The Obama administration never reports good news. The best they can do is alter the stats, apply the spin, or say nothing. The Afghanistan policy is a perfect example of the latter.
With winter approaching in Afghanistan, Taliban militants there seem more determined than ever to expand their influence across the country.
On Friday, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan announced that it was sending Western advisers to Farah province, a rural area just northwest of Helmand Province, to buoy Afghan soldiers there battling the insurgent group.
The newfound Western presence in Farah comes roughly a week after Taliban fighters began making concerted efforts to seize the city of Farah, the capital of the province. Around the same time, the Taliban began offensives near Helmand’s provincial capital of Lashkar Gah and also managed to enter the northern city of Kunduz before being pushed back to the city’s outskirts after more than a week of heavy fighting.
“What we believe we’re seeing right now is the Taliban trying to make an effort before the end of the year to achieve their 2016 strategic objective of capturing a provincial capital,” said Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the spokesman for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, in an email.
Did you catch that? Unlike Obama, the Taliban actually has a stated objective. Obama’s response? Send advisers.
The article continues
It is unclear how many advisers are heading to Farah, but Resolute Support, the name of the NATO-led Afghanistan mission, tweeted that it had sent an “expeditionary advisory package,” or group of soldiers and advisers, to the embattled province.
And I love what military officials say of the U.S. presence so far?
While military officials bill the advisory packages as a means to assist embattled Afghan security forces with on-the-ground guidance, the U.S. troops provide more of a “placebo effect,” said one U.S. adviser.
Placebo: something said or done to humor another.
And the outcome, when you have on strategy and you offer only a placebo? According to the article:
Despite the widening of U.S. air support, the White House believes that the war in Afghanistan is tipping in the Taliban’s favor. Speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about Afghanistan’s deteriorating security situation, a senior administration official called the situation in the country an “eroding stalemate.”
Thankfully America will soon be rid of Obama, and when Trump is elected we can set a real strategy.