© Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty ImagesU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (C) walks with US General John Nicholson (centre R) at the Resolute Support Mission headquarters on an unannounced visit to Kabul on March 13, 2018.
The people of Afghanistan are paying a horrible price for the protracted U.S. occupation.
In October, America's war in Afghanistan will turn 17. At that point, it will be old enough to go and fight in itself - and there is no end in sight. The United States
escalated the war in 2018 by increasing the number of its troops and airstrikes, and this year is bringing a
record-high number of civilian deaths. Afghanistan has the
worst rate of infant mortality in the world and ranks 175 out of 186 countries on the
Human Development Index. Millions of Afghans
live in severe poverty, unemployment is high, 41 percent of Afghan children under the age of five are stunted and 33 percent of the population is food insecure. While the U.S-led efforts to pacify the country have often been rationalized on the grounds that they will supposedly lead to the emancipation of Afghan women, just 8.8 percent of adult women have reached secondary school (compared to 35.4 percent of men), and the Afghan government - which the United States is fighting to keep in power - is
ignoring violence against women.
Torture under that government is widespread and on the rise, with a quarter of the victims under the age of 18.
These are the conditions that prevail under U.S occupation.
Comment: This was a smart move on Russia's part. By using their own forces as 'peacekeepers', they were able to facilitate the liberation of the entire terrorist-occupied regions of Daraa and Quneitra without any significant Israeli obfuscation and aggression. Their presence forestalls the possibility of a renewed Syrian-Israeli war - Russia wants less war in Syria, not more of it.
With the Idlib operation in the planning and negotiations with the Kurds, it's looking like it's only a matter of time before the Syrian comes to an end. And even without the Golan Heights, that is a massive defeat of not only the jihadists, but Israel, the Gulf States, and the U.S. And that smells a lot like victory for Syria.