"At what point does Trump realize the U.S. military has sold him a bill of goods on Afghanistan?"

Those words are from Long War Journal's Bill Roggio during his regular Monday update for the John Batchelor Show on America's global war on terrorism. 

Bill's remark was one of several he made tonight that reflect his rising exasperation with the fairy tales foisted on the public about the situation in Afghanistan. To hear the U.S. military tell it, the Taliban group's attacks on various Afghan provincial capitals are the sure sign of desperation.

The normally phlegmatic Bill snapped, "This desperate group keeps having battlefield successes."

Right. But far be it for the American military to break a sterling record of telling whoppers about what's going on Afghanistan. 

What's actually going on? Same thing that's been going on:  Always from bad to worse.

For readers who'd like details -- they could always follow the Afghan War reports at Long War Journal, starting with this one published on May 17:

Taliban’s 2018 offensive encompasses all regions of Afghanistan.

And here's the podcast for Bill's Wednesday May 16 discussion with John Batchelor, which was obviously to answer protests from the U.S. command that his scathing remarks during his Monday update were inaccurate. John titled the Wednesday podcast, "The Taliban plunders Afghanistan provincial capitals at will & What is to be done?"

And here is the Monday May 14 podcast that set off the ruckus, titled "Taliban surge in Farah City, Western Afghanistan."  

As to what is to be done -- my view is that nothing can be done. Bill doesn't want the U.S. to walk away; he voiced concern tonight that Trump is so mercurial he might yank all U.S. troops from Afghanistan if he really understood what was going on there. I don't think that will happen as long as the Get Russia crowd rules the roost in the District of Columbia. The crowd fears that if the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan this will create a vacuum Russia will fill.  

I'm not sure Russia's military wants the Afghanistan headache; however, if Islamic State and al Qaeda continue making inroads there Putin might rethink. But first the USA and whatever NATO gofers are still left in A'stan would have to leave because they've given no sign of wanting to cooperate with Russia despite all the Kremlin's attempts, over years, to establish cooperation. 

The bottom line is that the Taliban remain what they've always been -- a proxy fighting force for Pakistan's military. The U.S. will not confront Islamabad on this matter any more than it's already done; to do so would mean confronting Riyadh and London. The cows will come home before that happens.

So the U.S. will continue throwing good money after bad, continue conducting just enough military operations to prevent the Taliban from overrunning Kabul, and continue making contractors rich with training programs for Afghan security forces. All the while continuing to lie in their teeth to the American public about the true situation in the country.

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