[Vision2020] IPA: "Trump's Afghanistan Strategy: Only Good for the Arms Peddlers?"

[Ted Moffett]

Trump's Afghanistan Strategy: Only Good for the Arms Peddlers?
<http://www.accuracy.org/release/trumps-afghanistan-strategy-only-good-for-the-arms-peddlers/>

MATTHEW HOH, [currently in D.C. area] (703) 999-8075, matthew_hoh at riseup.net
    In 2009, Hoh resigned his position with the State Department in
Afghanistan in protest of the escalation of the war there by the Obama
administration. See 2009 *Washington Post* piece about Hoh: "U.S. official
resigns over Afghan war
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394.html>."
He previously had been in Iraq with a State Department team and with the
U.S. Marines. He is now a senior fellow with the Center for International
Policy. Hoh was just on The Real News
<http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19819:Trump%27s-New-Afghanistan-Strategy%3A-Windfall-for-the-Military-Industrial-Complex%26%238203%3B>
and
appeared on "Democracy Now <https://www.democracynow.org/>" Tuesday
 morning.

    Hoh recently wrote the piece "Trump’s Turn To Lie About Afghanistan
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/21/the-lies-on-afghanistan/>," and
said today: "Trump's speech offered to accelerate the continued killing and
suffering in Afghanistan, while barely giving mention to a negotiated
resolution to the conflict and only offering the scarcest platitudes deemed
necessary by the speechwriters and political consultants toward peace and
diplomacy.

    "Profits for military contractors, which he actually highlighted by
touting the increased tens of billions of dollars in U.S. military
spending, are ensured indefinitely, as President Trump relentlessly brought
forth the 16-year-old demons of 9/11 throughout his speech and gave cause
continuously to the tired and specious myth of the necessity of the
terrorist safe haven and the requirement for the United States to occupy,
garrison and subjugate Muslim nations.

    "President Trump's use of the term 'strategically applied force' must
be remembered in relation to his promises to kill terrorists' families, and
that use of force is reminiscent of the form of punishment all empires have
administered onto the borderlands and provinces that have rebelled
throughout history. This should be seen in connection to and in
understanding of the recent devastating campaigns by the Iraqi military
against cities in Iraq such as Mosul, Fallujah and Tikirt and by the Saudis
in Yemen to understand how the Afghan military will be reshaped and
retrained. [See "Covering Up the Massacre of Mosul
<https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/21/covering-up-the-massacre-of-mosul/>
."]

    "President Trump's words towards Pakistan were striking, his comments
on nuclear weapons, which can be considered as a warning to the Pakistanis,
particularly alarming and jarring. It is concerning how the Indians will
take this speech, will they be emboldened by this show of U.S. support and
resolve toward India and will dangerous circumstances between Pakistan and
India, two countries that many experts believe most likely to engage in a
nuclear conflict become even more dangerous?"

SCOTT HORTON, scott at antiwar.com, @scotthortonshow
<https://twitter.com/scotthortonshow>
    Horton is the author of the new book *Fool's Errand: Time to End the
War in Afghanistan
<https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/articles/fools-errand-time-end-war-afghanistan/>*,
hosts Antiwar Radio, is managing director of the Libertarian Institute and
opinion editor of Antiwar.com. He said today: "In Afghanistan, the U.S. has
been attempting to foist a government and military backed by a coalition of
minority groups from the north of the country onto the plurality Pashtun
population. ... President Trump himself has opposed the Afghan war for at
least the last five years, and has shown that he knows that the
pacification of these local tribal resistance fighters cannot be achieved."

BRIAN TERRELL, (773) 853-1886 <(773)%20853-1886>, brian at vcnv.org
    Terrell is a co-coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence and is
leaving for his fifth trip to Afghanistan on Sept. 13. He said today: "In
October of 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that the so-called
war on terror that had begun with the U.S. bombing and invasion of
Afghanistan that month, 'may never end. At least, not in our lifetime.'
Suggesting that this new war would 'become a permanent part of the way we
live,' Cheney was not expressing a dystopian fear, but rather his hope for
a cash cow that will never stop paying out. Over the 16 years since, it has
seemed that this war has not been intended to be won or otherwise resolved
in any way. At Camp David, President Trump was briefed on a new strategy to
'protect America's interests' in the region. The interests and welfare of
the Afghan people obviously was not a topic for discussion and whatever new
strategy is devised by Trump and his generals, the near future does not
bode well for anyone but the arms peddlers." Terrell's pieces include "Life
Goes On Under the Helicopters and the Terrible Cost of Avoiding the Dangers
of Kabul
<https://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/11/life-goes-under-helicopters-and-terrible-cost-avoiding-dangers-kabul>
."

SONALI KOLHATKAR, (626) 676-7884, sonali at risingupwithsonali.com,
@SonaliKolhatkar <https://twitter.com/SonaliKolhatkar>
    Kolhatkar is director of Afghan Women's Mission. She said today:
"Donald Trump announced his plan to win the war in Afghanistan without
actually laying out any specifics. Indeed he literally said he wouldn’t
spell out troop increases (although reports suggest it will be as high as
4,000), or other strategies.'" Kolhatkar recently wrote the piece "Don't
Privatize the Afghan War -- Just End It
<https://www.truthdig.com/articles/dont-privatize-afghan-war-just-end/>."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 421-6858, David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

August 22, 2017

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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