Two brigades and a regiment are headed abroad in the upcoming months, according to three Wednesday releases from the Army.

The 3rd Cavalry Regiment will head to Iraq this spring, and in the summer, the 101st Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade will head to Afghanistan while the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade heads to Europe, according to the releases.

“This brigade is no stranger to Afghanistan, as this will be our fifth rotation there since 2001,” Col. Stanley Sliwinksi, commander of the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based 101st Sustainment Brigade, said in a release.

The United States has spent more than $800 billion on the never ending war in Afghanistan, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The bulk of that money was spent fighting the Taliban, but billions have also gone toward rebuilding the country and investing in its infrastructure. A lot of those projects haven't gone well, and a $60 million power system in northeast Afghanistan that doesn't provide any power is just the latest example.

According to a new report from John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) mismanaged the project so badly that its powerstation isn’t connected to a power source, hasn’t been tested, and “may be structurally unsound and pose a risk to Afghans who live near transmission towers and lines,” or who work at the station.

“Okay buddy, how ya doing today?” a Marine asks as he stands over the body of a dead Afghan man. “You look like you just got fucked.”

A cameraman with 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment stands nearby, rolling tape. He zooms in to show the man’s mangled right hand, where a round impacted before entering his torso.

It’s sometime in 2011 in Kajaki, Afghanistan. A scout sniper team has been cleared to take the shot, suspecting the target of being a spotter for Taliban fighters in the area. When the patrol arrives to inspect the body, they find that the now-dead man was a local shopkeeper, and he was unarmed. It’s unclear whether the man, whose killing was cleared under the rules of engagement, was an observer for the Taliban, or an innocent bystander.

U.S. military members often say “we own the night” due to their use of night vision devices, but the maxim no longer holds true.

That’s because the Taliban has picked up much of that same tech, either by seizing it from slain Afghan troops or by acquiring it up on the black market. And while the Pentagon is well aware of the problem, officials don’t have a good way to counter it.

Taliban fighters, many now outfitted with night vision goggles and infrared lasers, have more than doubled nighttime attacks on Afghan and U.S. troops between 2014 and 2017, according to a new report from The New York Times.

The U.S. military plans to loot Afghan mineral deposits for some time. A 2007 Pentagon memo that the New York Times quoted in a 2010 article says that Afghanistan could be the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.”

The Companies of United States are planning to extract Afghanistan’s enormous reserves of valuable rare earth minerals, Reuters reported after U.S. President Donald Trump met with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani on Thursday.

Afghanistan has some of the world’s largest un-extracted reserves of rare earth minerals valuable in electronic production, such as lithium, as well as gold and various gemstones. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the total value at least US$1 trillion.

According to a White House statement, the presidents agreed that the development of Afghan minerals by U.S. companies would “develop materials critical to national security,” as well as “defray some of the costs of United States assistance as Afghans become more self-reliant.”

A new report from the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD IG) exposes even more fraud, waste and/or corruption in America’s ongoing war in Afghanistan. This latest report reveals that more than $3.1 billion of U.S. taxpayer funds provided to the Afghan Armed Forces from 2014 through 2017 was grossly mismanaged.

The Afghanistan War is the longest in United States history, and despite initial claims that the goal of the invasion was to keep Americans safe by destroying the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the result has been a massive increase in opium production that has fueled an on-going opioid crisis in the United States and ensnared more than 2.5 million Americans in heroin addiction.

As whistleblower and former FBI contractor Sibel Edmonds noted, before the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, there were around 189,000 heroin users in the United States. By 2016, that figure increased to 4.5 million—an estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts and 2 million casual users.

The number of heroin overdose deaths in the U.S. also skyrocketed with a 533 percent increase from around 2,000 deaths in 2002 to more than 13,200 deaths in 2016. The is part of more than 64,000 deaths attributed to drug overdoses in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Russia has rejected comments by NATO's top commander in Afghanistan that it has been supporting and even supplying weapons to the Taliban, in a clash of words that underlines growing tension over Moscow's involvement in the conflict.

In an interview with the BBC last week, General John Nicholson said that Russia had been acting to undermine US efforts in Afghanistan despite shared interests in fighting terrorism and narcotics, with indications that Moscow was providing financial support and even arms.

"We've had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders and said this was given by the Russians to the Taliban," he said.

A statement from the Russian embassy in Kabul dismissed the comments as "idle gossip", repeating previous denials by Russian officials.

wounded in a car bomb explosion near a sports facility in southern Afghanistan, a health official has said.

Omar Zwak, spokesperson for the governor of Helmand province, said Friday's blast in the city of Lashkar Gah took place close to the Ghazi Muhammad Ayoub Khan stadium, where a wrestling match was taking place.

Aminuallah Abed, chief of the provincial public health department, said that 40 people who were wounded were receiving treatment at a local hospital.

The death toll is expected to rise, with hospital sources telling Al Jazeera that a number of wounded people were in serious condition.

The top US military officer visited Afghanistan on Monday to evaluate the military campaign and ensure new American advisory teams and an upgraded Afghan Air Force are on target, AP reported. As the next fighting season with the Taliban looms, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he wants to understand the goals for the coming months so the US-led coalition can develop ways “to measure progress in the fight.” Dunford told reporters that he seeks “a discussion about measures of effectiveness.” Measuring success will be a key part of White House discussions this summer when President Donald Trump looks for a one-year assessment of his new regional strategy.

Defense Secretary James Mattis made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, arriving at the Kabul Airport with little fanfare before offering rare public comments on the Afghan War. Mattis focused on what ‘victory’ would look like, and offered a glimpse into US strategy for achieving it.

Mattis confirmed in his comments that any victory in Afghanistan would be “not a military victory.” Rather, he sees victory coming in the form of political reconciliation. That’s not going to involve major peace talks, however, as Mattis called that “a bridge too far,” reflecting Trump’s opposition to such talks with the Taliban.

Instead, Mattis suggested that the strategy would mirror something that’s been tried repeatedly in Afghanistan, “peeling away” some Taliban factions by drawing them into talks. Mattis said the US has seen “interest” in such talks.

In Afghanistan, the world’s most powerful military is threatened by a small, pink flower.

Despite an escalation of the Afghan conflict under the Trump administration, a record opium crop, coupled with steady Taliban gains, foretell bitter fighting in the coming months for American forces and the Afghans stationed alongside them.

“Record-high opium production is but one indication of how badly U.S. efforts have failed and are continuing to fail,” said Andrew Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University and author of America’s War for the Greater Middle East. “It is both a major source of Taliban funding and an indication of how little control the Afghan government is able to exert.”

The longest war in American history, the US occupation in Afghanistan, now well over 16 years long, has often been called a ‘forgotten war.’ It may be fair to do so again, as the ongoing escalations are barely noticed, and not debated.

Senate hearings on America’s various wars over the past week covered a wide variety of topics. Afghanistan was mentioned four times, and then mostly in passing. Two hours of briefing by intelligence officials saw Afghanistan mentioned not even once.

All the while, more US troops continue to arrive. Exactly how many isn’t clear, as President Trump has made that a secret. Furthermore, US data that is coming out of Afghanistan is increasingly inaccurate, making it even harder to accurately cover the situation on the ground.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has fielded a squadron of new Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17 “Thunder” combat aircraft, according to a recent report by the Associated Press of Pakistan. The multi-role fighter jets are stationed at Pakistan’s Samungli Base near Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

The Lithuanian government has increased its support of NATO’s Operation Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan following requests from NATO and other allies, the country’s Ministry of National Defense announced February 22.

An unspecified number of Lithuanian troops from Special Operations Forces will join the 21 Lithuanian soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan with NATO in April, the ministry noted.

National Security Adviser and three-star general H.R. McMaster has been falling out of favor with President Trump for quite some time now, with Trump said never to have been fond of him, and the Pentagon looking for something else for him to do.

Keen to avoid a public scene of another top official’s ouster, the plan may include giving McMaster a fourth star and sticking him in another military post, which might well be in Afghanistan.

Officially, the U.S. military objective in Afghanistan is to force the Taliban to the negotiating table, but just last month President Trump said that talks with the Taliban are off the table, indicating an incoherent policy, as Jonathan Marshall notes.

The ministers said yes to the creation of military Schengen to ease forces movements across the Old Continent. NATO is to do away with the cumbersome and lingering bureaucratic procedures hindering transportation of troops and hardware through territories of member states. One of the solutions is a standardized form used by European allies and partner states for granting permission for movements. Germany has offered to host the command center to implement the concept of free transit zone in view of its vast experience in providing logistical support.

The decision is taken amid burgeoning preparations to boost military infrastructure near Russia’s borders.

To augment the forces in East Europe, the Black Sea, the Baltics and the Scandinavian Peninsula the bloc needs new logistic hubs. Unobstructed large-scale transport movements become top priority for implementation of the war plans, such as concentrating combat-ready stocks for a full US brigade in Poland.

Although they are the most notorious, the Taliban and Daesh are not the only terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan. In an interview with Sputnik, deputy spokesman of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense Mohammad Radmanesh explained that there are some 20 similar terrorist groups in the country and described how they appeared in Afghanistan.

The deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan is evident from the reports of the US military. In 2015, Kabul and its Western allies controlled 72% of the administrative districts, and militants - about 7%. According to the latest data, in August 2017 the ratio of the territories under control was 57% compared to 13%, respectively.

Many rural areas are under the control of Taliban and ISIL militants, in various parts of the country. The zones of their influence are adjacent to the Afghan border, including the neighborhoods with Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

The ever-escalating US air war in Afghanistan is having little real effect on the war against the Taliban, but has managed to ensnare an entirely distinct faction in Northern Afghanistan into it, one which the US hadn’t been targeting for years.

Chinese Uighurs, operating under the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) banner, were regularly swept up in the initial US invasion a decade and a half ago, and recent US airstrikes in the area along the Chinese-Afghan border have increasingly targeted their forces as well as Taliban in the area.

Why the US is suddenly interested in targeting them is unclear, though NATO issued a statement suggesting it was to prove to them that cross border attacks weren’t safe. Either way, the Chinese are expected to be quite happy about this.

(ANTIWAR.COM) Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Assistant Secretary of Defense Randall Schriver on Tuesday revealed that the Pentagon expects the cost of the Afghan War in 2018 to come to $45 billion.
This obviously is subject to change, in the face of more probable escalations. The cost includes $13 billion in direct cost for US troops already committed, $5 billion to prop up Afghanistan’s own struggling military, and other funding for logistics, aid projects, and other assorted expenses.

That’s a lot of money to throw at the war in its 16th year, and there is a lot of questioning of the merits among senators of both parties, concerned that yet another doubling down on a war long since lost may not be the most prudent of courses.

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Assistant Secretary of Defense Randall Schriver on Tuesday revealed that the Pentagon expects the cost of the Afghan War in 2018 to come to $45 billion.

Afghan officials told reporters this week that Beijing is reportedly holding discussions with Kabul over establishing a military base near China’s border with Afghanistan.
Chinese officials reportedly cited concerns about the threat posed by Uighur jihadists in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, considered by the Pentagon to be home to the “highest concentration” of terrorists in the world.

Afghanistan shares a border with the autonomous Xinjiang region—China’s largest province. Xinjiang is home to China’s oppressed Muslim Uighur (or Uyghur) minority, whose separatist groups reportedly train and operate in the Af-Pak region.

Kabul and Beijing have been in talks over China’s military establishment since December, but details remain elusive, indicated Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesman for the Kabul-based defense ministry.

Cascading disaster is an apt term for the US military’s strategy in Afghanistan, which involves the indiscriminate killing of terrorist leaders, whether Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS or whatever else.

In addition to heavily underreported civilian casualties, US military strikes increase the ferocity of those terrorist outfits. Not just because those outfits want to show the world how strong they are. There is another element which arguably is even worse, as it is virtually impossible to reverse. Each “neutralized” leader leaves a power void within his organization and a number of usually younger and more ruthless members start fighting among each other to take over – with cruelty and spectacular attacks obviously being stronger “election” arguments than a “softy” willingness and capacity for peaceful dialogue.

The US Defense Department has refused to disclose information about the war in Afghanistan that has routinely been released since the war began in 2001, according to the internal government watchdog that administers those information releases.

For 16 years, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has released quarterly population figures that elaborate on what parts of the country are under insurgent control and which are under the control of government and coalition forces.

Until Monday — when SIGAR reported that they would not be releasing that data with their quarterly report because they had been instructed not to by the Pentagon. According to a report by SIGAR chief John Sopko, the DoD wouldn't even tell them why they were not allowed to release that information.

Taliban fighters, whom US-led forces spent billions of dollars trying to defeat, are now openly active in 70% of Afghanistan, a BBC study has found.

Months of research across the country shows that the Taliban now control or threaten much more territory than when foreign combat troops left in 2014.

The Afghan government played down the report, saying it controls most areas.

But recent attacks claimed by Taliban and Islamic State group militants have killed scores in Kabul and elsewhere.

An explosives-packed ambulance blew up in a crowded area of Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 158 others, officials said, in one of the biggest blasts to rock the war-torn city in recent years.

The Taliban-claimed assault -- the second carried out by the terrorist group in the Afghan capital in a week -- triggered chaotic scenes as terrified survivors fled the area scattered with body parts, blood and debris, and hospitals were overwhelmed by the large number of wounded.

It came as both the insurgents and the ISIS group have escalated their attacks on Kabul, one of the deadliest places in Afghanistan for civilians.

An AFP reporter saw "lots of dead and wounded" civilians in the Jamuriate hospital, which is metres away from the blast and where medical staff struggled to treat the bloodied men, women and children lying on the floor in corridors.

Islamic State’s growing presence in the country gives Russia a pretext for a partnership with China and Pakistan that could counter the influence of the US

NATO has announced that they will begin a winter offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, with US and Afghan forces targeting the militant group’s sources of funding in preparation for a rumoured spring counteroffensive from the insurgents.

Pakistan’s foreign office said the unmanned aircraft’s missiles “targeted an Afghan refugee” camp in Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram region.

If the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had been mined and fenced on both sides, as proposed by Pakistan, and patrolled aggressively by the armies of both countries, nobody could claim that illegal crossings would have been easy. If the Afghan army had been ordered to cooperate with their opposite numbers across the border, and if there had been coordinated surveillance and aggressive foot patrols – as wanted by the Pakistan military – then it would have been very difficult indeed for insurgents to cross in either direction. The US did not approve Pakistan’s proposal for fencing and minefields and did not supply any assistance for the project. So the barrier was not erected.

Senior Afghan security officials say at least 30 people were killed in an attack on Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel by Taliban militants, and they warn that the death toll could climb higher.

Wahid Majroh, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, said on January 21 that 19 bodies had been brought to city hospitals. Officials said 14 foreigners were among the dead.

But a senior Afghan security official told the Reuters news agency that the death toll was at least 30, including hotel staff, guests, and members of security forces who battled the assailants. Some local reports said 40 people had been killed.

The US has asked Pakistan to immediately arrest or expel Taliban leaders who are carrying out terror attacks across the border in Afghanistan, days after the militant group attacked a landmark hotel in Kabul that left 22 people dead.

The terse White House statement came after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a major terror attack at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul on Saturday that killed at least 22 people, including 14 foreigners and eight Afghans.

This is the threat to our democracy, not Fake News. And Exhibit A is our failed war in Afghanistan...

In recent months the US President has reversed yet another campaign pledge to pull out of Afghanistan, America’s longest war, and instead has begun to deploy an added 3,000 troops there. At the same time he has lashed out at the government of Pakistan accusing it of aiding the Afghan Taliban and pledging to cut all US military aid to that country as reprisal. A deeper view into the situation suggests that both moves are linked and have to do with not the Taliban and the Afghan terrorists. It has very much to do with ongoing developments of peaceful construction of the Chinese-led Belt, Road Initiative and desperate attempts of Washington to try to stop those developments using other pretexts.

A recent video mashup provided by some U.S. Special Force soldiers in Afghanistan seems to show evidence of a warcrime.

A military truck passes a civilian truck on a paved road at normal traveling speed. A soldier fires directly and intentionally at the driver of the civilian truck without any discernible reason.

The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said that the Department of Defense's program had spent hundreds of millions to revive Afghan economy, but can't provide reliable data on where the money actually went.

A US Department of Defense program called the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) spent $675 million on the Afghan economy from 2011 to 2014, but left few records to show where the money went, a report said.

"DOD was unable to provide reliable data showing the extent to which TFBSO projects created jobs, facilitated foreign direct investments, increased exports, or increased Afghan government revenues," the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said on Tuesday.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Andy Veres, left, Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul commander, re-enlists Master Sgt. James Sandifer, Forward Operating

Pakistan’s announcement that it will seek the expulsion of over 1,5 million Afghan refugees in the next 30 days is being tacitly justified by Trump’s tweet and channels his zero-tolerance stance towards immigration from “terrorist”-prone states, but it also represents the employment of reverse-“Weapons of Mass Migration” in pushing Kabul closer towards the edge of collapse and consequently filling the Taliban’s rank of supporters.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani government ordered 1.4 million Afghan refugees to leave the country in 30 days. According to DAWN, the oldest English-language newspaper in Pakistan, this is the sixth extension given to refugees, which the last expired on December 31.

The terrorist group Islamic State has over 10,000 loyal fighters in Afghanistan, and Moscow believes the US may be underestimating their threat, Russia’s special envoy says.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was pushed out of their home base in Syria and Iraq this year by separate military operations of a US-led coalition, and the Syrian Army backed by Russia. Many of the IS fighters who fled those countries ended up in Afghanistan, where the terrorist group has as many as 10,000 troops at the moment, Zamir Kabulov, the head of the Middle East department in the Russian Foreign Ministry, said.

"The US has taken unprecedented pressure on the Afghan authorities to force them to make such a decision, and it's actually done for only one thing - after all, there continues to be both the anti-terrorist war and the civil war, and for this helicopters are necessary. What is offered in return? American helicopters, "- said Kozhin.

This is a very vivid example of what is happening in the field of arms exports. At the same time, the lion's share of helicopter technology in Afghanistan is the Russian Mi helicopters, in which Afghan pilots are trained.

Germany’s defense minister said on Tuesday she wanted to boost the German presence in Afghanistan, in the first public indication that Berlin could accept a U.S. call for more soldiers to help reverse territorial gains by Taliban insurgents.

Germany currently has 980 soldiers stationed in the Hindu Kush mountains as part of a NATO mission to train Afghan security forces, the second biggest national contingent after the United States.

American service members in Afghanistan have relatively recently been officially required to report when U.S. taxpayer-funded Afghan security forces sexually abuse young boys, but they are “not obligated” to intervene and may be criminally punished for doing so, according to an audit by the Pentagon inspector general (IG).

Moreover, one American service member told that the IG U.S. troops were told to “ignore” the ancient pedophilic Afghan custom known as bacha bazi, or “playing with boys,” confirming the findings of a New York Times (NYT) article issued in September 2015.

The dialogue between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump has confirmed that there is a wide-ranging agenda in Russian-US relations, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

Putin and Trump held a phone conversation on November 21. The White House’s press service said the conversation lasted for more than an hour. The Kremlin’s press service noted that the dialogue was "business-like and substantial." The sides discussed Syria, Ukraine, North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear program.

"The long-lasting and substantial conversation between Putin and Trump, according to mutual assessments, confirmed that a vast agenda remains in Russian-US relations, which may and should be discussed without preconditions and on an equal basis," said Kosachev, who chairs Russia’s Federation Council (upper house) International Affairs Committee.

More:
http://tass.com/politics/976810

In a move Pentagon officials say is directed at Taliban revenue streams, US F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked what they’re describing as “opium labs” in the northern part of the Helmand Province.

A pair of buildings were destroyed in the attack, which Gen. John Nicholson claimed caused “minimal collateral damage.” Nicholson noted there was a third building they didn’t attack, claiming it was to avoid civilian casualties.

Mich of Helmand Province is dedicated to opium farming, which is why the Taliban has long been interested in controlling the area. This talk of labs and factories is new, however, and it’s not clear what these buildings were actually for.