Killing at least 140 Afghan soldiers today, the Taliban officially began its spring offensive, proving after16 years since former President George W. Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom Oct. 7, 2001 that the U.S. has made little progress. Toppling the Taliban Oct. 26, 2001, the Islamic government was driven underground, launching a stubborn guerrilla war since driven from power. With 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan largely based out of Bagram Air Force Base, U.S. forces are not in combat roles against the Taliban, unable to stop Taliban terrorist attacks. Afghan’s 67-year-old President Ashraf Ghani finds himself in a bind when former Afghan President Hamid Karzai denounced the U.S. for dropping a 21,000-pound GBU-23B bomb April 13 on Osama bin Laden’s old cave complexes, now occupied by al-Qaeda and ISIS near the Khyber Pass in the Spin Ghar Mountains bordering Pakistan.
President Donald Trump finds himself battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Without U.S. troops in Afghanistan, there’s little question the Taliban would return to power in Kabul. Karzai fueled the Taliban denouncing Trump’s April 13 bombing, accusing Ghani of treason for coordinating with the U.S. Since leaving office Sept. 29, 2014, Karzai’s thrown his support to the Taliban. All the years Karzai worked with the U.S. since evicting the Taliban from Kabul Oct. 26, 2001, he’s thrown his backing to the Taliban. Karzai was often accused by the Pentagon of tipping off the Taliban during his reign of power. Surviving 13 years in office, Karzai learned to play both sides against the middle, working with the Pentagon while tipping off the Taliban about U.S. troop movements. Today’s attack on the Mazar-i-Sharif base killed 140.
Most the dead were massacred in the base’s mosque in morning prayers by machine guns and suicide bombers, proving, once again, the kind of Sunni-on-Sunni violence between Afghan’s U.S.-backed government and the Taliban. Calling the attack “cowardly” and the work of “infidels,” Ghani doesn’t know whether his military is infiltrated by the Taliban. Calling Ghani a traitor, Karzai looks to save himself, encouraging the Taliban to lash out at the Afghan government. Trump has his hands full trying to deal with ISIS in Syria, Egypt and Libya, while, at the same time, dealing with the Taliban’s Spring-offensive. Taliban officials claimed the attack was retribution for recent killings of Taliban commanders in Northern Afghanistan. Taliban Commander Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the Taliban attack killed over 500 Afghan soldiers by infiltrating the army.
Using rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and suicide bombers, the Taliban shows it’s every bit as ruthless as ISIS, al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group where there are not rules of engagement or limits to barbarity. “The attack on the 209th Corps today shows the barbaric nature of the Taliban,” said U.S. Gen. John Nicholson. Without coalition backing to the Afghan military, it wouldn’t take long for the Taliban to regain power. Sixteen years after the start of Afghan war, the U.S. is no closer to leaving Afghanistan than from Day 1. Islamic extremism makes no distinction in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya or any other Mideast country dealing with the same radical groups that use terror as the strategy to upend Democratic or authoritarian regimes around planet. Afghan’s fight against Taliban terror is no different than what’s happening with ISIS and al-Qaeda.
When President Barack Obama decided to pull out U.S. forces from Iraq Dec. 15, 2012, it opened the door for ISIS. By 2014, ISIS blitzed Iraq and Syria, taking some 30% of sovereign territory. If Obama had pulled U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, the Taliban would be back in Kabul. With the Taliban insurgency 16 years old, there’s no end in sight to the Afghan War. When you consider what the U.S. and coalition forces have to do to evict ISIS from Iraq and Syria, it made no sense for Obama to leave Iraq. As ISIS continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria, they’ll sponsor more terror attacks in Europe, like the lone wolf attack in Paris April 20, leaving a dead police officer. For the U.S. to have any coherent counter-terrorism policy, President Donald Trump must take the battle to the enemy, not wait for the next terror attack to wash up on U.S. soil.
Watching the Taliban massacre at least 140 Afghan soldiers, the U.S. must keep the pressure up on terrorists seeking safe have in any part of the globe. Pulling out of Iraq in 2012, Obama miscalculated the consequences of his decision. Confronted with terrorism in the Mideast and a rogue state threatening nuclear war in North Korea, Trump has a lot on his foreign policy plate. Hitting Syria with 59 Cruise missiles April 4, Trump put to rest specious allegations about his ties to Russia. Telling North Korea that the U.S. has lost patience with North Korea, Trump signaled that he’s no Russian puppet as spread by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hold-overs and her sympathetic press. White House actions show that Trump’s willing to confront terrorism in the Mideast and a Stalinist regime in North Korea threatening nuclear war against the U.S.
