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Trump seeks 'permanent occupation' of Afghanistan

Wednesday, 11 October 2017 11:08 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 11 October 2017 11:15 AM ]

Political analyst Stephen Lendman

The Trump administration has intensified the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan and is changing the rules of engagement there, indicating a plan for a “permanent occupation” of the country, an analyst says.

Stephen Lendman, an author and radio host from Chicago, made the remarks in an interview when asked about new data which shows the United States military dropped a total of 751 bombs on Afghanistan in September, the highest monthly number in the past seven years.

The figure indicated a 50-percent increase from August (503 bombs), which the command attributed to President Donald Trump’s so-called “strategy to more proactively target extremist groups” in the country.

“The Trump administration intends changing the rules on Afghanistan, the so-called rules of engagement which are never enforced anyway. Field commanders will have more latitude on how they want to handle the situation in Afghanistan,” Lendman told Press TV on Tuesday.

“The US bombing of the country is more intensive than it has been in years,” he noted. Over the past years, the US has been bombing the country “with no possibility of resolving the conflict.”

Lendman also said the US presence in Afghanistan “has nothing whatsoever to do with combating terrorism and has everything to do with controlling the country, occupying it, using it as a land-based aircraft carrier as part of the plan to surround Russia and China with US military bases.”

“The reason for all US wars is dominance, power, control of countries, and of course contesting independent ones, Russia, China, Iran and all the others,” Lendman opined.

In a clear U-turn from his campaign pledge to end the now 16-year occupation of Afghanistan, Trump said in August that his views had changed since entering the White House and that he would continue the military intervention “as long as we see determination and progress” in the South Asian country.

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