Remember Afghanistan? Trump's strategy is failing badly as Taliban gains ground

[DonViejo]

At least 200 Afghan security forces were killed this week as U.S.-led troops retreat before the Taliban

MATTHEW ROZSA
AUGUST 17, 2018 10:00AM (UTC)

Remember the war in Afghanistan? It never ended, and now President Donald Trump faces harsh questions about what appear to be serious military setbacks in that perennially troubled nation.

At least 200 to 300 Afghan security forces have been killed by Taliban insurgents since Friday, with the lower number reported by ABC News. (Other sources have reported greater numbers of casualties.) The first attack was an intricately coordinated effort by the Taliban to capture the city of Ghazni, 75 miles south of Kabul, the Afghan capital. Since then, U.S. military "advisers" and airstrikes have been deployed to flush out Taliban fighters from Ghazni's residential neighborhoods, with the violence only seeming to subside on Wednesday.

After the skirmish in the city of Ghazni, another Taliban attack occurred some distance away in Ghazni Province. This time the battle took place in Arjistan, a western district of the province, and 50 members of the security force were reported killed. Taliban casualties appear to be unknown.

In northern Afghanistan, Taliban fighters also killed more than 100 people during an attack on an Afghan Army base in Faryab Province on Friday. Even Kabul saw some violence, with a Shiite neighborhood victimized by a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday that killed at least 25 people and wounded at least 35 others. It is unclear what group was responsible for that attack, since acts of violence in Kabul aren't necessarily perpetrated by the Taliban.

Then there is this report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday:

Gunmen attacked the Afghan intelligence service’s training facility in central Kabul on Thursday, a day after a suicide bomber struck a classroom full of students in the city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which follows almost a week of high-profile assaults largely by the Taliban that have killed at least 311 people, mostly government soldiers and police. The Taliban’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, neither confirmed nor denied their fighters carried out the raid.

more
https://www.salon.com/2018/08/17/remember-afghanistan-trumps-strategy-is-failing-badly-as-taliban-gains-ground/

[lark]

1. He fails at everything he touches.

That's part of the reason PUtin picked him to devastate the USA and democratic world.

[riversedge]

2. #TRumpTRain does not care about this trump failure promise.