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>> No. 34443 Anonymous
5th July 2021
Monday 3:31 pm
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>More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan after clashing with Taliban militants, officials have said. The troops retreated over the border to "save their own lives", according to a statement by Tajikistan's border guard.

>Violence has risen in Afghanistan, with the Taliban launching attacks and taking more territory in recent weeks. The surge coincides with the end of Nato's 20-year military mission in the country. The vast majority of remaining foreign forces in Afghanistan have been withdrawn ahead of a September deadline, and there are concerns that the Afghan military will collapse.

>Under a deal with the Taliban, the US and its Nato allies agreed to withdraw all troops in return for a commitment by the militants not to allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control. But the Taliban did not agree to stop fighting Afghan forces, and now reportedly control about a third of the country.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-57720103

How long do you reckon it'll be until we're back in Afghanistan? Will China and Iran give it a go?
Expand all images.
>> No. 34445 Anonymous
5th July 2021
Monday 4:20 pm
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Apparently the Chinks are looking to expand their infrastructure plans with laplanderstan to include Afghanistan.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-has-a-big-plan-for-post-us-afghanistan-and-its-worth-billions
>> No. 34446 Anonymous
5th July 2021
Monday 8:50 pm
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>>34443
The most recent issue of Private Eye has an article explaining how there's all manner of factionalism in Afghanistan from places that I, personally, had not expected. All the other 'stans are much more represented than I would have thought, so it's possible that everyone pegging it into Tajikistan might be from there anyway. Honestly, if they were going into Tajikistan to get help so they could just annex their favourite bit of Afghanistan, and if Uzbekistan and any other bordering 'stans (from a map I just checked, that's Turkmenistan, and P*kistan if they count, but not Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan) all decided to do the same till Afghanistan was fully absorbed, then I don't think I would have any complaints at all.
>> No. 34461 Anonymous
7th July 2021
Wednesday 10:53 am
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I reckon us and the Yanks are only going to become more insular over the next few years. It'll be the Chinese that begin expansion into the middle East.
>> No. 34462 Anonymous
7th July 2021
Wednesday 11:23 am
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>>34443
It does seem like Afghanistan is going to immediately fall to the Taliban once the US and Coalition Forces are gone. However, I haven't a clue what you do instead. Stay there forever and ever and ever? That doesn't seem feasible, but then what's another twenty years? The US has been in South Korea since the fifties and no one, outside of Korea anyway, gives a monkeys about that. I'm not a bloody neo-con, I just don't know what I'd do if I had any influence over this situation. The best thing is for Afghans not to be at war for all of eternity, but ending the war looks to mean the Taliban winning, which might be worse for most Afghans, maybe? I have no idea.
>> No. 34463 Anonymous
7th July 2021
Wednesday 12:55 pm
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Everyone is going on about Afghanistan falling to the Taliban as soon as the West withdraws, but nobody is actually discussing why the withdrawal is taking place.

The Doha agreement apparently states that, in return for the withdrawal, the Taliban with conduct a prisoner swap, a pledge to prevent al-Qaeda from operating in their areas of control, and talks with the Afghan government.

Presumably the threat of another invasion is the collateral put up to stop them breaking the agreement, although maybe the Taliban are counting on that being politically unfeasible enough to never happen.

I'd like to know what is the intended best-case outcome of this agreement. Some kind of peaceful co-existence, where the Taliban enforce fundamentalism in the rural areas and the Northern Alliance stays in Kabul? So in other words throwing rural Afghan women to the wolves for the sake of no more war?
>> No. 34464 Anonymous
7th July 2021
Wednesday 1:26 pm
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>>34445
I don't see it, the thing about China abroad is that it's notoriously risk-averse. You're more likely to see Iran invade and Turkey beefing up it's presence.

>>34462
We could try and win. From the early years it's been pointed out that there's no interest from the coalition in taking and holding territory nor any interest in providing a stable livelihood for Afghans. The former could be work for the ANA but they've been allowed to be incompetent and corrupt by leadership that by all rights should be hung from lampposts and a tacit admission that nobody the ANA recruits is capable of operating as a human being.

>>34463
Ghani thinks he can invite them into a government and hold elections. Part of any deal there being dependant on Afghanistan adopting harsher sharia law over it's entirety so it's more like a Taliban democracy as a best case scenario.

For us the best caser scenario is that, when the Taliban take Kabul in the next fighting season, they don't butcher anyone still in our embassy and claim that any security the embassy had was a violation of the deal.
>> No. 35043 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 2:45 pm
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How long do you think Kabul has, will the US embassy burn on 9/11?

>Afghanistan: Taliban fighters take southern city of Lashkar Gah following capture of Kandahar and Herat
https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-uk-to-deploy-600-troops-as-taliban-captures-countrys-second-and-third-largest-cities-12379951
>> No. 35057 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 6:16 pm
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>>34463
There has been plenty of discussion but most of it was earlier in the year around the time of the initial US withdrawal.

It's happening because Trump made a political promise to get US troops out of foreign conflicts, and he pushed this through despite all warnings of the consequences.
The Doha agreement gave the taliban literally everything they asked for, and it was plainly obvious to everyone that they weren't going to comply to the terms once the foreign troops left.
When Biden took power a lot of people were expecting him to backtrack on the deal and at least try to renegotiate or delay, either it was a blindspot at a time when he'd just took control and couldn't act quick enough, or he decided to stick with certain of Trumps policies because of the narrow majority in the senate.
>> No. 35058 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 6:20 pm
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>>35057
Biden is reportedly much more in favour of drone strikes and espionage, in any case. Owen Jones had a guest on his podcast earlier this year that laid out every single public stance Biden has had on foreign conflicts going back to the 1970s, and he's basically always been in favour of whatever will make him look good at the time. I'd expect the US to continue being involved in Afghanistan, but without wellies in the mud.
>> No. 35059 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 8:39 pm
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>>35058
By September 11th this year there won't even be an Afghanistan. There'll be an Afghan Emirate, but the republic's on the way out so I hope the average Afghan steers clear of weddings from now on if you're correct about Biden's future plans.

Half the Afghan armed forces aren't fighting and I've heard some might be actively defecting, and as for the other half they probably only exist on paper so officers can scam money from the government. That's not true of all the armed forces, as there's definitely some resistance, but it's so minimal and I can't help but think back to an article in some news magazine I read ten years ago. It was about how incompetent the Afghan armed forces were and how rampant drug consumption rendered them basically useless. I can only assume, given this year's events, that's still true, at least in part. It's not like the Taliban have been building battle mechs in caves for the past ten years, materially the Afghan government should have the advantage. However, there doesn't appear to be a willingness to fight, which to me indicates that little has been done to improve Afghan living standards to a point where soldiers feel they have something to defend. Women struggle to have any public position without facing threats or outright attempts on their lives, suggesting widescale support for hardline Islamist views and many more Afghans likely see this as nothing more than the Mafia currently running the country being kicked out by the nutty Islamists.

Whilst I think military intervention is usually a very bad idea, if this were Belgium, and the only thing holding back a group of violent, kiddy-fiddling, authoritarian Catholics from emerging from the Ardennes Forest, washing over the country and removing any vestiges of civil liberty, was a NATO military force, we wouldn't have fucked off, would we? You don't undo the original sin by walking away from it twenty years after the fact. But instead they say "sayonara suckers, we intervened, we liberated, we oscillated between international drugs trade busting, nation building and MOAB dropping and now we're off". Morally speaking, I don't understand how this can be the correct decision.
>> No. 35060 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 9:13 pm
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>>35059

Belgium is a western country with a long history of liberalism.

Afghanistan is a desert with an even longer history of violence, kiddy fiddling and authoritarianism. Why can't we just let them establish an emirate? Clear leadership might be better for the people then a constant war over who is in charge... even if they are islamic fundamentalists. Yeah it would be nice if girls could be educated, but how many civilians is it worth killing in order to achieve that?
>> No. 35061 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 9:20 pm
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>>35060
Biden is on-record this week as having said that the Taliban "will need to decide their role within the international community", so I don't think your line of thinking is far off his.
>> No. 35062 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 9:44 pm
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>>35060
The problem with countries are that they effect everyone around them and people fly planes into buildings when they fall apart. We clearly fucked up with Afghanistan and it's pretty well documented by now what went wrong when we spent years not bothering to build an Afghan army and let corrupt warlords become the government.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/afghanistan-us-military-analysis-biden-rumsfeld

I'd say it is worth the death of some civilians to ensure something at least resembling a proper country is created. Just build a modern military apparatus and let it be an authoritarian dictatorship if we must. Or better yet literally just stay until the end of the fighting season so the Afghan army has a chance or even stay until the Taliban are forced into a peace which is what they came to talks in Doha to do.

>an even longer history of violence, kiddy fiddling and authoritarianism

Even longer than Belgium's?
>> No. 35063 Anonymous
13th August 2021
Friday 10:19 pm
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakhan_Corridor

>The remoteness of the region has meant that, despite the long-running wars of Afghanistan since the late 1970s, the region has remained virtually untouched by conflict and many locals, who are mostly composed of ethnic Pamir and Kyrgyz, are not aware of wars in the country.[24]

Afghanistan is an entire country made up of almost nothing but remote villages hidden in mountain ranges. If Taliban soldiers live in those villages, there really isn't anything anyone can do to stop them. You'd really have to go from house to house throughout the entire country and just hope every Taliban militant told you the truth when you asked if they were a mad Sharia fundamentalist. I'm pretty sure we've done all that anyone could do to fix it.

Maybe China will sort everything out. I hate the Chinese government for what they do in Xinjiang, but if they did the exact same thing in Afghanistan, it would honestly probably be an improvement over the current situation.
>> No. 35066 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 9:44 am
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>>35063

>Maybe China will sort everything out. I hate the Chinese government for what they do in Xinjiang, but if they did the exact same thing in Afghanistan, it would honestly probably be an improvement over the current situation.

I'm eagerly looking forward to the leaked stories of Chinese soldiers retreating in tears the first time they experience anyone actually fighting back. All they really know how to do is build islands, throw stones at Indians and drag drowned bodies out of tunnels
>> No. 35067 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 10:01 am
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>>34446

Might not be a bad idea.

As I understand it the main problem with Afghanistan is just that no matter what us forriners might think is best for them, the people there don't give a fuck about democracy or who is supposedly "in charge" hundreds of miles away in Kabul. They see themselves as residents of their own particular region, loyal to their tribes, and nothing above that. So for that reason it kind of requires an authoritarian presence to administer control.

Even if the Afghan army had been built stronger, it's still an inherently daft concept because most of the soldiers in it still wouldn't care about the concept of a unified Afghanistan in the first place. So you can say what you want about nationalism, but this is the kind of situation where they could have done with a pinch of it- Without the presence of coalition troops, the Taliban are free to just pop back out of their caves and get right back to business, because they're the only ones enforcing such a thing.

Maybe it would have been better to make Afghanistan into some sort of confederate hybrid state, like pre-unification Germany, so each region gets their own chunk of land and identity. It's just that wherever the US is involved, it always thinks the best thing to do is shipping in that typical flat-pack Ikea Democracy™️, when frankly it barely functions in their own fucking country.
>> No. 35068 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 11:48 am
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>>35067

>It's just that wherever the US is involved, it always thinks the best thing to do is shipping in that typical flat-pack Ikea Democracy™️, when frankly it barely functions in their own fucking country.


America's problem has always been its disinterest in the rest of the world besides the very strong desire to rule it with an iron fist. And with this disinterest comes a very profound ignorance and incapability to understand how a foreign country's culture and power structures function. America likes to think along the tired old 80s action movie tropes that all you need to do is depose the bad guy, and hooray, people are going to start embracing freedom and democracy.

But in countries that have very limited first-hand experience with our - quite flawed - system of Western democracy, which they often enough only got to know by way of the bombing raids that Western democracies carried out on their lands, it goes without saying that it's an incredibly tough sell. Let alone the question how you would actually implement all the underpinnings of democratic institutions that we value in the West, considering that democracy or no democracy, corruption has been rife in many of those countries with an intensity that we in the West have no grasp of.

One reason why Germany's Weimar Republic in the 1920s failed and was so easily swept away by the Nazis was that people neither had much experience with democracy, nor did they value it. In a country that had just come out of over 1,000 years of being divided up into patchwork microstates, duchies and kingdoms, all with their own absolute rulers (which even the founding of the German Reich nation state in the 1870s didn't change fundamentally), you couldn't just say, alright, everybody, you're democrats now. And in a way much like today's attempts by America to democratise countries like Iraq or Afghanistan, the German people felt that democracy was a system that was foisted upon them by the victors of WWI. With or without the rise of the Nazis, there were strong nationalist currents in post-WWI Germany which favoured a return of the ousted ruling class of nobility.

Which brings us back to the original point, that you can't just push democracy on a people who are both reluctant towards it and have just lost a war against you.
>> No. 35069 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 2:56 pm
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>>35067
>As I understand it the main problem with Afghanistan is just that no matter what us forriners might think is best for them, the people there don't give a fuck about democracy or who is supposedly "in charge" hundreds of miles away in Kabul. They see themselves as residents of their own particular region, loyal to their tribes, and nothing above that. So for that reason it kind of requires an authoritarian presence to administer control.

No, Afghan nationalism does exist and it's one of the reasons laplanderstan has been supporting the Taliban as they recognise the Durand Line.* The country really collapsed in the 90s when the government turned to warlords who were themselves loyal along ethnic lines. And obviously the Taliban are a multi-ethnic organisation with a history of aggravating tribal loyalties despite the irony of it being majority Pashtun and drawing its support from Pashtun areas..

*The conspiracy theory in laplanderstan is that India is going to carve up their country along ethnic lines. Not totally unfounded given India and Kabul have positive relations and Afghan presidents are very vocal on the matter.

>>35068
You've slipped into daft cultural relativism here that authoritarians rely on. Germany had a limited-democracy from it's emergence as a state and the fundamental concepts of the system, voting on decisions and leadership, isn't some arcane mechanism. If we're going to chuck out the fundamental points of liberal democracy then you'd better have some alternative to suggest and one that explains why so many divergent countries have managed democracy.

The problems Afghanistan faces are rooted in corruption, limited state influence and a current lack of mandate from the presidency but none of those things are limited to democracies. Obviously imposing Marxist-Leninism didn't work either and we have a wealth of experience in Africa of authoritarian states whose influence that stops at the suburbs. The 2019 election might've ended better if we'd brought back the monarchy in 2001 but I doubt it because the whole nation-building exercise was side-lined by Iraq and a reluctance to impose our values, like not having petty despots run the country.
>> No. 35070 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 3:01 pm
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>>35068

I think the problem goes deeper again -- if you read declassified and leaked documents written from within the U.S. government they openly state that they have no interest in "promoting democracy" in other countries, but put things in purely geopolitical terms. Years ago, General Wesley Clark revealed the Pentagon's plans to topple Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen by various means. Looking at the current state of those countries, it's not a coincidence that a very compliant press does not discuss this more.

There's also a fair amount of academic work done in this vein (though not nearly enough recognition of it). There was a well known paper from the early 1980s in which a researcher found a correlation between U.S. aid to countries and the number of human rights violations occurring within that country; they found that the more aid received, the higher the number of violations: https://sci-hub.st/https://doi.org/10.2307/421620

This doesn't show causation, but it does give us some pause for thought when you consider that other countries with comparable economies not in receipt of U.S. aid performed far better in maintaining human rights.

>>34461

It depends what you mean by 'insular'. The U.S. have hundreds of military bases across the world, on every continent. NATO-affiliated countries are in many ways a de facto extension of U.S. power. There is simply no comparison to U.S. military spending (I believe they outspend the next few countries on that list combined, if memory serves) and it shows in what they have at their disposal.

In one sense, I think you're right, the U.S. have such growing internal problems among its own population that indiscriminate use of military force might become untenable. I believe some documents from the 1960s stated quite candidly that the Vietnam war should be stopped for fear that there wouldn't be enough troops to control the public if things got even more out of hand.

There will be a continuing ascent of China and India in many respects, but the U.S. has such a foothold on the use of violent means that I can't really see how that could be lost in the near or even mid-term future.
>> No. 35071 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 3:15 pm
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>>35070
I'd add that the problem stems from the dominance of the Realism in American international relations which itself appeals to the American psyche. They're not the sort who would follow an Kantian-liberal theory of international institutions. I suppose ironically the last 20-odd years are just going to strengthen the Realist school just at a time when the US needs to bolster the international system and to have a coherent ideology opposing Russian and Chinese great-power politics.
>> No. 35072 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 4:46 pm
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>>35070

>It depends what you mean by 'insular'. The U.S. have hundreds of military bases across the world, on every continent. NATO-affiliated countries are in many ways a de facto extension of U.S. power.

I guess there's probably a continuum between simply having a U.S. base in your country and being a full-on client state. Britain has had U.S. military bases for more than 75 years, but despite our "special relationship", you wouldn't call the UK a client state. Even Blair joining the Iraq War didn't necessarily make the British government a client state.

Official definitions may vary, but I think a true client state tends to also do some of the dirty work and cover ups for the foreign power that it is a client to. Again, you may or may not want to include Blair's tenure, but you only need to look at countries like post-Communist Romania, which was apparently instrumental in the CIA's illegal extraordinary renditions programme after 9/11. There were documentaries a few years ago where the secret torture prisons were tracked down and found to be somewhere in remote villages in the Romanian countryside, far away from the eyes of the world, and with the knowledge and blessing of high-ranking Romanian secret service officials.
>> No. 35073 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 5:36 pm
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I don't understand why the Americans aren't funding warlords, and the central government. There would be a stalemate, similar to Somalia, where the Taliban control everything outside of warlord fiefdoms, and the central government at Kabul. Then just drag it out for half a century, and let the whole area just be destabilised, with a few drone strikes here and there. I believe laplanderstan would be in favour of it too.
>> No. 35074 Anonymous
14th August 2021
Saturday 6:54 pm
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>>35073
The Americans are already funding warlords and the central government. You're forgetting that time 800 Isis fighters captured a city of well over a million people with 60,000 Iraqi defenders equipped with heavy armoured support and helicopters.

This time it has the added bonus that the warlords are defecting without a fight, there's no airbases the US can really operate from so it's all bombers from Qatar and the US timetable has them dropping air-support at the end of the month. Seemingly even with this though the Taliban took Kandahar which was supposedly a line they couldn't cross due to US air-support.
>> No. 35081 Anonymous
15th August 2021
Sunday 2:06 pm
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>Taliban militants have reached the outskirts of the Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, after taking control of most of the rest of the country. The interior minister says negotiations have taken place to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

>A psychological game of warfare

>Panic and fear have gripped Kabul. A colleague has told me that some government offices have been asked to evacuate and shops are closed. No explanation was given for the move. The Taliban are poised to take Kabul - it is possible that many of their fighters could have infiltrated or are living inside the city as well. But they are aware any fighting over Kabul will result in huge civilian casualties - and want to send a message to the international community that Taliban 2.0 are different from their earlier incarnation.

>They have given safe passage to most soldiers and government officials who have surrendered in other provinces. Their psychological warfare against the security forces has worked so far - several provinces have been handed over without a fight. They may play the same game in Kabul as Western nations evacuate their nationals. And it would not be surprising if some local Taliban leaders try to score another propaganda victory in the coming days by supervising US and UK evacuations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58222066

In a few days we'll have our Fall of Saigon picture, this could be worse than the Fall of Saigon if we have NATO troops evacuating under Taliban flags. The advance has been so quick the US has had to rush around the world to find countries willing to house its interpreters while they sort of visas.
>> No. 35082 Anonymous
15th August 2021
Sunday 4:15 pm
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>>35081
20 years and now this. It is just embarrassing. At least the helicopters from Saigon didn't take off under North Vietnam flags.
>> No. 35083 Anonymous
15th August 2021
Sunday 5:36 pm
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>After making his remarks, the president fielded this question: "Mr. President, some Vietnamese veterans see echoes of their experience in this withdrawal in Afghanistan. Do you see any parallels between this withdrawal and what happened in Vietnam?"

>"None whatsoever," Biden replied. "Zero. What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I’m not mistaken. The Taliban is not the South — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable."

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/567872-the-biden-fall-of-saigon-media-narrative-in-afghanistan-presents-worst

How embarrassing. So we're pretty much living in the 1970s now only instead of the 3-day week it's working from home.
>> No. 35084 Anonymous
15th August 2021
Sunday 10:51 pm
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Where's Trump in all this? It was his fucking idea.
>> No. 35085 Anonymous
15th August 2021
Sunday 11:16 pm
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In case you lads haven't seen, there's a complete retard from Loughborough Uni having a holiday in Kabul at the minute.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-student-on-holiday-in-afghanistan-accepts-death-blhl8wph8

https://boards.4channel.org/trv/thread/2075339

https://boards.4channel.org/trv/thread/2076699

https://boards.4channel.org/trv/thread/2078614
>> No. 35086 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 12:32 am
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>>35084
Why does it anger you that NATO has left Afghanistan? Should they stay indefinitely?
>> No. 35087 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 1:28 am
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>>35085
Probably a good time to start memorising the Quran. Arabic's a tricky langauge, but fear can be a powerful motivator.

In all seriousness my understanding is that the Taliban are trying to create as few waves as possible, within the context of an armed takeover anyway, as they're savvy enough to know that they'll have to run the country once they're in power. I doubt beheading the world's stupidest man will win them many friends. Maybe whoever he's flatsharing with back at uni, but I doubt they have a lot of pull on the international diplomacy scene.

Actually I just checked and my use of future tense was incorrect, the Taliban are currently in control of Afghanistan.
>> No. 35089 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 12:27 pm
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>>35087
Why do you think it would be a good idea to learn a language almost no Afghans even speak?
>> No. 35090 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 12:52 pm
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>>35089
Why would you learn Arabic if you wanted to memorise the Quran?
>> No. 35091 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 2:50 pm
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>Desperate Afghans clung to the side of a moving US military plane leaving Kabul airport on Monday, with at least three people apparently falling to their deaths from the undercarriage immediately after takeoff.

>Video footage shows hundreds of people running alongside the plane as it trundles along the runway of Kabul international airport. A number hang on to the side of the C-17A aircraft, just below the wing. Others run alongside waving and shouting.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/16/kabul-airport-chaos-and-panic-as-afghans-and-foreigners-attempt-to-flee-the-capital

Call me cynical but this either ends with a riot and firing on crowds as people block the evacuation or one of the transport planes will crash on the runway.
>> No. 35092 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 2:55 pm
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>>35091

You know the situation is fucked when the defence minister is in tears.


>> No. 35093 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 3:03 pm
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>>35092
I bet Dominic Raab isn't in tears. He's probably on a secret mission in Afghanistan, going around karate chopping the Taliban in the neck.
>> No. 35094 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 3:24 pm
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I for one enjoy seeing the US armed forces embarrassed in this manner.
>> No. 35095 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 4:36 pm
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>>35094
I don't really give a shit about the US military right now though. I'm more disturbed by the Afghan women in abject terror and the people killing themselves by attempting to piggy back on a jet aircraft. The US have been embarrassed by every occupation they've attempted since the Second World War.

>>35092
I'm sorry, but you can't cry AND be a minister. Definitely not defence anyway, that's beyond.
>> No. 35098 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 6:58 pm
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>>35095
>I'm more disturbed by the Afghan women in abject terror and the people killing themselves by attempting to piggy back on a jet aircraft.

Next you'll notice all those men of fighting age at the airport.
>> No. 35099 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 7:13 pm
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>>35089
Not him but I assumed most eskimos learnt the Qur'an and prayers in Arabic and therefore had at least a basic understanding of Arabic. I assumed it was kind of a lingua franca in the eskimo world. So is that absolutely not the case?
>> No. 35101 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 7:17 pm
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>>35098
What? Can you speak in full sentences or not at all, please?
>> No. 35103 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 7:19 pm
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>>35099

The majority of Afghans are illiterate. Imams might have a working knowledge of Arabic, but even that isn't guaranteed.
>> No. 35104 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 7:19 pm
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>>35095
Look on the bright side, the Taliban will probably outlaw bacha bāzī again.
>> No. 35105 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 7:26 pm
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>>35101>>35103
My assumption was that surely the Taliban are pretty strict on the whole business of whether or not you can translate the Quran, because something-something-something, it's the word of God and damn it he spoke it in Arabic for a reason. I think that's the logic behind it. The Catholics spent thousands of years reciting the Bible in a language few understood.
>> No. 35106 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 8:13 pm
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>>35101
Watch out, otherlad! He's playing the 'I don't understand you' gambit.
>> No. 35107 Anonymous
16th August 2021
Monday 10:27 pm
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>>35104

The greedy bastards want to keep all the pretty boys for themselves.
>> No. 35109 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 9:01 am
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCDv0mqszyk

The Taliban, a great bunch of lads.
>> No. 35110 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 9:45 am
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This is a very fucking strange thing to petition for. I don't know if it's the implication that boys are inherently evil and not worth allowing to emigrate or the "We've invaded them, now lets take all their women and children". Possibly both. Either way, what the fuck?
>> No. 35111 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 10:06 am
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>>35110

>Sophie Walker (born 27 May 1971) is a British political activist who was the founding leader of the Women's Equality Party (WE) in the United Kingdom.
>> No. 35112 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 11:47 am
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>>35110
I've heard the Taliban Government require registration of all unwed females from the ages 19 and on, to be assigned as wife to taliban fighters. Assuming it's true, this persons response sounds reasonable enough.
I haven't heard what's required of the adult males.
>> No. 35113 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 12:21 pm
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>>35110

You know, if they'd have thought of the fisherperson angle twenty years ago, they might have been able to drum up enough support for an invasion without all the hassle of orchestrating 9/11. Bet they're kicking themselves now.

>>35112

To be Taliban fighters, one would assume.
>> No. 35114 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 12:23 pm
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>>35106
I don't understand what he's saying. Was he trying to imply that would have a problem with people fleeing the country or what?
>> No. 35115 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 1:04 pm
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>>35111
>Women's Equality Party
Hey, I voted for them once! They're not horrendously militant, but they do have a tendency to view things through the women-only lens. I won't be voting for them again. Sandi Toksvig is also involved with them.

I'm sure there are no rules against also setting up a "help men too" petition.
>> No. 35116 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 1:11 pm
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>>35115
>I'm sure there are no rules against also setting up a "help men too" petition.

I don't think the problem is that there are rules against it, but the relative attention and support alotted based on gender.
>> No. 35117 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 1:11 pm
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>>35113
>To be Taliban fighters, one would assume.

Exactly, that or to be violently murdered.
>> No. 35118 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 3:04 pm
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>>35114
That rather than cramming the airport and facing certain death by clinging onto transport planes they should be fighting the Taliban. The implicit popular sentiment found in places like this petition >>35110 and from Biden's own speech yesterday is that men on fighting age have a duty to fight. Not cramming money into cars and helicopters like their president, surrendering as soon as they see Taliban or fleeing to Tajikistan on board military aircraft.

I have trouble imagining any complaints over refugees if it just involved women and young children.
>> No. 35119 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 3:07 pm
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I wonder how many of the people making a fuss about how the men should stay and fight are the same people who usually say "If you don't like it here then leave".
>> No. 35120 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 11:14 pm
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It seems to be forgotten that as shit as their recent performance has been, the Afghan national army has been fighting this whole time. They've taken more casualties than the US suffered in Vietnam despite coming from a country with a population smaller than ours. And for what? A flagrantly corrupt government full of human rights abusing warlords, kleptomaniacs and carpet-baggers? Their foreign allies, who've made it abundantly clear they had little to no idea what was going on at any given time and who, in the end, hoped only that the ANA would be able to delay things long enough for the diplomats to leave in BA Club Class rather than the same fleet of helicopters used in Saigon?

There's something distasteful about comfortable people in functional countries pretending to be confused why someone would just give up when faced with such a situation, staring down inevitable long-run defeat. (And thanks to Miles we know exactly what British citizens actually do when stuck in such a horrible place: We don't stay and fight the Taliban because it's The Right Thing To Do, we do a panicked jog from safehouse to safehouse until the Turks take us in.)
>> No. 35121 Anonymous
17th August 2021
Tuesday 11:33 pm
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>>35109


Just wait until they find the jacuzzi.

>>35120
They're cowards, lad. They surrendered without a fight to an enemy they knew would destroy their home, they ran knowing what would happen to the people behind them. The DRA managed to put up a fight.
>> No. 35123 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 9:13 am
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>>35121
>They're cowards, lad.
I dunno, I'm guessing there's probably more going on than the majority of the hundreds of thousands of people recruited to the army just happening to be cowards.
>> No. 35124 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 11:01 am
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja5Q75hf6QI

This 2013 Vice Documentary is worth another watch lads.
>> No. 35126 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 12:33 pm
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>>35123
From what I've read, the numbers in the Afghan army were vastly inflated so that generals/war lords could claim their fictitious salaries and the ones that did exist generally weren't trusted with ammunition because they had a habit of selling on the bullets.
>> No. 35127 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 2:05 pm
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The liberal firsherperson "invading Afghanistan was a good thing actually" angle in the media is getting to mind bending levels of surrealism honestly. There's nothing they won't turn identity politics on now. Here's a good analysis.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dont-use-girls-as-justification-for-bombing-afghanistan-again/

>That’s exactly the problem: all these statements seem to rest on the assumption that the occupation of Afghanistan was a good thing for women and girls – something Hilary Clinton herself claims.

>But it absolutely wasn’t. Nearly 70,000 civilians were killed and injured in the US’s longest-running war – many of whom were women.

>But the violence has been entirely legitimised or brushed over by claims that women and girls in Afghanistan once again need Western rescue efforts – as if the people being murdered are just collateral damage.”
>> No. 35128 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 3:34 pm
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>>35127
>getting to mind bending levels of surrealism honestly

In what sense, the Taliban are by all account bloody nasty people to women. The women of which are now speaking about it and making NATO feel awkward:


It's identity politics but one that would be perfectly understandable to anyone pre-21st century, just rephrase it to an ethnic group if you feel confused. In 2001 the narrative was precisely supported by that woman getting executed in a sports stadium which did later turn into a place women could go for reasons other than being killed. Yesterday the Taliban spokesman defended Sharia law by referencing how Arab countries get to do their thing.

Now I'm not saying we should impose a brutal totalitarian regime on the country until it becomes civilised but identity politics isn't a Godwin.

>Dear British fisherpersons, Western military intervention is never a good thing
>“The British government should take a lead in offering a refugee programme and reparations to rebuild Afghanistan, an act which would go a great deal further in advancing the rights of the Afghan people, women in particular, than continued military or economic intervention in the fate of Afghanistan.”

These sorts really do work off a script.
>> No. 35129 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 5:34 pm
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>>35127
I don't think the invasion of Afghanistan was a good thing, but the advancement of women's rights was a good thing that happened only because of the invasion. A happy accident, if you'll permit me to be glib.
>> No. 35130 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 5:52 pm
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Is there any particular reason why Afghan women don't fight the Taliban? I mean, warfare these days is less a case of physical strength and more being able to point and shoot a gun. Even a woman should be capable of that. Only logical explanation they don't want to liberate themselves is because they love a bad boy.
>> No. 35132 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 8:41 pm
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>>35130
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/armed-afghan-women-take-to-streets-in-show-of-defiance-against-taliban
>> No. 35133 Anonymous
18th August 2021
Wednesday 10:14 pm
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>Jalalabad: ‘Three dead’ as Taliban open fire during defiant protests in defence of Afghan flag
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/afghanistan-flag-taliban-protests-jalalabad-b1904547.html

And there was everyone worrying the Taliban wouldn't match other countries behaviour.

>>35132
Are there any examples of them shooting at Taliban?

How would the Taliban even go about retaking a city when the heaviest equipment they have are pick-up trucks. It took Assad years of urban warfare even with tanks and aircraft - laplanderstan can't possibly spare those.
>> No. 35145 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 1:43 pm
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>>35133
>Protests against Afghan Taliban spread in early signs of resistance

>Flag-waving protesters took to the streets of more Afghan cities on Thursday as popular opposition to the Taliban spread, and a witness said several people were killed when the militants fired on a crowd in Asadabad in the east. "Our flag, our identity," a crowd of men and women waving black, red and green national flags shouted in the capital Kabul, a video clip posted on social media showed, on the day Afghanistan celebrates independence from British control in 1919. A witness reported gunshots fired near the rally, but they appeared to be armed Taliban shooting in the air.

>One woman walked with an Afghan flag wrapped around her shoulders, and those marching chanted "God is greatest". At some protests elsewhere, media has reported people tearing down the white flag of the Taliban. A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

>Some of the demonstrations are small, but, combined with the ongoing scramble by thousands of people to get to Kabul airport and flee the country, they underline the challenge the Taliban face to govern the country. Since seizing Kabul on Sunday, the Taliban have presented a more moderate face to the world, saying they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

>In Asadabad, capital of the eastern province of Kunar, several people were killed during a rally, but it was not clear if the casualties resulted from Taliban firing or from a stampede that it triggered, witness Mohammed Salim said. "Hundreds of people came out on the streets," Salim said. "At first I was scared and didn't want to go but when I saw one of my neighbours joined in, I took out the flag I have at home. Several people were killed and injured in the stampede and firing by the Taliban." Protests also flared up in the city of Jalalabad and a district of Paktia province, both also in the east. On Wednesday, Taliban fighters fired at protesters waving flags in Jalalabad, killing three, witnesses and media reported. Media reported similar scenes in Asadabad and another eastern city, Khost, on Wednesday.

>First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who is trying to rally opposition to the Taliban, expressed support for the protests. "Salute those who carry the national flag and thus stand for dignity of the nation," he said on Twitter. Saleh said on Tuesday he was in Afghanistan and the "legitimate caretaker president" after President Ashraf Ghani fled as the Taliban took Kabul.

>In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan based in the old anti-Taliban stronghold of the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul, called for Western support to fight the Taliban. "I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban," wrote Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a veteran guerrilla leader killed by suspected al Qaeda militants in 2001. Other former Afghan leaders including ex-president Hamid Karzai have been holding talks with the Taliban as they put together a new government.

>While Kabul has been generally calm since Taliban forces entered on Sunday, the airport has been in chaos as people rushed for a way out of the country. Twelve people have been killed in and around the airport since then, a NATO and a Taliban official said. The deaths were caused either by gun shots or by stampedes, according to the Taliban official. He urged people who do not have the legal right to travel to go home. "We don't want to hurt anyone at the airport," said the Taliban official, who declined to be identified.

>On Wednesday, witnesses said Taliban gunmen prevented people from getting into the airport compound. A Taliban official said soldiers had fired into the air to disperse the crowd. Gunmen unleashed sustained fire into the air on Thursday at several entrances to the airport, sending the crowds, including women clutching babies, scattering. It was not clear if the men firing were Taliban or security staff helping U.S. forces inside.

>Under a pact negotiated last year by former President Donald Trump's administration, the United States agreed to withdraw its forces in exchange for a Taliban guarantee they would not let Afghanistan be used to launch daft militant wog attacks. The Taliban also agreed not to attack foreign forces as they left. U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S. forces would remain until the evacuation of Americans was finished, even if that meant staying past an Aug. 31 U.S. deadline for withdrawal.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghanistan-edge-after-anti-taliban-protest-east-kabul-calm-airlift-goes-2021-08-19/

Time for the graveyard of empires to work it's magic.
>> No. 35146 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 5:23 pm
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Meanwhile, a certain "news" outlet is having a normal one, running a fashion piece about Taliban fighters.

I'm not linking it. You can seek it out if you like, but you should know that you run the risk of contracting permanent brain damage if you read it.
>> No. 35147 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 6:08 pm
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>>35146
Don't be a prick tease:
https://www.Please don't ban me.co.uk/femail/article-9904397/Kabuls-style-conscious-replaced-shalwar-kameez-Taliban-hold-designer-items.html

I'm pretty sure these two have come from a SOAS common room.
>> No. 35148 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 6:38 pm
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>>35133
>How would the Taliban even go about retaking a city when the heaviest equipment they have are pick-up trucks. It took Assad years of urban warfare even with tanks and aircraft - laplanderstan can't possibly spare those.

The taliban have been killing people consistently through 20 years of occupation. They're not a regular army and they have plenty of sympathisers and supporters in every one of those cities. The Afghan army didn't dare put up any resistance because they were likely as scared of being shot in the back or having an IED planted in their barracks as they were of an actual frontal attack.
>> No. 35152 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 8:47 pm
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>>35148
>They're not a regular army

So they won't be able to take a city and when they act as one they will get btfo by any resistance. Remember how hard the Americans had to go at Mosul or later how the same city took the Iraqi army years to retake after most of the cities defender ran away.

>Muh fifth column

So like those Afghan civilians that were waving weapons around. If it's a fifth column then it's a civil war of which we've had plenty in recent memory. Why be so keen to make excuses?
>> No. 35153 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 9:12 pm
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>>35152
I have no idea what points you're trying to make here?

It is incredibly hard to capture a city where the defenders are disperse, ununiformed, and using civilians as shields. History has shown this time and time again, and is why Assad resorted to indiscriminate killing with barrel bombs and alleged chemical weapons. But I don't get how this is relevant to this situation where a standing army retreated instead of actually fighting?

>So like those Afghan civilians that were waving weapons around. If it's a fifth column then it's a civil war of which we've had plenty in recent memory. Why be so keen to make excuses?
What? Who is making excuses for what?
No ones saying there was a massive fifth column turning on the army, but it's pretty clear that there were enough members of the taliban already operating in the cities to effectively demoralise regular army attempting to form any real defence, if not completely sabotage it.
>> No. 35154 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 9:38 pm
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>>35147
I am very surprised by Conchita Wurst's latest holiday destination.
>> No. 35155 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 9:42 pm
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>>35133

>How would the Taliban even go about retaking a city when the heaviest equipment they have are pick-up trucks.

The Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police were completely dysfunctional due to corruption, tribal rivalries and a shortage of people with enough education to run an effective leadership.

The Taliban were active all over Afghanistan, they controlled a number of remote areas, but with the support provided by the Americans, the ANA and ANP could just barely hold back the tide. The American presence in Afghanistan wasn't particularly large, but it had a disproportionate impact due to the high level of skills and the comparatively huge resources at their disposal.

When the Yanks left, the Afghan government collapsed almost overnight because it was obvious to everyone that they wouldn't be able to mount an effective resistance. The Americans took all of the planes with them, all of the armoured vehicles and heavy artillery, all of the high-tech gubbins and all of the expertise and supply needed to keep all of that stuff running. The Taliban didn't fight their way into Kabul, they just walked in.

Ordinary Afghans could have fought back, but they knew all too well that it would be a futile gesture. The Taliban are scrappy by the standards of an army, but they have very well established structures of leadership, communications and supply. They were capable of taking on the Afghan National Army and they are more than capable of crushing any resistance.

More to the point, Afghanistan has been a warzone for most of the last two centuries. The Taliban aren't an invading force like ISIS, they're just the latest in a long succession of warlords. You don't survive for very long in that environment unless you learn to keep your head down and let the people with guns get on with it. If by some miracle the Afghan people manage to fight off the Taliban, then what? There'd just be a bloody big power vacuum for another generation of warlords to fight over. If the Americans couldn't create a functioning government after twenty years and trillions of dollars, the Afghans certainly can't do it on their own.
>> No. 35156 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 9:49 pm
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>>35148

>They're not a regular army

A lot of them are barely literate. They're for most intents and purposes just a ragtag group of uneducated religous extremists with Kalashnikovs and other assorted weapons, who really don't like women having any rights.

The biggest disgrace is still that the West just upped and left and allowed these savages to roll back almost in an instant twenty years of efforts of turning Afghanistan into a civilised nation. And when the Afghanistan adventure is now framed as a success by NATO because, hey, twenty years with no 9/11-scale daft militant wog attacks on the West, then that only adds to the ignominy for those whose country has had to endure 40 years of almost constant meddling, and bombing, by foreign powers, and who are now human targets for the Taliban because they collaborated with the West.
>> No. 35157 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 10:01 pm
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This video from 12 years ago is an example of the state of the Afghan army.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKJlHt6gQIg
>> No. 35158 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 10:45 pm
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>>35156

>The biggest disgrace is still that the West just upped and left and allowed these savages to roll back almost in an instant twenty years of efforts of turning Afghanistan into a civilised nation.

Maybe that should be a lesson to us about cultural imperialism, even if the poor precious womenfolk are being mistreated.

We had no business being there, and even if we did we have been humbled quite thoroughly. if we wanted to clean up our cold war loose ends, there would have been much more efficient ways to do it than invasion.

The truth is our sole interest in the middle east is maintaining instability. The current media narrative about Afghanistan merely serves to manufacture consent for any potential future action we fancy getting up to in the area.
>> No. 35159 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 10:51 pm
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>>35153
>It is incredibly hard to capture a city where the defenders are disperse, ununiformed, and using civilians as shields. History has shown this time and time again, and is why Assad resorted to indiscriminate killing with barrel bombs and alleged chemical weapons. But I don't get how this is relevant to this situation where a standing army retreated instead of actually fighting?

Because if you follow the post chain we're talking about a gaggle of civilians waving weapons around. The army could've easily defended the city, a shitty militia could defend the city, assaulting cities is nearly impossible even for proper armies much less an irregular army having to go street to street in their flipflops.

>demoralise regular army attempting to form any real defence, if not completely sabotage it.

It's a siege during a civil war so not a unique situation.

>>35155
The ANA had huge resources at their disposal and much of which has now ended up in Tajikistan. They didn't even try to fight and it's not like smaller groups couldn't have held onto areas despite the lack of central leadership.

>The Americans took all of the planes with them, all of the armoured vehicles and heavy artillery

Nope. The Afghans even have specifically been using prop planes because they're ideally suited and armoured vehicles were abandoned, artillery equally existed. Afghan planes literally took off and went to Tajikistan. There's a lot of finger pointing going on towards NATO and yet even Syrian canon fodder during the The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war weren't as useless.
>> No. 35160 Anonymous
19th August 2021
Thursday 10:57 pm
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>>35158
>Maybe that should be a lesson to us about cultural imperialism, even if the poor precious womenfolk are being mistreated.

I had no idea basic human rights was 'cultural imperialism'. Maybe we should engage in more of it? A kind of sneering imperialist visage rather than your cultural relativist belief that some people just aren't up for it.
>> No. 35161 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 9:32 am
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>>35160

I would at least prefer it if your sort had some consistency in your application of it, yes.

If you want to use women's rights as a reason to intervene in Afghanistan, there's a long list of other countries you're going to have to invade as well; but somehow I think you might balk at the prospect of invading literally every country between Israel and China and telling them to stop making women live in cupboards and chopping bits off them.

I still wouldn't agree it was the right thing to do, but I'd at least respect you for having some consistency in your principles, instead of only bringing it up when it's halfway convenient because in truth you actually don't give the slightest of a mid-air fuck.
>> No. 35162 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 12:21 pm
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>>35161
>I would at least prefer it if your sort had some consistency in your application of it, yes.

This isn't a hard calculation really, it's a balance universalist human rights against pragmatic concerns of sovereignty and doability. Obviously the international community fails to live up to the basic calculation but it's generally held that sovereignty stops somewhere, albeit getting hazy beyond threatening others, you rather notice the rule when states justify their actions with language like anti-daft militant wog actions.

This doesn't really apply here as the Taliban aren't the recognised government of Afghanistan and the original legal justification for being there is at minimum a strong argument. Staying there beginning with the UNSC resolution on the creation of ISAF is much stronger. Going beyond that it's not a war scenario but a nation building scenario which nobody really cares about and ideas that states export in their international relations. Indeed it's arguable that NATO now has a responsibility to intervene given we're seeing ethnic cleansing going on and we're the only legitimate force left in Afghanistan outside of Panjshir.

(Remember, you're the one who has turned this into a force argument and not a civilising debate)

>instead of only bringing it up when it's halfway convenient because in truth you actually don't give the slightest of a mid-air fuck.

Ironic as you clearly don't give a fuck. Although I suspect if you had abuse in your proximity or it's refugee boats in the channel then mysteriously you do care.
>> No. 35163 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 12:45 pm
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>>35162

Cut the shit lad. Consent must be manufactured.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/17/taliban-in-afghanistan-china-may-exploit-rare-earth-metals-analyst-says.html

America finds itself with 'Nam 2.0 on its hands and desperately needs to sell a progressive drone bombing campaign.
>> No. 35164 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 2:20 pm
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>>35163
Go back to the linguistics department, Noam.

>'Nam 2.0

Why not Korean DMZ Conflict 1.02 or Cuban Pete (the king of the rumba beat) lo-fi mix?

You're following an analyst who doesn't understand what Rare Earth's are nor that the US has been fine with China in Afghanistan for years. The worry is legitimate that China well, has, cosied up to the Taliban because Xi thought prioritises 'development' over human rights and international stability. That should be criticised along with anyone else who breaks international consensus on a threat to international security.
>> No. 35165 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 3:27 pm
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>>35162
>This isn't a hard calculation really, it's a balance universalist human rights against pragmatic concerns of sovereignty and doability.
Surely the lesson of the last 40 years has been that Afghanistan is on the wrong side of doability?
When the Soviets rocked up and leveled entire villages on behalf of their own half-puppet half-crazed local government the resultant state managed to outlast the USSR itself. When we rocked up to "nation build" the nation couldn't even wait until the last US forces had fucked off before imploding. If anything the record's getting worse.

When China goes in they should take the free market solution: break Afghanistan up into 8 smaller countries, give their mates one each and have them compete to see who makes the best Babystan after 20 years. I'm putting my money on the Australians.
>> No. 35166 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 6:40 pm
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>>35165

China won't manage it either, they'll just spend the longest there because they reckon it'll eventually break if they play a long enough game.
>> No. 35168 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 7:09 pm
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>>35165
China doesn't play that game.
They'll do exactly what they've been doing in African countries, which is to promise lots of money, build infrastructure to move minerals out of the country, and work some accounting magic to leave them in permanent debt.

All they've got to do is keep the Taliban happy (bribed) enough to let them get on with it in peace, and maybe export a few Uighur brides.
>> No. 35169 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 8:56 pm
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>Twitter ‘Frog’ Account Successfully Negotiates With Taliban To Secure Safety Of Spanish Diplomats After Government Fails
https://newsfinale.com/news/twitter-frog-account-successfully-negotiates-with-taliban-to-secure-safety-of-spanish-diplomats-after-government-fails/

>A Spanish Twitter account with an Apu Apustaja frog avatar has successfully negotiated with the Taliban for fair and humane treatment of Spanish citizens at the nation’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Spanish government had seemingly failed to establish a clear and open line of communication with the Taliban, inspiring the owner of the frog-avatar account to take action.

>“Nangarhar’s sweet district was completely conquered,” Taliban spokesperson Mansoor Afghan announced on August 14, to which the account @panamach2 reached out to respond using Google translate, “Hello brother, please don’t hurt the Spanish people at the embassy, we were forces in your country by America. We don’t like them either.”

>Mansoor Afghan responded in English, “We are human beings, we all respect each other, we don’t say anything to any foreign troops.” The exchange was viewed as somewhat humorous by many Twitter users, with one pointing out that “a guy with a picture of pepe has done more for the spanish people in afghanistan than the spanish government.”
https://newsfinale.com/news/twitter-frog-account-successfully-negotiates-with-taliban-to-secure-safety-of-spanish-diplomats-after-government-fails/

The future is a strange place.
>> No. 35171 Anonymous
20th August 2021
Friday 9:09 pm
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>>35169
>Taliban reiterates on Twitter assurance of preexisting self-interested policy to leave foreign troops alone
Not quite as interesting when you remove the invented clickbait.
>> No. 35172 Anonymous
21st August 2021
Saturday 12:28 pm
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>>35169

They've also discovered the power of wojak.

The west is finished.
>> No. 35173 Anonymous
21st August 2021
Saturday 2:35 pm
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>>35172
I wonder if anime will chill the Taliban out once they start accessing to it. Someone should commission an Islamic series to get them into it - Moehammad running late for his first day of Jihad with toast in his mouth.
>> No. 35239 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 11:34 am
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https://thehill.com/policy/international/571205-state-dept-voices-concerns-over-all-male-taliban-government

>The State Department on Tuesday expressed concerns over the makeup of the new interim Afghan government announced by the Taliban, including the lack of female leaders

Right. That's what's wrong with the Taliban. No female leaders.
>> No. 35240 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 11:52 am
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>>35239
Yes, I'd argue the rampant mysogyny is a massive problem with the Taliban. However, the cheek of the US State Department to say things like this while being best mates with Gulf Arab states and the Egyptian government is beyond.
>> No. 35242 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 12:48 pm
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>>35240

>while being best mates with Gulf Arab states and the Egyptian government

If a less-than-democratic Mideastern leader plays ball with the West, then what's a few human rights violations here and there. They're our allies, y'know.

Just look at Saudi Arabia, a country which still has a dismal track record of women's rights. How many times have you heard the West say, "Erm, we really don't like you doing that".
>> No. 35243 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 12:59 pm
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>>35242
Hell they're our best customers for weapons.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/26/uk-sells-arms-to-nearly-80-of-countries-under-restrictions-shows-report
>> No. 35244 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 1:05 pm
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>>35243

Guns evidently don't kill people.
>> No. 35246 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 3:26 pm
35246 spacer
>>35239
This whole thing is like one of those Adam Curtis documentaries.
>> No. 35247 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 3:51 pm
35247 spacer
>>35246
World politics is like a documentary on world politics? Golly.
>> No. 35249 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 5:35 pm
35249 spacer
>>35247
No mate. The fact that nobody knows their arse from their elbow, but act like they do. Much like yourself.
>> No. 35251 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 6:34 pm
35251 spacer
>>35249
That's the same thing, you're just being a little bitch about it.
>> No. 35255 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 7:23 pm
35255 spacer
>>35251
Calm down now.
>> No. 35256 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 7:25 pm
35256 spacer
>>35255
I am also implying that you're furious right now despite there being no particular reason to believe it.
>> No. 35257 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 7:33 pm
35257 spacer
>>35256
Come lad. Have some warm gin.
>> No. 35258 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 7:36 pm
35258 spacer
>>35257
Calm down now.
>> No. 35260 Anonymous
9th September 2021
Thursday 11:41 pm
35260 spacer
>>35258
I am also implying that you're furious right now despite there being no particular reason to believe it.
>> No. 35428 Anonymous
28th September 2021
Tuesday 10:43 pm
35428 spacer
>>35260

The two of you need to become much less vexed immediately.

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