Thread by @caitoz

US Intelligence Warns Withdrawal Could Lead To Afghanistan Being Controlled By Afghans

caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/us-intellige…

US intelligence agencies have warned the Biden administration that if the United States withdraws its military presence from Afghanistan under current circumstances, the nation would be at severe risk of falling under the control of the people who live there.

The New York Times, which has consistently supported all US wars including the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, informs us the Taliban has been "stalling" to avoid signing a power-sharing deal with the existing government in Afghanistan.
fair.org/home/nyt-lamen…

And, of course, why wouldn't they stall? What incentive would the Taliban have to sign such a deal?

https://twitter.com/BH_Friedman/status/1375559688167755780?s=20

The @nytimes and the US intelligence cartel (if one can even categorize these as separate entities at this point) are trying to spin the ongoing military presence in Afghanistan as a temporary situation awaiting conditions which will be arriving shortly, and that's simply false.

And, after the Afghanistan Papers exposed the fact that the US war machine has been lying left and right to justify the continuation of the occupation of Afghanistan, you would have to be out of your mind to believe that distortion is not intentional.
consortiumnews.com/2019/12/11/the…

The US military is in Afghanistan not to protect women's rights from control by the illiberal Taliban forces, but because it's a crucial geostrategic region that the US stands much to gain on the world stage by controlling.

This is why the Afghanistan Papers were quickly memory-holed by the mass media as soon as they came out, and why now all we hear about is more made-up reasons why leaving would be disastrous.
caityjohnstone.medium.com/the-news-churn…

When the US-centralized power alliance babbles about "conditions" which need to be met before there can be a full military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the conditions they are really referring to are a puppet regime in Tehran, in Moscow, and in Beijing.

The Taliban is an entirely regional power with entirely regional goals; there is no defense-based argument for using military force to keep them out of power in a nation on the other side of the planet.

All the US empire and its narrative managers are really saying when they claim the Taliban will take power if the US leaves is that without the US in Afghanistan, the US won't be controlling Afghanistan anymore. And, like, duh. Of course it won't.

The US is at this point making the argument, "If we don't keep killing the Afghans, they might kill each other."

The Taliban has warned that if the US remains in Afghanistan after the May 1st peace deal deadline they will begin attacking occupying forces, so pretending the US empire is maintaining the peace by continuing the occupation is entirely baseless.
news.antiwar.com/2021/03/26/tal…

They're not there to maintain peace, they're there to maintain control.

Should the US military permanently occupy foreign countries to control what happens there? That's really the argument on the table right now. Ignore all the narrative distortion and focus there.