Kabul, Afghanistan. The US has “boots on the ground’ in 160 countries worldwide, with a pending nuclear war in the far east. Addiding to the chaos is now word the US is invading Afghanistan with yet more troops and death that follows them.
American Marines are back in Afghanistan’s Helmand province for the first time since the NATO led international coalition ended its combat operations three years ago. At least 300 Marines have been deployed to the southwestern province, the site of many battles during the Afghan war. They will train, kill and assist Afghan soldiers in attacking local residents.
The US military says it wants to help Afghan forces stymie the drug trade because Taliban militants use it to help fund their operations. The rural swath has a strong Taliban presence and is a center of the opium trade in the country that is exported by US forces via CIA drug pipelines to western business interests.
The plan was announced in January during the last days of President Barack Obama’s second term, because Americans were told previously this deployment would never happen- as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises. During campain 2016, Trump was elected on a platform to leave NATO, bring US troops home from abroad and cut defense spending to minimal levels.
The Marines first deployed to the province in 2001 and fought costly operations against Taliban fighters. British forces were based there as well. The current foreign occupation force count in Afghanistan is 8,400 from the United States and around 6,000 from NATO and allied countries.
The people of Helmand have suffered greatly due to the American occupation in Afghanistan, with 891 civilians killed or injured during 2016. This figure was the highest in the country in 2016 outside of Kabul,” the mission said in February.
Helmand also had a large number of civilian casualties in the first quarter of 2017.
Kabul province had the highest number of civilian casualties due to American aggression and complex attacks in Kabul city, followed by Helmand, Kandahar, Nangarhar and Uruzgan provinces, provoked by the American occupation forces.
As of today, 2838 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan, 20,949 have been wounded. Civilians killed by American led forces exceed 300,000 souls lost to date.