Trump Is Either Lying or Out of the Loop on Afghanistan. Both Are Bad.

[signalmankenneth]

The corporate media has been straining at its collective leash since the weekend, firing a volley of barks our way about Russian intelligence agents paying the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers, and my God, did Donald Trump know? The high dudgeon in these reports is unmistakable; one CNN article by Paul Begala calls it “the worst of Trump’s outrages.”

It’s a story that has everything, if you like that sort of thing: war, international intrigue, tragedy, politics. Plus, because did Donald Trump know is in the mix, the Russia connection is enough to give John le Carré the vapors.

As matters stand today, a Russian intelligence agency is believed to have paid bounties to Taliban-allied militants for targeting and killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. No one seems sure of how many troops came to grief by way of this program — perhaps one, perhaps more. Some 20 U.S. servicemembers were killed over there in 2019, the year that is apparently in question regarding these activities.

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-...-both-are-bad/