{"id":175012,"date":"2018-08-20T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T06:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=175012"},"modified":"2018-08-23T03:39:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T03:39:50","slug":"trumps-sanctions-on-iran-dig-deeper-grave-for-us-forces-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=175012","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s sanctions on Iran dig deeper grave for US forces in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finian Cunningham — Russia Today August 16, 2018<\/h1>\n
\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. and Afghan troops on patrol near the town Yawez<\/p><\/div>\n

The dramatic, and seemingly unstoppable, surge of Taliban offensives across Afghanistan is proof that the US is fast becoming the latest foreign power to succumb to failure in a land known for being the \u201cgraveyard of empires\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

But unlike past empires defeated in Afghanistan, the US stands out as singularly contributing to its own ill-fate through excessive blundering and its legacy of criminal duplicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

In particular, Washington\u2019s obsession with confronting neighboring Iran and plotting regime change in Tehran could well be the tipping point in Afghanistan. The point, that is, where the US tips itself into a strategic, military grave it has been digging in Afghanistan over the past two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

After 17 years of US military occupation costing the US taxpayer trillions of dollars, the Taliban insurgents seem to be able to launch spectacular attacks at will against the Washington-backed government in Kabul. By any measure, that portends a historic defeat for Washington\u2019s imperial ambitions. And not just in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past week, a strategic city, Ghazni, only 150 kms south from the capital was under Taliban occupation for several days before the militants appeared to make a tactical retreat to surrounding areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday, the Taliban mounted<\/a><\/strong><\/span> a gun battle on a military-intelligence training base, as if to underline the ineffectualness of US-backed security forces. A military intelligence base caught in a surprise attack?<\/span><\/p>\n

Further north, in Faryab province, an Afghan National Army base was reportedly<\/a><\/strong><\/span> over-run by militants with the apparent loss of 30 troops and the remaining 70 captured. Provincial elders said the base was easily captured by the Taliban because it lacked reinforcements, ammunition and food. So much for US support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recall that Afghanistan was supposed to be the \u201cSoviet Union\u2019s Vietnam<\/em>\u201d. That was how US planners like Zbigniew Brzezinski gleefully referred<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to Afghanistan and their nefarious scheme to inflict on the Soviets what the US had ignominiously suffered in Vietnam only a few years earlier. In 1979, Soviet troops were lured into the Central Asian country to prop up an allied government in Kabul coming under attack from US-backed tribal fighters, the Mujahideen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like British imperial troops a century before, the Soviets suffered defeat in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan at the hands of fearless fighters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the Soviets were not just up against Afghans. The CIA had weaponized the Mujahideen with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other sophisticated munitions. Along with Britain\u2019s MI6, the Saudis and Pakistani military intelligence, the Afghan insurgents were turned into a jihadist army which later evolved into the Al Qaeda terror network.<\/span><\/p>\n

The irony is, however, that the \u201cSoviet Vietnam\u201d has now turned into another US quagmire \u2013 an American Vietnam redux.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 on New York City and Washington DC, the George W Bush administration rushed into Afghanistan in an act of revenge against Al Qaeda \u2013 the very organization that the Americans had earlier helped create.<\/span><\/p>\n

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From 'barbaric' Islamists to fighters against ISIS https:\/\/t.co\/2p1RCM0q7t<\/a><\/p>\n

— RT (@RT_com) August 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n