Remember when the media was reporting the ‘bombshell’ that Russia was paying Taliban fighters in Afghanistan “bounties” to attack and kill U.S. troops stationed there?
Well, it never made much sense, given that the Taliban hadn’t needed anyone to pay them for the past 19 or so years to target American and NATO forces in the country.
So, as with every other ‘bombshell’ from the mainstream media that puts the Trump administration in a bad light, we kind of took the ‘bountygate’ story with a grain of salt.
***Love Trump? Stay Informed With Our FREE Trump News App***
Turns out that was a good idea.
Oh, it seems as though at least some Taliban forces were being paid to attack Americans, but Russia (Russia!!) wasn’t the country forking out the money.
It was Iran – which is why President Donald Trump ordered Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani targeted via drone strike at an Iraqi air base in January.
Iran reportedly paid bounties to a Taliban-backed Haqqani terrorist network for at least six attacks carried out against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
U.S. intelligence identified the link between Iran and Haqqani following the December 2019 suicide attack at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, which killed two civilians and injured dozens more, CNN reported Monday morning.
Two Trump administration officials said, according to CNN, that the bounties led to President Donald Trump’s decision to kill former Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani by drone strike in January. Trump cited Soleimani and Iran allegedly planning further attacks against U.S. forces in the region as a justification for killing him.
All of this makes perfect sense when you think about it.
It never made much sense that Russia was behind the bounties because Washington and Moscow, while certainly competitors, have been cooperating in places like Syria, where a tenuous cease-fire was only accomplished after both countries agreed to establish security zones that were mutually beneficial.
Also, Moscow knows that getting into a tit-for-tat conflict with the United States is a loser, diplomatically, financially, and militarily.
Iran, on the other hand, isn’t led by rational people. It is led by an ideologue, Ayatollah Khomeini, whose hatred for the “Zionists” and Israel knows no bounds.
Plus, strategically, it would follow that Iran – which borders Afghanistan’s western flank – would do anything to hasten the U.S. withdrawal, which Trump has been attempting to do practically since he got into office.
***BRAND NEW Space Force Commemorative Bundle***
Finally, here’s something else to consider.
It was President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretary of State John Kerry who made a ‘secret’ nuclear deal with the Iranians that led to, among other things, a massive payment of $1.8 billion.
And, according to sources within the intelligence community, much of the money was used by Iran to fund terrorism.
“The cash payment authorized by Obama is one of the most disgraceful and shameful ‘negotiations’ in the history of our nation. It was a payment the Obama White House first denied, then ignored and then grudgingly acknowledged,” Douglas MacKinnon, who served in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, wrote earlier this year.
Valid question: How much of that money was used to finance the bounties?
