US military mulling forcing US out of Afghanistan after successful Iraq experience

RNA - At a hastily-organized press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday, chief DoD spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said the experience in Iraq had helped restore morale among US servicemen, who he said “have been dismayed, frankly, at years of senseless military activity in the Middle East.”

“We took out Iran’s enemy to the east in 2001. We took out Iran’s enemy to the west in 2003. If it takes us now to take out another of Iran’s enemies to restore the lost credibility of the United States military, then be it,” Hoffman said, in an apparent reference to America itself, and in a brief statement before he took questions from reporters.

The US military conducted strikes against Iraqi paramilitary targets on Sunday, setting off a wave of angry protests in Iraq. On Tuesday, thousands of Iraqis marched on the US Embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, chanting “Death to America” and burning US flags. As they did, the US ambassador and other staff were evacuated, according to Reuters.

Pressed by a pool of skeptical reporters on how that potential exit from Iraq, or Afghanistan, might make America look like, Hoffman, the Pentagon spokesman, stressed military achievement over politics.

“We understand that Ambassador [Matthew H.] Tueller and other American personnel left the premises of their own volition, unharmed. From a purely military perspective, that’s an optimum outcome,” the Pentagon spokesman said.

According to Press TV, Hoffman did not provide details. He merely said that a pattern had already shaped among US military strategists and that planning was “at an early stage” for Afghanistan, “where America has similarly embarrassed itself.”

“We do not discuss ongoing operations. But we have had a successful experience and we certainly aren’t going to let that experience slip us,” he said. “We will be doing what’s necessary in Afghanistan.”

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