People can mince words all they want. IMO, it is nothing less.

His only insurance against me calling daily for his impeachment daily if not more is Harris. I'm pretty sure the invisible Dem powers that be behind the scenes know this just as they knew it running Biden as Obama's VP. There IS "worse". "By comparison" sells.

I certainly get 'daily incompetence ' and agree. What I was trying to say, Afghanistan withdrawal as a paradigm shift for the rank and file, don't know much voters. In 2020 that included a sizeable number of independents and no Trump conservatives; they realized the incompetent boob they'd literally just elected. Now it's a question of dealing with the same two awful fools for 2024.

Gunny
02-07-2024, 12:14 PM
I certainly get 'daily incompetence ' and agree. What I was trying to say, Afghanistan withdrawal as a paradigm shift for the rank and file, don't know much voters. In 2020 that included a sizeable number of independents and no Trump conservatives; they realized the incompetent boob they'd literally just elected. Now it's a question of dealing with the same two awful fools for 2024.

Looking at current World geo politics, we're in deep shit either way. Neither has impressed me as CinC. Both have foreign policies that only embolden enemies/the riff raff and neither understand how to use the military effectively.

Meanwhile, China's Navy is larger than ours now. We of course are selling the "quality over quantity" schtick which does not address China is in full industrial output while we are on our usual, "peacetime' leisurely pace.