Short Term Memory Loss

Remember that attack in Kandahar? The one I highlighted ONLY TWO DAYS AGO?

Remember how General Austin Miller, commander of all U.S. forces in Afganistan emerged miraculously unscathed despite the death of Afghan Police General Abdul Raziq, and the Provincial Intelligence Chief, General Abdul Momin?

It seems Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley was not quite as lucky.

U.S. general wounded in attack in Afghanistan
By Dan Lamothe, Washington Post
October 21, 2018

A U.S. general was wounded in an attack last week in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province that killed two senior Afghan provincial officials and targeted a group that included the senior U.S. commander in the country, four people with knowledge of the assault said.

Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley is recovering after suffering at least one gunshot wound inside the Kandahar governor’s compound, three of the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. U.S. military officials in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon have declined to comment on the attack or identify the wounded, describing them only as an American service member, an American civilian and a contractor who is part of the military coalition.
…
The attack caught the U.S. military by surprise. General officers are rarely in situations where they face attack, and even more rarely wounded.

Among those present during the attack was Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan. Butler has said that the U.S. officials present were caught in the crossfire after a gunman started shooting. The Taliban asserted responsibility for the attack and said Miller was among the main targets.

Smiley has served in the Army for just over 30 years and became a general in May 2017, according to an official biography. He deployed in Afghanistan this summer, taking command of a unit with headquarters in Kandahar known as Train, Advise, Assist and Command-South. The headquarters is largely composed of members of the 40th Infantry Division, a unit of the California Army National Guard. Smiley has commanded Guard units in California for years.

The Afghan officials killed include Kandahar’s top police general, Abdul Raziq, a powerful but controversial security official who had survived numerous assassination attempts. He had risen to power while clearing the Taliban from Kandahar but was accused of extrajudicial killings, torture and other human rights abuses. He denied the allegations.

Also killed was Kandahar’s intelligence chief, Abdul Momin. The governor, Zalmai Wessa, was shot but survived.

The attack prompted the Afghan government to postpone voting in Kandahar for parliamentary elections by a week. The elections were held Saturday across most of the country, with some Afghans waiting hours to vote.

Afghanistan is a disaster. The United States is losing. D.C. collectively (yes Democrats included, Obama’s ‘Good War’ you know) is more than willing to send more soldiers there to die in pursuit of a policy that has already failed. Do you want to be the last one as we evacuate from the roof of the Embassy in Kabul?

U.S. Out. Now.