Hagel’s out, Afghan goes hotter, and more $$$$

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Who needs to elect a neocon Repug President, when we have Pres. Obama. Wow, Hagel fired, the Afghan combat ending, didn’t even get to end, and I can only imagine the military-complex party favors in the next year’s budget. Never mind how deep into the Iraq-Syrian cesspool we could be next year…

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/u...ma-extends-us-role-in-afghan-combat.html?_r=1

WASHINGTON — President Obama decided in recent weeks to authorize a more expansive mission for the military in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, a move that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting in the war-ravaged country for at least another year.

Mr. Obama’s order allows American forces to carry out missions against the Taliban and other militant groups threatening American troops or the Afghan government, a broader mission than the president described to the public earlier this year, according to several administration, military and congressional officials with knowledge of the decision. The new authorization also allows American jets, bombers and drones to support Afghan troops on combat missions.

In an announcement in the White House Rose Garden in May, Mr. Obama said that the American military would have no combat role in Afghanistan next year, and that the missions for the 9,800 troops remaining in the country would be limited to training Afghan forces and to hunting the “remnants of Al Qaeda.”

And goodie, we get to do night raids again:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2014/11/24/as-obama-embraces-multi-fronted-war-he-fires-chuck-hagel/

Virtually simultaneously with the decision to permit American forces to be more involved with the Afghan government, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has reversed Hamid Karzai’s ban on night raids — and also renamed them “night operations.”

 

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgOA24hAe60[/youtube]