Afghanistan Crisis

[jamamafegan]

 

That’s the Taliban taking over Kabul, supposedly with very little resistance, meaning they’ll have pretty much taken over Afghanistan.

 

US & UK nationals are being evacuated from the country. Biden defends the decisions to take US troops out of the country, saying that Afghanistan needs to defend itself rather than rely on Americans.

 

Wonder what the repercussions will be of all this.

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by jamamafegan

[welshbairn]

Mass emigration, a brief period of stability followed by a fracturing of the coalition operating under the Taliban umbrella, and another decade of civil war. Probably.

[101]

We should be taking female scholars and their families with us as you leave along with the translators who helped us and are now being murdered by the Taliban for helping us out.

Typical Tory policy reek havoc round the world and then shrug at the displacement of people.

[coprolite]

10 minutes ago, 101 said:

We should be taking female scholars and their families with us as you leave along with the translators who helped us and are now being murdered by the Taliban for helping us out.

Typical Tory policy reek havoc round the world and then shrug at the displacement of people.

Can't argue with the Tories shrugging part, but our part in the havoc was initiated by a Labour government, following a "rim America" policy. 

Once there are no more western soldiers there it can go back on the list of countries that no-one in the west  cares about along with half its neighbours. 

 

[101]

If they left the helicopters what the hell else did they leave behind.

 

 

[Ric]

Allow me to repost what I had written on another site:

 

...and the cycle continues. 

World powers over centuries have piled in, promised to "improve" everything, then leave a political and military vacuum as they exit. That vacuum is, of course, filled by the very people who had been fighting that world power. 

They don't call it the "graveyard of empires", for nothing.

[Ric]

Oh, and btw, the way that the US and UK went back to "get their security contractors out" totally reminded me of this..

[Michael W]

Biden's line about Afghanistan needing to fight for itself was laughable given that it came at the same time that the army was rolling over. What an utter waste of time and money all that military training was, then. 

Maybe there's an uncomfortable truth unacknowledged by Western media that perhaps a lot of people are either happy for the taliban to take over or at the very least do not particularly care. 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Michael W

[coprolite]

1 minute ago, Ric said:

Allow me to repost what I had written on another site:

 

...and the cycle continues. 

World powers over centuries have piled in, promised to "improve" everything, then leave a political and military vacuum as they exit. That vacuum is, of course, filled by the very people who had been fighting that world power. 

They don't call it the "graveyard of empires", for nothing.

I'd like to nominate the Mongols for an honourable exception here. They didn't try to improve anything, broke everything they couldn't carry and left behind a contribution to the gene pool. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

5 minutes ago, 101 said:

If they left the helicopters what the hell else did they leave behind.

 

 

I can't wait for the video of them trying to fly it.

[Ric]

1 minute ago, Michael W said:

Biden's line about Afghanistan needing to fight for itself was laughable given that it came at the same time that thr army was rolling over. What an utter waste of time and money all that military training was, then. 

Maybe there's an uncomfortable truth unacknowledged by Western media that perhaps a lot of people are either happy for the taliban to take over or at the very least do not particularly care. 

American domestic policy fucks the world up, it's as simple as that. It always has, it always will and it's sadly driven by a large section of what can only be called complete fucking nutters.

People can go on about NK, China or rogue states having nukes. There is only one country that has used them before, and I genuinely believe there are only two countries that will use them in the future; America and Israel. And for the former of those two, it's domestic policy that'll drive such a thing.

 

[Aubrey Maturin]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-58200507

 

Rory Stewart: Afghanistan is a betrayal and catastrophic failure

 

Rory Stewart: Afghanistan is a betrayal and catastrophic failureClose

 

The advance of the Taliban across Afghanistan represents a betrayal and catastrophic failure by the US, UK and Nato, says Rory Stewart, a former UK International Development Secretary.

He told BBC World News that Western involvement in Afghanistan had involved around 2,500 troops supporting Afghan forces and air support. That support had confined the Taliban to the south for the country and the withdrawal of that support was "a betrayal".

He said: "This is totally heart-breaking and totally unnecessary and there was no reason for us to do this, and by doing this we've broken Afghanistan in a matter of weeks."

Taliban militants have continued their rapid offensive in the country seizing more territory and capturing key cities. The group now controls more than a third of its provincial capitals and most of northern Afghanistan.

[101]

4 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I can't wait for the video of them trying to fly it.

As a military man you could go and be an instructor

3 minutes ago, Tynierose said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-58200507

 

Rory Stewart: Afghanistan is a betrayal and catastrophic failure

 

Rory Stewart: Afghanistan is a betrayal and catastrophic failureClose

 

The advance of the Taliban across Afghanistan represents a betrayal and catastrophic failure by the US, UK and Nato, says Rory Stewart, a former UK International Development Secretary.

He told BBC World News that Western involvement in Afghanistan had involved around 2,500 troops supporting Afghan forces and air support. That support had confined the Taliban to the south for the country and the withdrawal of that support was "a betrayal".

He said: "This is totally heart-breaking and totally unnecessary and there was no reason for us to do this, and by doing this we've broken Afghanistan in a matter of weeks."

Taliban militants have continued their rapid offensive in the country seizing more territory and capturing key cities. The group now controls more than a third of its provincial capitals and most of northern Afghanistan.

Imagine trying to explain in 10 years how Johnston beat Stewart to the Tory leadership.

[Ric]

6 minutes ago, coprolite said:

I'd like to nominate the Mongols for an honourable exception here. They didn't try to improve anything, broke everything they couldn't carry and left behind a contribution to the gene pool. 

Technically, Afghanistan "didn't exist" until the 18th century, but I take your point.

[Ric]

Just now, 101 said:

As a military man you could go and be an instructor

Imagine trying to explain in 10 years how Johnston beat Stewart to the Tory leadership.

If only Rory had known how receptive the English public would be towards racist rhetoric.

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, 101 said:

As a military man you could go and be an instructor

Imagine trying to explain in 10 years how Johnston beat Stewart to the Tory leadership.

I'm doing choreography.

 

[Ric]

Not sure if anyone watches The Caspian Report on YT. Good channel, personal project of a guy rather than a large media organisation, which centres on the geopolitics surrounding, you guessed it, the Caspian Sea. He's done quite a few videos on Afghanistan, here are two contrasting ones...

^^ just a heads up, that video was uploaded less than 3 weeks ago, and while his predictions seem in line with what is happening, it's progressed far quicker than he suggests, so maps of "they will take this" are really maps of "they've taken this". It's still well worth watching, as I say it's only a few weeks old.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Ric

[101]

1 minute ago, Ric said:

If only Rory had known how receptive the English public would be towards racist rhetoric.

And a lack of "What's he like eh!"

Just now, Sergeant Wilson said:

I'm doing choreography.

 

Look forward to your story on the "Immigrants of P&B" thread.

God speed.

[philpy]

52 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Mass emigration, a brief period of stability followed by a fracturing of the coalition operating under the Taliban umbrella, and another decade of civil war. Probably.

That's enough about Cowdenbeath,  what about the poor folk in Afghanistan??

[Jacksgranda]

49 minutes ago, 101 said:

We should be taking female scholars and their families with us as you leave along with the translators who helped us and are now being murdered by the Taliban for helping us out.

Typical Tory policy reek havoc round the world and then shrug at the displacement of people.

Labour were in power when British troops went into Afghanistan.