Stephen Lendman

On Saturday, AP News said he was mulling options at Camp David with his “top national security aides” - including Mattis, McMaster, Tillerson, top military officials and others.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said he’s “studying and considering his options and will make an announcement to the American people, to our allies and partners, and to the world at the appropriate time.”

Since entering office, he considered options ranging from ending America’s longest war in modern times to greatly escalating it - what he favored in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, along with sending US forces to Somalia for the first time since withdrawn in 1994.

On Saturday, Mattis said “(w)e are coming very close to a decision, and I anticipate it in the very near future.”

Last May, McMaster and Pentagon commanders recommended deploying an additional 50,000 troops. Despite knowing the war is a lost cause, they urged continuing the carnage endlessly.

Throughout its history, Afghanistan was the graveyard of empires, defeating would-be conquerors, foiling their ambitions, America’s lost war the latest example, mostly harming civilians, enduring 16 horrific years of mass slaughter and destruction.

On Sunday, The New York Times said “Trump has settled on an Afghan strategy,” quoting Mattis saying:

“The president has made a decision. I am very comfortable that the strategic process was sufficiently rigorous. It is a South Asia strategy. It not just an Afghanistan strategy.”

On Saturday, Trump tweeted: “Important day spent at Camp David with our very talented Generals and military leaders. Many decisions made, including on Afghanistan.”

Details to follow, Trump to announce them publicly in the coming days. It’s virtually certain no pullout is planned, the only responsible option, ending 16 years of naked aggression against a nation threatening no one, planned long before 9/11.

The attack came 26 days after that fateful day. It takes months to plan war. Bush/Cheney administration officials debated whether to attack Afghanistan or Iraq first.

Pre-9/11, Washington targeted eight countries for regime change - Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria, five attacked so far, war or related violence and chaos continuing in all of them.

More of the same ahead is planned. Expect Trump to announce more US forces are heading for Afghanistan - a forever war along with other US ones ongoing.

America is humanity’s greatest threat. Its permanent war policy for regime change in all sovereign independent countries risks ending life on earth.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."