US to expand Afghan capital’s security zone to extend military presence

The US military is planning to expand boundaries of the Green Zone in the Afghan capital Kabul in an effort to not only bring nearly all Western embassies, NATO and American military headquarters within the protected area, but to prolong US military presence in the country well into the 2020s.

US military authorities recently appointed an American brigadier general to oversee the project of greatly expanding and fortifying the Green Zone in Kabul, The New York Times reported Saturday.

After the completion of the huge project, the report noted, American Embassy staff in Kabul “will no longer need to take a Chinook helicopter ride to cross the street to a military base less than 100 yards outside the present Green Zone security district.”

After 16 years of the US-led military presence in the Afghan capital, it added, the expansion project serves as a “stark acknowledgment that even the city’s central districts have become too difficult to defend” against persisting terror bombings by Taliban insurgents.

This is while the US claimed at the outset of its military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that the occupation was aimed at rooting out the Taliban terrorists across the war-torn country.

The Green Zone expansion project, which will significantly limit access to the Afghan capital, was prompted by a massive truck bombing at a gate of the current zone on May 31, killing over 150 people and destroying most of the German Embassy.

In the first stage of the project – expected to take six to 12 months – an expanded Green Zone will be established, covering nearly 1.86 square miles – up from 0.71 miles – closing off streets within it to all but official traffic.

In the final stage, a larger Blue Zone will be created, covering most of the city center, where severe restrictions on movement — particularly by trucks — will be imposed. Eventually, all trucks seeking to enter Kabul will be routed through a single portal, where they will be X-rayed and searched.

The project is also aimed at protecting “another long-term American investment,” given the troop surge in the country to 15,000 from the existing 11,000 as the Trump administration’s new Afghan strategy calls for continued US military presence there well into the 2020s.

Unlike former US President Barack Obama, Trump has suggested that American forces should remain in Afghanistan until victory, although his own generals have admitted that a total military victory in the terror-ravaged country is not possible.

The US military mission in Afghanistan is expected to continue for many more years, despite its unpopularity with the American public and the rest of the world.

“It seems America is not yet ready to end the longest war in its history,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid after Trump announced his new Afghan policy. “As Trump stated, ‘Americans are weary of the long war in Afghanistan.’ We shall cast further worry into them and force American officials to accept realities.”

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