How The US Lied Again: Why The War In Afghanistan Will Continue

By Alec Cope
We Are Change

The United States and its allies front the ludicrous image of “ending” war – only to leave a massive force that will continue combat operations.

After 13 years, trillions of dollars and thousands of lives lost – nothing was accomplished. A “formal” ceremony was held, the United States and NATO then “ended” the war in Afghanistan, and will leave 13,000 soldiers for “support” missions. This ceremony kicked off the Operation: Resolute Support, which goes into effect January 1st, 2015.

Resolute Support is based off of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which was signed in Kabul on the 30th of September, 2014 and was confirmed with the Bilateral Security Agreement with Afghanistan (BSA) signed December 1st, 2014. Oddly (or rather not) the US says it will end war in 2014 – while also saying it will continue. President Obama said in January, 2014:

… by the end of next year, 2014, the transition will be complete – Afghans will have full responsibility for their security, and this war will come to a responsible end.

Yet he also referred to two long-term tasks, which he described as ‘very specific and very narrow’:

Number one, to train, assist, and advise Afghan forces so that they can maintain their own security; and number two, making sure that we can continue to go after remnants of al Qaeda or other affiliates that might threaten our homeland. That is a very limited mission, and it is not one that would require the same kind of footprint, obviously, that we’ve had over the last 10 years in Afghanistan.

When one examines the SOFA and BSA documents, some interesting things come up. Lets first examine the SOFA agreement. A SOFA agreement is a treaty of agreements and conditions an occupying force creates with the host country mutually. Despite what the diluted SOFA press release says – the US can continue all combat operations if it cites self-defence. This authorizes the president to use

‘… all necessary and appropriate force’ against an extremely loosely defined enemy – nations, organizations, or persons whom the president determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 9/11 attacks, or who harboured ‘such organizations or persons’,

all this in order to

‘prevent any future acts of international terrorism’.

This stems from the Congressional Resolution signed September 18th, 2001 which features no clause to limit this. So the US can continue all operations without the consideration of Afghanistan in mind – if the President deems it appropriate. US personnel can come and go as they please in and out of Afghanistan with US licenses, ID’s, no tariffs and immunity from local laws. There is also no time limit to this SOFA agreement but the US has claimed it will not last longer than 10 years. To get an appropriate “vibe” how some of the Afghan people view the new SOFA agreement:

“One woman shouted that she would not agree to give U.S. forces immunity from local laws, saying they must be held accountable for the deaths of Afghan civilians.”

The then Afghan President, Hamid Kharzai stated bluntly after signing the SOFA in November, 2013:

“I don’t trust the U.S., and the U.S. doesn’t trust me.”

The framework to Operation Resolute Support is shaky and vague while giving the United States full power based on the President’s discretion. The Bilateral Safety Agreement is supposed to be the refined point, that ensures Afghanistan’s sovereignty is respected right? Not exactly.

Unlike the SOFA agreement where the United States translucently retains its power – the BSA demonstrates that the United States can “continue” its “counter-terrorism” operations. Here is an exact quote from the document itself:

“The Parties acknowledge that U.S military operations to defeat Al Qaida and its affiliates may be appropriate in the common fight against terrorism. The Parties agree to continue their close cooperation and coordination toward those ends … U.S. military counter-terrorism operations are intended to complement and support ANDSF’s counter-terrorism operations”

With the word “support” being thrown around it seems like a great thing right? Not when the Pentagon has shown it prioritizes direct counterinsurgency missions over logistical support and training for the Afghan security forces, even though it is supposedly for the latter reason that US officials claim an enduring presence is necessary. The United States is also leaving 11,000 soldiers and this is only slightly above the 2003 troop levels.

All of this has happened while the US is massing thousands of vehicles in Kuwait (one would assume for future invasion but that is only speculation) and has also been arming and training ISIS and Al Qaeda at the same time. Perpetual war seems to be the lifeblood of this insanity.

Of course the presstitute, whorestream media is parroting historical levels of propaganda for the masses to gobble up. I personally cannot believe the level of lies and blatant insult to intelligence this whole charade has spawned. Yet two things are clear: the United States and NATO have the capabilities to continue the war as usual, and have a history of using “advisers” to continue war.

The Vietnam war is a prime example of this strategy as the United States waged unofficial war with 16,000 military advisers in Vietnam without the conflict legally being a “war”.

Also via the BSA document, the United States will minimally continue counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan with cooperating Afghan forces – the exception being “self-defense” and the President’s word.

The United States has never lied or been deceptive before, what can go wrong?

Also one fair point to make is if the war was truly over: wouldn’t the detainees in Guantanamo Bay be released? No of course not, the war isn’t truly over, it seems this “formal” ceremony is only for public consumption, as the US has made this clear through their actions. The show will go on.

The only truth within this den of lies is the fact that there is a broad faced lie, and those who have perpetuated this are going all or nothing.