Afghanistan has been transformed into a terrorist super state. Al Qaida is once again emboldened and entrenched and prepping to set fire to the West. Meanwhile, Joe has put his faith in a new high-tech command center in Doha, well over a thousand miles from Afghanistan, and has publicly announced that we no longer support any opposition to the Taliban. They are in control of Afghanistan and should be recognized as its legitimate rulers.

No, we did not make all that up.

Nick Turse @nickturse

"Since the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan... the DoD has pivoted to an “over-the-horizon” approach... [it] relies primarily on unmanned aerial vehicles operating from U.S. facilities in Doha, Qatar, to provide strike capabilities." stateoig.gov/system/files/q…

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Biden And Al Qaida - Holding Course, Doing Nothing And Waiting For People To Die

If you sail through waters studded with shoals and sharp rocks with your eyes closed you may be oblivious to the danger all around you. That does not make the threat go away. It does not change the fact that your ship is going to the bottom when you hit the rocks…

6 days ago · 25 likes · 2 comments · Sam Faddis

Since the first prerequisite for any op is to have a cool codename, the Pentagon’s efforts to monitor and control what is happening in Afghanistan are now all bundled under the umbrella of something called Operation Enduring Sentinel (OES). Essentially this boils down to the creation of a new Over the Horizon Counterterrorism Headquarters in Doha, Qatar. This center has a staff of 100 and a budget of $19.5 billion a year.

Bill Roggio @billroggio

"OES operations are conducted by the Over-the-Horizon Counterterrorism Headquarters, a joint headquarters located in Doha, Qatar, with a staff of approximately 100 personnel." $19.5 billion per year. A headquarters with 100 staff. Zero strikes.

The mission of OES is to collect intelligence on Afghanistan and launch strikes inside Afghanistan to disrupt the bad guys before they attack us. OES has never conducted a single strike.

The last published Inspector General report on OES was remarkably candid in its assessment of the situation.

“The U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) reported that the U.S. military has not conducted any airstrikes in Afghanistan since the completion of evacuation efforts on August 29, 2021. General Michael E. Kurilla, the incoming Commander of USCENTCOM, said that conducting counterterrorism operations without a physical presence in Afghanistan or any neighboring countries was “extremely difficult, but not impossible.” General Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., the outgoing Commander of USCENTCOM, said that U.S. air assets must travel long distances to arrive over Afghan airspace, which limits the amount of time they can conduct operations before needing to return for refueling. This limitation, combined with the loss of human intelligence on the ground, has significantly reduced the DoD’s capacity to track terrorist targets in Afghanistan.”
“Without a presence on the ground, the DoD relies on aviation assets to collect intelligence, surveil terrorist targets, and carry out airstrikes on terrorist targets.”
“...Approximately two-thirds of the flying time is spent getting the aircraft there and back, versus time spent over the target.”
“…Counterterrorism teams would need to dedicate multiple MQ-9 Reapers, taking off at 10-hour intervals, to maintain a single sensor over a suspected terrorist target. “

Let’s be blunt. This entire notion is ridiculous. In the movies, drones and remote sensors may pinpoint bad guys all on their own and allow us to play God from afar. That is not how it works in the real world.

Real, actionable intelligence is acquired via a whole series of interlocking methodologies. They feed off each other. Information collected in one way is fed to all sorts of other elements that confirm or refute it and then often add to it.

The single most critical form of collection is human intelligence. A source inside a group reports on the existence of a new compound. Then drones and other assets are targeted against this compound to flesh out what is happening there. A satellite reports on unusual activity at a known location and a human source is sent inside to ferret out plans for an attack that are being carefully guarded against electronic collection.

When you take human sources out of the mix, the whole house of cards comes down. You are looking at pictures of buildings and watching vehicles move and hearing bits and pieces of radio transmissions and you have a very, very incomplete idea of what is happening.

None of that is a revelation. All of that is known to everyone in the Intelligence Community. The billions on a space-age command center are for show.

And, yet, as horrible as that picture is, the full truth is even more horrible. It is not just that we are doing a terrible job of collecting on Afghanistan and doing nothing to stop terrorist attacks being planned there. It is that we do not want to do anything. On the contrary, we are rapidly adopting a formal government position of legitimizing the rule of the Taliban.

Testifying before Congress on the issue of intelligence gathering in Afghanistan recently, Centcom commander General Kurilla said that he would be open to the possibility of sharing intelligence with the Taliban in order to improve our understanding of what was happening inside Afghanistan. One wonders if the general would have also proposed intelligence sharing with the Germans to improve our understanding of the Normandy beaches in 1944. This is a senior American military officer seriously suggesting an intelligence exchange with the guys providing a safe haven to Al Qaida as a means of protecting America.

The general’s comments are in complete accordance with the broader position of the U.S. Government, however.

Inside Afghanistan, resistance groups are continuing to fight against the Taliban and struggle against the imposition of Islamic rule. Asked to comment on the ongoing hostilities, the U.S. Department of State had this to say.

“We are monitoring the recent uptick in violence closely and call on all sides to exercise restraint and to engage. This is the only way that Afghanistan can confront its many challenges.”
“We want to see the emergence of stable and sustainable political dispensation via peaceful means. We do not support organized violent opposition to the Taliban, and we would discourage other powers from doing so as well.”

You read that correctly. We do not support those fighting for freedom inside Afghanistan against 6th-century barbarians. We do not support anyone else helping them either. Everybody needs to put down their arms and get with the program, which is submitting to control by the Taliban, the group providing support to Al Qaida, spreading jihad throughout South Asia, and condemning women to a life of forced confinement and servitude.

We have spent billions for nothing in Doha. We are actively encouraging the people of Afghanistan to accept the rule of medieval holy warriors. And, out there in the ether somewhere the plans are already being made by our enemies for what will come next.

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Billions For Nothing In Doha While The Danger…