Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a sudden quick stop to Afghanistan to meet with President, Ashraf Ghani, following a suicide bombing on Kabul that killed 15 people this past Saturday. Tillerson was only on Afghan ground for 2 hours before leaving for Qatar as a part of his week-long Middle East visit. What was actually discussed in the meeting has not been publicly announced, however, it most likely points to defense strategies for Afghanistan in order to prevent other attacks like the one on Saturday.
The suicide bombing also took place the day after more suicide bombings at mosques outside of Kabul killed almost 60 people. The attacks haven't been claimed by anyone yet, although ISIS seems to be the ones behind it. Back in August, President Trump announced a strategy for the war in Afghanistan, which put a focus on pressuring Taliban to the point of surrender and would concentrate less on nation-building.
Tillerson's visit in Afghanistan also prompted a step up with security after Taliban forces launched a rocket attack that was aimed for Defense Secretary James Mattis, who already departed the country. The visit also came after a stop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he called for foreign fighters in Iraq to go home and let the Iraqi people deal with situation themselves.
I personally find it suspicious that Tillerson would secretly take a visit to Afghanistan. Even though i understand it might spark criticism if he does announce the visit it is still his job to visit countries and deal with foreign policies. Who knows what they might have talked about? Maybe it's something about the recent bombings or maybe it could have been something else.
Why do you think Tillerson made this pit stop unannounced? What do you think was discussed between Ghani and Tillerson? Do you believe that ISIS could be the ones responsible for the attacks?
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6 comments:
It is very difficult to speculate on the precise details of this meeting, but, as was suggested in the article, it is likely that, due to its unscheduled nature, the meeting was topical and related to the recent bombings and possible preventative measures in the future. Transparency is always nice, but I personally think that some meetings, especially those under the vague label of "strategy", can remain confidential for the sake of effectiveness. Again, its a bit of a catch 22 in saying whether or not it was right to keep the nature of this meeting secret when we would need to judge it based on its secretive content we don't know(if that sentence made any sense). In speaking of Trump's plan for Afghanistan holistically, I must admit I'm not the biggest fan, due to its lack of detail surrounding troop numbers and on how long troops would stay; I understand that these details may fluctuate with different situations, but a rough estimate would be nice. I'm not sure what to feel on the "no nation building" sentiment. We want to get out, sure, but we don't want to leave utter chaos in our wake.
Tillerson may have made this trip unannounced because it involved trivial details. If the meeting occurred in just over two hours without any other major leaders present, no extremely relevant decisions would likely have been made. In such a situation, full transparency might just be unnecessary. It's likely that they did discuss security measures in light of recent events, and may have settled some plans to better enforce security in public services. I don't find this visit to be terribly scandalous because it was still revealed shortly after with no attempts to hide it. Even if there were important discussions, any agreements would likely be announced sooner or later.
Personally, I am unsure if ISIS is responsible for the recent bombings. While it seems like ISIS is usually the culprit in such incidents, there have been no claims to responsibility, and I heard on the radio today that the areas bombed are outside of ISIS's general territory.
Tillerson's meeting was most likely kept secretive because, either it was not news worthy, or the content of the meeting itself was very sensitive. Certain government meetings about safety may be kept secret. If everyone knows the content of the meeting than civilians and crime groups alike have the same information. Additionally, it is unclear if ISIS is behind this strike, but they would most likely want to take credit for it.
It does concern me that such a meeting took place, especially considering the secrecy of the meeting, and the circumstances surrounding such a meeting. Firstly, the suicide bombing that occurred immediately before Tillerson's visit specifically took place at a military academy in Kabul about seven miles from the city center, with army officers being the intended target. This specific target is worrying considering the fact that most of the few American troops that remain in the country are there to train the Afghan military. If there has been bachkchanneling between Tillerson and his Afghani counterpart, then is it not too much of a stretch to assume that US troops might be returning to the area? Keep in mind that Trump's foreign policy was hawkish at best when dealing with radical islamic terror; he explicitly promised to "bomb the s**t out of ISIS" in one debate. Finally, one must take into account the secrecy of the meeting. Why wasn't the meeting made public? There would be only one reason not to make the meeting public: because the contents of that meeting might prove unpopular with the people of both those nations. The average American does not want to send troops back to another quagmire, and the average Afghani does not want their nation to be occupied by a foreign country for another 16 years. If the meeting would concern the resurgence of US troops in Afghanistan, then wouldn't that be reason enough to keep it a secret?
I agree with Ella. I feel like yes citizens should be aware about what is going on in society, nut there are certain things that the public does not need to know.
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