Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

[kebabking]

The Turkish were getting huge sums to keep Syrian refugees out of Europe with the justification at home they were helping their neighbours. I believe that agreement has been torn up as they expect a huge wave of Afghans which will pass straight through them now and Stoke up European/UK nationalism.

Turkey had been planning on trying to keep the airport open - useful, but also very much in keeping with Turkey's 'Turkic crescent' foreign policy - they had been looking for US diplomatic pressure to keep the overflight rights going but weren't getting anywhere. The Turkish mil are saying the plan is dead, the US aren't just not interested, they seem hellbent on trying to scupper anything along those lines.

European NATO is agast, with Biden being compared unfavourably with Trump, if anyone believed that would be possible....

 

[Pickman's model]

Turkey had been planning on trying to keep the airport open - useful, but also very much in keeping with Turkey's 'Turkic crescent' foreign policy - they had been looking for US diplomatic pressure to keep the overflight rights going but weren't getting anywhere. The Turkish mil are saying the plan is dead, the US aren't just not interested, they seem hellbent on trying to scupper anything along those lines.

European NATO is agast, with Biden being compared unfavourably with Trump, if anyone believed that would be possible....

a mite over 200 days in office...

 

[not-bono-ever]

Imagine the panic as they shred and burn everything.

there are protocols and procedures in place these days to wipe and destroy everything sharpish. the yanks have had lots of experience in fine tuning this over the years.

 

[TopCat]

there are protocols and procedures in place these days to wipe and destroy everything sharpish. the yanks have had lots of experience in fine tuning this over the years.

Yeah. The Taliban parading in humvee and Ford warrior trucks, with captured m16’s on show. They got a drone yesterday.
I have no confidence the US are going to handle this well.

 

[Pickman's model]

there are protocols and procedures in place these days to wipe and destroy everything sharpish. the yanks have had lots of experience in fine tuning this over the years.

protocols butter no parsnips

 

[TopCat]

When we went in I watched Carry on up the khyber. I vowed to watch it again when we fled. Download tonight. gloworm

 

[TopCat]

Afghanistan: As Taliban attacks continue, people rush to Kabul

The capital, Mazar and Jalalabad remain the only major cities still under government control as Taliban encircles Kabul.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[TopCat]

Huge blow for Afghan gov’t as Taliban seizes northern stronghold

Capture of Mazar-i-Sharif gives the Taliban control over all of northern Afghanistan, as it also draws closer to Kabul.

www.aljazeera.com

The Taliban are now in control of more than half of the provincial capitals in the country. The only major cities to remain under government control are Kabul and Jalalabad.

 

[Humberto]

The so called 'nation building' by the Nato governments was a fraud wasn't it? Tens of £billions and thousands of lives wasted. The collapse speaks to me of the lack of sincerity and the gross incompetence (for want of a better word), and to the wrong priorities of a bloated and dysfunctional system that is starkly inacapable of making such a project any way realistic. These huge sums of money benefited somebody though. But it wasn't the working class tax payers or the Nato soldiers or the population of Afghanistan.

 

[ska invita]

The so called 'nation building' by the Nato governments was a fraud wasn't it? Tens of £billions and thousands of lives wasted. The collapse speaks to me of the lack of sincerity and the gross incompetence (for want of a better word), and to the wrong priorities of a bloated and dysfunctional system that is starkly inacapable of making such a project any way realistic. These huge sums of money benefited somebody though. But it wasn't the working class tax payers or the Nato soldiers or the population of Afghanistan.

Much if it has officially "disappeared"

$45 Billion in Tax Dollars Goes Missing in Afghanistan

Hundreds of millions of dollars are missing in action in Afghanistan, and auditors are blaming the Pentagon’s fl

www.thefiscaltimes.com

 

[A380]

US reckoned October up until thursday.

Amusingly the US State Department are advertising for a Social Media manager for the Kabul Embassy - at the same time as asking for volunteers for the protection detail for the embassy, with the job to last no longer than 14 days...

I wonder if they will do a Facebook live and Instagram broadcast as they board the last helicopter from the roof of the embassy,

 

[TopCat]

So, only Kabul left and it’s cut off, totally surrounded.

 

[platinumsage]

The US took exactly two months from launching operations on 7 October 2001 to taking the last provincial capital on 7 December.

The Taliban took the provincial first capitals on 6th August so they're set to halve the time taken by the US. It's interesting to read articles from twenty years ago:

Nobody predicted the U.S.-led war would dislodge the Taliban so fast -- least of all the veterans of the Soviet Union's bloody 10-year Afghan war. So why has the U.S. encountered surprising success where the Soviets met failure?

 

[platinumsage]

 

[Hollis]

Any words seem fairly trite when you look at what's happening here.. completely shameful.. Still 'we' have form don't we - what we do, and what we don't do.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Vote Biden. Get Trump.

 

[Pickman's model]

Apparently the Taliban have started entering Kabul

 

[Hollis]

 

[cupid_stunt]

Sky was just interviewing a reporter that is basically trapped in a hotel in Kabul, with dozens of western media people, wondering what happens next for the thousands of foreigners still in the city, how or if they will get out, he sounded somewhat nervous.

On the plus side, some Taliban leader has given instructions to allow the safe passage of foreigners and civilians, but whether those on the ground in Kabul takes any notice remains to be seen.

It's clearly a fast moving situation, it's been the only story on Sky for the last half an hour.

 

[Pickman's model]

Sky was just interviewing a reporter that is basically trapped in a hotel in Kabul, with dozens of western media people, wondering what happens next for the thousands of foreigners still in the city, how or if they will get out, he sounded somewhat nervous.

On the plus side, some Taliban leader has given instructions to allow the safe passage of foreigners and civilians, but whether those on the ground in Kabul takes any notice remains to be seen.

It's clearly a fast moving situation, it's been the only story on Sky for the last half an hour.

Tbh sounds like they're going to kettle the city and this is the bit where the cordon is porous.

 

[LDC]

I don't think it's in the Taliban's interest to fuck about with reporters/journalists/etc. and think they'll be escorted out and allowed to fly out after some to and fro. Although like you say, things can get messy on the ground, no idea how good their control of their forces will be in the melee. It's the Afghans connected to the coalition that will bear the brunt of it.

What's the state of the UK evacuation? At this rate it feels like the city will fall before UK troops have even taken off. Assume they're flying into somewhere in the region between leaving the UK and arriving in Kabul?

 

[extra dry]

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24 hardly any planes leaving Karbul.

 

[TopCat]

The Taliban are entering Kabul from all sides and meeting little resistance. The scramble of westerners trying to get out intensifies. Helicopters flying to and fro the US embassy.

 

[TopCat]

The Chief of Staff to President Ashraf Ghani has taken to his Twitter account to urge the people of Kabul, ‘Please don’t worry. There is no problem. The situation of Kabul is under control.’

The tweet comes as the Taliban have entered the Afghan capital from all sides and have reportedly made it within a few kilometers of the main city.

 

[TopCat]

Afghan Interior Minister: Kabul will shift power to a “transitional administration”​

Reuters: Afghan’s acting interior minister says the transition will take place peacefully with security forces remaining in place to “ensure Kabul’s security”.
CNN report that the administration will “likely” contain senior Taliban figures along with some remnants of the Ghani administration.

 

[moochedit]

The Chief of Staff to President Ashraf Ghani has taken to his Twitter account to urge the people of Kabul, ‘Please don’t worry. There is no problem. The situation of Kabul is under control.’

 

[ska invita]

Afghan Interior Minister: Kabul will shift power to a “transitional administration”​

Reuters: Afghan’s acting interior minister says the transition will take place peacefully with security forces remaining in place to “ensure Kabul’s security”.
CNN report that the administration will “likely” contain senior Taliban figures along with some remnants of the Ghani administration.

I do wonder if a deal has been done a few days ago ... Would explain the ease with which the Taliban are moving

 

[A380]

Will we snd the Americans even be able to properly secure the airport now. Could some bright an eager Taliban commanders get enough troops and vehicles there to control it either to stop a full evacuation of Afghan people they do t’t want to leave, look good having the west have to rely on them managing the departure of westerners or for Danegeld?

Seems a bit Pristina Airfield mk2.

 

[TopCat]

“I have just heard heavy gunfire coming from the airport direction,”

 

[Riklet]

Looks like theyll be handing over power to the Taliban in the next few days. Bagram airbase just been surrendered with 5000 Taliban and IS fighters...

Fucked up. What a bunch of useless cowards. What a waste of 20 years.