The Great Game

 

Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised,
With idiot moons and stars retracting stars?
Creep thou between -- thy coming's all unnoised.
Heaven hath her high, as Earth her baser, wars.
Heir to these tumults, this affright, that fray
(By Adam's, fathers', own, sin bound alway);
Peer up, draw out thy horoscope and say
Which planet mends thy threadbare fate, or mars

(Kim by Rudyard Kipling)

His McMaster's Voice

That was the title of a post at Breitbart and it is right on the money. President Trump has been captured by the Swamp and is being turned out by the Deep State. In his speech he said his first instinct was to get out of Afghanistan. That is what he ran on. That is what he promised. That is what I voted for.

Not 4,000 more hostages to be maimed or killed. For what? To stop terrorism? Have we stopped terrorism after 16 years in that hellhole?

Just as I predicted all of the enemies of normal Americans praised him. The media was on board. Lady Lindsey Graham was coming in his pants. Even old man McCain praised him when he never agreed with anything Donald Trump has ever done. The neocons are ecstatic. They see it is a return to normalcy. More death. More endless wars. More reasons to talk with furrowed brows on CNN or MSNBC.

Trumiph of the Deep State.....the Endless War is not going to end...it is going to be escalated.

Trump to address nation on Afghanistan policy Monday night By BRENT D. GRIFFITHS Politico 

President Donald Trump will address the country Monday night when he will provide an update on his administration's plans for Afghanistan and South Asia.

The details of what Trump will announce are not clear, but he is expected to approve sending more troops to Afghanistan.

War and human error

Excerpt:

"More than a dozen U.S. military personnel have been disciplined — but face no criminal charges — for mistakes that led to the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 42 people in Afghanistan last year, U.S. defense officials say.

The punishments, which have not been publicly announced, are largely administrative. But in some cases the actions, such as letters of reprimand, are tough enough to effectively end chances for further promotion. The military has previously said some personnel were suspended from their duties but has given no further details.

The disciplined include both officers and enlisted personnel, but officials said none are generals.

...The hospital, run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders in the northern city of Kunduz, was attacked by a U.S. Air Force special operations AC-130 gunship, one of the most lethal in the U.S. arsenal. Doctors Without Borders called the attack "relentless and brutal" and demanded an international investigation, but none has been undertaken.

Army Gen. John Campbell, who was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan at the time but has since relinquished command, has called it a "tragic but avoidable accident caused primarily by human error."

...Afghan officials claimed the hospital had been overrun by the Taliban, but no evidence of that has surfaced. The hospital was destroyed and Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym, MSF, ceased operations in Kunduz."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/12-punished-mistaken-hospital-attack-37699504

“Afghanistan is a dangerous place”

"Pentagon Avoids the Word ‘Combat’ After Another U.S. Soldier Killed in Afghanistan"

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook, briefing reporters even as hostilities in Marjah were still reported to be underway, said he could not comment on claims by the Taliban that it had brought down the helicopter, or that it had been hit by a mortar while on the ground.

Cook was asked several times, in different ways, whether U.S. forces were in fact engaged in combat in Afghanistan, but did not answer directly.

“Could you explain the context of what’s going on in Marjah that required U.S. combat presence given that combat mission is over?” Cook was asked.

“Well as you know, we’re conducting ‘train, advise and assist’ in Helmand province,” he replied.

Cook was unable to clarify the mission involving the U.S. special operations troops and their Afghan counterparts.

“I cannot tell you with specificity at this point exactly what they were doing there at this particular time, other than this was an operation that was consistent with that ‘train, advise and assist’ mission.”

Islamic Scourge

I was not aware that ISIS was in Afghanistan until just now. ISIL (the President's favorite term) will no longer do and nor will ISIS, given their etymologies. I suggest just IS which stands for Islamic Scourge.

link to original

Tolerance?

US soldiers are being court-martialed and drummed out of the service because they stopped homosexual rape of under aged boys.

Captain Dan Quinn beat the shit out of an Afghan pervert who had been raping a young boy that he had chained to his bed. To stop him from abusing this child which seems to be a "cultural norm" of this Muslim society. This special forces Captain was court-martialed and thrown out of the Army. His Sergeant who was involved is now being targeted by the Army.

According to a report on Hot Air when asked about this matter: "When asked about American military policy, the spokesman for the American command in Afghanistan, Col. Brian Tribus, wrote in an email: “Generally, allegations of child sexual abuse by Afghan military or police personnel would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law.” He added that “there would be no express requirement that U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan report it.” 

Don't ask......don't tell?

Now President Obama has nominated a gay executive to be Secretary of the Army. Will he be asked about this situation? Does he approve ignoring the raping of teenage boys by our so called allies? Does he think the only people who should be punished are the ones who are trying to stop it?

Tolerance. It's a wonderful thing.

"Bergdahl faces charges of desertion"

"Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who was recovered in Afghanistan last spring after five years in captivity, faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, according to his lawyer."

"Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl’s attorney, told The Washington Post that his client was handed a charge sheet on Tuesday. Army officials announced they will provide an update in his case at 3:30 p.m. at Fort Bragg, N.C., but declined to discuss new developments ahead of the news conference."

Washington Times: Pentagon knew Bergdahl’s whereabouts but didn’t risk rescue for ‘deserter’

The Pentagon on several occasions had ground-level intelligence on where ArmySgt. Bowe Bergdahl was being held captive at various times — down to how many gunmen were guarding him — but special operations commanders repeatedly shelved rescue missions because they didn’t want to risk casualties for a man they believed to be a “deserter,” sources familiar with the mission plans said.

Commanders on the ground debated whether to pull the trigger on a rescue several times in recent years, according to one of the sources, a former high-level intelligence official in Afghanistan, who said the conclusion each time was that the prospect of losing highly trained troops was too high a price to pay for rescuing a soldier who walked away from his unit before being captured by the enemy. (read more)

Starting to look like we traded 5 Taliban fighters for 1 Taliban fighter. http://t.co/a5Mp9hysxl
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 2, 2014

Vietnam-era recoilless rifles to be sent to Afghanistan

"According to Swedish defense contractor Saab, the U.S. Army is planning to issue recoilless rifles broadly to regular units for the first time in more than 30 years. The decision reflects the service’s combat experience in Afghanistan.

The ground combat branch had previously made a small purchase of recoilless rifles in 2012, but just for units in Afghanistan. All light infantry units may now receive them.

Recoilless weapons get their name from the fact that they let some of the propelling force escape out of the rear of the weapon as it fires. These counteracting forces reduce recoil normally associated with bigger guns.

These weapons were originally meant to take out tanks. The Army got rid of the vast majority of its recoilless rifles in favor of new anti-tank missiles in the late 1970s.

Fighting in Afghanistan inspired new interest in the weapons. The recoilless rifles give infantry more firepower over longer ranges then they previously had.

Troops had complained that insurgents knew their limits and were using the country’s terrain to their advantage. Militants routinely took up positions behind rocks, trees and buildings, often at ranges of 1,000 meters or more.

Troops requested a new weapon that had the range, power and accuracy to hit hidden fighters. The weapon also needed to be cheap enough that commanders would actually let their soldiers use it.

In early 2011, the Army responded to these demands and sent some Vietnam-era recoilless rifles to Afghanistan. The troops were thrilled with the variety of ammunition available for these weapons, including a shell that scatters thousands of little metal darts called flechettes."

medium.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We're on our way out of Afghanistan. Seems too little, too late, but I guess they'll be able to shoot their way out more effectively.

"Obama’s Afghanistan experts stumped on U.S. death toll, war costs during hearing"

President Obama’s brain trust on Afghanistan does not know much the U.S. spends on the war each year or the American cost in lost lives on the battlefield.

This embarrassing lack of basic knowledge from State Department and Pentagon experts on Afghanistan at a House hearing Wednesday prompted even a Democrat to say he was stunned.

The setting was the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Issue: Afghanistan and the transition to fewer U.S. troops post-2014.

Washington Times, Click read more for relevant video clip of the testimony

BREAKING: U.S. Consulate in Afghanistan Under Attack

Not again...

"The United States consulate in Afghanistan is reportedly under attack, with multiple reports saying a car bomb was detonated outside the consulate in the city of Herat. According to the Associated Press, the governor of Herat province said militants were responsible for detonating the car bomb, which has so far injured seven civilians."

A gunbattle between militants and security forces in the area was still going on Friday morning.

Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi, the governor of Herat province, says it’s unclear if any of the militants managed to get inside the compound.

Via Instapundit, Media-ite

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Taliban office in Doha, Qatar

Peace talks between Karzai's Afghan government and the pre-9/11 government, the Taliban, stalled in June when the Taliban set up a political office in Doha, Qatar. Flying their white flag with Quranic verse, they claimed representation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. An "enraged" Karzai accused them trying to set up a government in exile. Currently, there are back channel negotiations to get the talks re-started. The Taliban is unwilling to compromise on the flag or the name.

The Taliban representative also says they are willing to accept the current Afghan constitution, with the exception of three unidentified clauses, and that "Taliban leadership was ready to acknowledge that it made a mistake in denying girls access to education and politics. He said the Taliban were prepared to accept women as lawmakers."

AP
Afghanistan High Peace Concil

Men First, Children Second, Women Last.

So goes a little bit of a story, a woman introduced to us former? Althouse commenters, and whom I proceeded to call Smoking Lady, where she, tells a Canadian journalist writing a piece on her, the Smoking Lady - Women Oppression is basically a Myth.

Here is the video of Smoking Lady telling the story of how the title of this post came to be ...  you can skip up to the beginning of the story, the fun part, at 1:40 in the video.

I find Feminism is very mockable*. Bra Burnings? ... are you kidding me?
Please feel free to share your own stories, impressions, apprehensions and whatever Inga wants to say. (At Lem's we love Inga)

*This word doesn't usually appear in our free dictionary (Online Merrian Webster), but the definition from our premium Unabridged Dictionary is offered here on a limited basis. Note that some information is displayed differently in the Unabridged.