News, Rumors and Opinions Friday Afternoon 10-9-2020
KTFA:
Don961: Washington intends to withdraw the last US soldier from Afghanistan by Christmas
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump announced, on Wednesday, his intention to withdraw the last US soldier from Afghanistan by Christmas, speeding up the timetable to end the longest war in US history.
“We must bring home the small remaining number of our brave men and women who are still serving in Afghanistan by Christmas!” Trump wrote in a tweet on Twitter.
Trump's announcement came hours after his National Security Adviser said that Washington would reduce the number of its soldiers to 2,500 by the start of the new year.
For years, the Republican billionaire, who is seeking to win a second term in the November 3 elections, has promised to "put an end to the endless wars," and he has made no secret of his hope of speeding up the withdrawal with the approaching election date.
On February 29, the Trump administration signed a historic agreement with the Taliban, which stipulated the withdrawal of all US forces from Afghanistan by mid-2021 at the latest, in exchange for security commitments from the extremist movement and its engagement in direct peace negotiations with the Kabul government.
After being delayed by several months, these negotiations began in September, but to date they have not resulted in any ceasefire agreement or even a reduction in violence.
Trump's promise comes about a month before the US election, while opinion polls indicate that his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, is ahead of him in the polls.
After 19 years of US military operations in Afghanistan, his position is widely supported in the United States, including by his rival Biden, who sought during his tenure as Vice President to reduce the US presence in Afghanistan.
In response to a question last month about whether he supports Trump's plan to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, Biden said, "Yes, as long as he has a plan to see how he will deal with the presence of ISIS."
The United States first intervened in Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and toppled the Taliban regime that was harboring Al Qaeda.
But over the years the rebels launched a campaign to topple the US-backed government in Kabul, leading to violence that cost many civilian lives and continued after NATO's decision to withdraw its combat forces in 2014.
The former Taliban regime imposed a strict regime in Afghanistan, banning music and education for girls. The unprecedented negotiations stalled in Doha over a dispute over which interpretation of Islam should be used as a framework for laws in post-conflict Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, the US envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, expressed hope in the talks. "The great majority of Afghans want the conflict to end," he said via video link from Doha, in front of a forum of the Pearson Institute at the University of Chicago. "I think the Taliban are serious about the talks," he added.
On Tuesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called from Doha on the Taliban to "show courage for a ceasefire" with the stalled peace negotiations between the government and the movement.
Ghani stressed during a conference that the long conflict in Afghanistan must be settled by negotiation "and not with weapons."
The Trump administration has pressured the Ghani government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, a condition of the movement for the resumption of talks.
In September, there were 8,600 US forces in Afghanistan, but the Pentagon indicated that day that it was preparing for a new phase of withdrawal.
In the United States, the principle of withdrawal is supported by Democrats, Republicans and public opinion alike, although a number of political officials, especially among conservative Republicans, warn of the dangers of seeing a terrorist group using Afghanistan again as a rear base. LINK
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Courtesy of Dinar Guru
Footforward [Have you heard anything about a float versus fixed rate?] I believe it will be fixed from the info I have. That's my opinion.
Pimpy Article: "The European Union announces that it has taken a number of steps to remove Iraq from the list of high risk countries" This is good....They're on this list because they're corrupt. There's a lot of money laundering in the banks and they finance a lot of terrorist groups through these banks. So if they get removed off this list that's telling the whole world, "Hey, all right, in our opinion they've done what it takes to stop this from happening..." This is big steps. Ever since that new Central Bank of Iraq governor took over, he has started implementing the reforms needed in the bank and whatever steps those are that he's taken obviously are impressing the international community which is really important...
White Papers Finalized, Iraqis Must Force Reform Activation
Currency365: Oct 9, 2020