SIGAR, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, released a report yesterday on the state of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. The report is over 200 pages and large segments of it address the failure of our drug strategy there, the lack of a revised counter-narcotics plan, and the increased participation of the U.S. in Afghan bombing efforts.

The United States has appropriated $8.7 billion for counternarcotics efforts since 2002, but more Afghan land was under opium-poppy cultivation in 2017 than ever before. According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, cultivation levels increased 63% from the previous year to 328,000 hectares. Potential opium production levels increased 87% to 9,000 tons from 2016. Eradication levels also increased from the prior year’s results, but the 750 hectares eradicated barely registered against the cultivation figure.

[More...]

Update: I doubt I will watch Trump. I'd rather take a spin class on my Peloton. Please use this thread to comment on his speech.

From the Washington Post: Derek Chollet, an assistant secretary of defense in the Obama administration, says:

“This is Trump’s war now,” Chollet said. “Putting 50 percent more troops in Afghanistan — that’s ownership. And it’s not something he can blame on his predecessor.”

Donald Trump will interrupt our TV schedules tonight to give a speech to the American public about his decision on how the U.S. should move forward on Afghanistan and South Asia.He's going to announce an increase in U.S. troops in this unwinnable war. [More...]

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, aka the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has written an open letter to Donald Trump. It was published today on Twitter, and released to journalists.

Here is the English version (I'm not sure how long it will remain up, so if you're interested, read it soon.)

He makes some good points as to why we should get out of Afghanistan for once and for all. Not surprisingly for a man of supreme incompetence and an extraordinarily limited vocabulary, Trump sent the opposite message to U.S. troops in Afghanistan today: [More...]

Are any of you cooking tomorrow? I am -- and I have lots to finish up today.

I plan to have a totally Trump-free holiday. I'm sure I'll binge watch something, I'm just not sure what yet. And check out the Black Friday online sales.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Wishing you all a happy pre-Holiday eve.

Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the War in Afghanistan. It began on October 7, 2001, four weeks after the 9/11 attacks, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. It supposedly ended in 2014.

It sounds like it just changed names from Operation Enduring Freedom to Operation Freedom Sentinel. In 2015, more than 10,000 U.S. troops were active in Operation Freedom Sentinel. Today, U.S. Army General John Nicholson, the Commander of Resolute Support forces and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, visited Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, the largest Afghan province and met with elder tribe leaders. He told them the U.S. would not let the Taliban win. [More...]

Donald Trump has all the delegates he needs. Bernie Sanders does not. But Bernie's trying to stay relevant by debating Donald Trump. Yes, some polls have Hillary and Bernie in a dead heat in California. Others have Hillary with a wide lead. Others say there's a backlash against Bernie brewing.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Taliban leader Mullah Muhammed Omar is dead. According to Afghanistan, he died two years ago in a Pakistani hospital.

As the supreme religious figure in Afghanistan, he commanded allegiance from all Taliban and foreign fighters, including Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda.

He had not been seen in public since 2001 and it was long rumored he was dead.

It will be a banner year for poppy growers in Afghanistan, largely due to a new kind of seed.

The new poppy seeds allow farmers to almost double the output from each plant, said Helmand's provincial police chief Nabi Jan Malakhail. At harvest, collectors cut the bulb of the plant, allowing the raw opium to ooze out. This resin dries and is collected the following day.

Malakhail said the new seeds grow bulbs that are bigger than usual and can be scored twice within a few days, thus doubling the quantity of raw opium. The plants mature in three to four months, rather than the five months of the previous seed variety, allowing farmers to crop three times a year instead of just twice.

Drug officials blame the Taliban. Farmers blame the Afghan government which doesn't provide irrigation and power, both of which would allow them to grow other crops. [More...]

The Taliban released this video of the transfer of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to U.S. forces.

The full video is 11 minutes long, with the message "Don[sic] Come Back to Afghanistan." The New York Times has more here.

A US airstrike in Afghanistan yesterday targeting a Taliban leader killed 11 children. Also yesterday, 6 Americans including a young female diplomat were killed in a suicide bombing:

The battle unfolded on Saturday, the same day that a total of six Americans, including three U.S. soldiers, died in violent attacks. In addition to the U.S. adviser killed during the operation in the east, two others — a female foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department and an employee with the U.S. Defense Department — died in a suicide bombing in southern Zabul province during a trip to donate books to Afghan students.

The war is in its 12th year, and this was one of the most violent weeks to date.

There are about 100,000 international troops currently in Afghanistan, including 66,000 from the United States. The U.S. troop total is scheduled to drop to about 32,000 by early next year.

More on the Americans killed here.

Ten years ago today, October 7, 2001, then President G.W. Bush announced we launched military strikes in Afghanistan. Here is the text of his speech.

It's now the longest war in U.S. history. More than 2,000 U.S. service members and several thousand civilians have died. Here's the cost of the wars in dollars.

According to Pro Publica, here are the differences between Obama and Romney on Afghanistan. Here are Mitt Romney's positions Iraq and Afghanistan over the years.

17 of Romney’s 24 special advisors on foreign policy served in the Bush-Cheney Administration.

The United States officially handed over control of Bagram Prison in Afghanistan today.

Here is the May, 2011 Human Rights First Report: Detained and Denied in Afghanistan. And a December, 2011 CBS report: Bagram: The Other Guantanamo?

The Bush Administration legacy of torture grows, and its claims to Congress were false, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

The United States government during the Bush administration tortured opponents of Muammar Gaddafi, then transferred them to mistreatment in Libya, according to accounts by former detainees and recently uncovered CIA and UK Secret Service documents, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. One former detainee alleged he was waterboarded and another described a similar form of water torture, contradicting claims by Bush administration officials that only three men in US custody had been waterboarded.

[More...]

The LA Times has photos of U.S. troops in Afghanistan posing with body parts of dead Afghans.

The troops were with the 82nd Airborne Division. In one instance, their mission on the first such occasion was simply to :

Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.

They did the same while investigating another suicide bombing a few months later. The photos were given to the Times by a soldier in the division. A criminal investigation has been launched:

It is a violation of Army standards to pose with corpses for photographs outside of officially sanctioned purposes," said George Wright, an Army spokesman. "Such actions fall short of what we expect of our uniformed service members in deployed areas."

[More...]

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales was $1 million in debt and has no memory of the killings. He and his wife had just listed their home for $50k less than they paid. He was on his fourth deployment.

How could his superiors not notice something askew? Was he evaluated or taking medication for depression? Taking the wrong combo of meds? He was recently passed over for promotion -- surely his record contains some concerns.

His background does not match the rosy description portrayed by those he grew up with: [More...]