Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

[cloudyday]

Yes, Afghanistan contains fuck tons of lithium. And gold. And lots of other minerals Mining in Afghanistan - Wikipedia. Which makes biden's blasé let them eat lead the more perplexing

Thanks, from your link:

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world".

 

[Flavour]

i wonder if there's any secret chinese assistance to the taliban. i guess they probably don't even need it.

 

[Yossarian]

Biden will no doubt be in for a lot of criticism in the US over all the "BLOOD and TREASURE" wasted in Afghanistan, though his hasty withdrawal plan seems consistent with what somebody would do if they were told the situation was still hopeless after 20 years and there was no chance it changing no matter how long they stayed.

 

[brogdale]

This was a genuinely difficult watch.

Afghanistan war: We’re going to lose everything we worked for, says Kandahar NGO executive

We spoke to Pashtana Durrani, who runs a charity which focuses on getting girls into education in Kandahar. She is now trapped in her home while the Taliban edges closer. We asked what was happening there as we spoke.

www.channel4.com

 

[LDC]

This was a genuinely difficult watch.

Afghanistan war: We’re going to lose everything we worked for, says Kandahar NGO executive

We spoke to Pashtana Durrani, who runs a charity which focuses on getting girls into education in Kandahar. She is now trapped in her home while the Taliban edges closer. We asked what was happening there as we spoke.

www.channel4.com

Yeah I saw that as well, heart breaking.

 

[kebabking]

en will no doubt be in for a lot of criticism in the US over all the "BLOOD and TREASURE" wasted in Afghanistan, though his hasty withdrawal plan seems consistent with what somebody would do if they were told the situation was still hopeless after 20 years and there was no chance it changing no matter how long they stayed.

While I certainly accept there's an 'if not now, when?' aspect to this - the Afghan state and security apparatus has been having vast resources and training shoveled into it for 15 years or so - I think Biden will regret not retaining a fairly risk free, low footprint presence that would provide air strikes, with which the Afghans have been fairly successful in the past, and without which they've struggled. I think the bigger issue he's going to face, or his successor will face, is the ongoing problem that the US is now seen as an even more unreliable ally than it was seen as under Trump.

It's a frankly idiotic decision - not least in its presentation: if he'd done it in stages, with US support gradually reducing, any eventual Taliban victory would be laid at the door of the Afghan state, but as it is it will be seen as being the US's fault.

Its something I'd have expected of Trump, not Biden...

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Perhaps as it was a Republican war, obviously one Obama didn't feel able to get out of Biden thought enough is enough. It's very shit that so many Afghans are in for so much suffering now, but I can't see what else you do, at some point the Taliban will take over. They are cunts, but they are not ISIS, and if the US hasn't managed to obliterate them after 20 years they never will, so something has to give.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

i wonder if there's any secret chinese assistance to the taliban. i guess they probably don't even need it.

For the Chinese that might be an example of "beware what you ask for, you might get it."

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

While I certainly accept there's an 'if not now, when?' aspect to this - the Afghan state and security apparatus has been having vast resources and training shoveled into it for 15 years or so - I think Biden will regret not retaining a fairly risk free, low footprint presence that would provide air strikes, with which the Afghans have been fairly successful in the past, and without which they've struggled. I think the bigger issue he's going to face, or his successor will face, is the ongoing problem that the US is now seen as an even more unreliable ally than it was seen as under Trump.

The silly thing is that I think we'll probably go back inside of a generation. Something like 9/11 will happen again, or Eric Prince will run low on cash, and all of a sudden it will be "imperative" that we go back, regardless of how fruitless that would be.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Would have been simpler to have air dropped billions in USD and military hardware straight into the talibans back yard and saved 2 decades of hassle. Same result

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Are the Taliban much different to the IRA though?

 

[not-bono-ever]

The ra were insurgents if you take it’s literal meaning at face value, the taliban are not in essence IYKWIM

 

[N_igma]

Are the Taliban much different to the IRA though?

The only similarity is that they use/used violence and guerrilla tactics to achieve their aims. Different in every other conceivable way.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Fixed that for you:

Would have been simpler to have air dropped Trillions in USD and military hardware straight into the talibans back yard and saved 2 decades of hassle. Same result

Although some of that was stimulus to the American economy in the form of military contracts.

Total costs of the war:

The cost of the Afghanistan war, in lives and dollars

The nearly 20-year American combat mission in Afghanistan was the United States’ longest war

abcnews.go.com

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The only similarity is that they use/used violence and guerrilla tactics to achieve their aims. Different in every other conceivable way.

Are they not very much part of the community, a small but powerful/vocal part?

 

[krtek a houby]

Are they not very much part of the community, a small but powerful/vocal part?

Don't think the IRA are seeking to tell women what to wear or deny them education. Plus over generations, the IRA in various incarnations had a good deal of support, domestically and internationally. They were fighting the good fight, against the filthy oppressors, as it were.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Don't think the IRA are seeking to tell women what to wear or deny them education. Plus over generations, the IRA in various incarnations had a good deal of support, domestically and internationally. They were fighting the good fight, against the filthy oppressors, as it were.

Same as the Taliban then.

 

[Kaka Tim]

How are the tali an funded? Heroin trade? Pakistan?

 

[LDC]

Drugs, local taxation, international support iirc.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Drugs, local taxation, international support iirc.

guessing a big chunk of US aid has gone straight to them as well?

 

[krtek a houby]

Same as the Taliban then.

Nope

 

[teqniq]

The Taliban are supported in great depth by Pakistan:

Crisis of Impunity - Pakistan's Support Of The Taliban

www.hrw.org

 

[Ax^]

Same as the Taliban then.

well tbf the British when in the last few hundred years and made a fucking mess of the place so

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The Taliban are supported in great depth by Pakistan:

Crisis of Impunity - Pakistan's Support Of The Taliban

www.hrw.org

And Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Libya (who also supported the IRA)…

 

[krtek a houby]

well tbf the British when in the last few hundred years and made a fucking mess of the place so

Hmm. True, that.

Although the resistance in Ireland wasn't/isn't all religious zealots, misogynists, sex trafiickers and er, anti-kite flyers.

I suspect Bahnhof Strasse is on a wind up & doesn't mean to insult brave Irish freedom fighters with the fundies in Afghanistan.

 

[teqniq]

This woman doesn't blame the Americans and British for departing but rather their own corrupt leaders::

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Hmm. True, that.

Although the resistance in Ireland wasn't/isn't all religious zealots, misogynists, sex trafiickers and er, anti-kite flyers.

I suspect Bahnhof Strasse is on a wind up & doesn't mean to insult brave Irish freedom fighters with the fundies in Afghanistan.

Not really on a wind up, it does seem there are a number of similarities between two groups using the cover of religion combined with violence to exert power over their communities, dictating what are acceptable behaviours, pastimes etc.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Are the Taliban much different to the IRA though?

The IRA would let girls go to school. Not necessarily a school they'd want to go to mind you.

 

[Pickman's model]

Are the Taliban much different to the IRA though?

The Taliban never got much support from America

 

[Pickman's model]

Not really on a wind up, it does seem there are a number of similarities between two groups using the cover of religion combined with violence to exert power over their communities, dictating what are acceptable behaviours, pastimes etc.

Perhaps you could show where mullah gerry points to biblical justification for ira activities