planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
July 28th.
In the next picture they're all doing that pupils pass A level thing, jumping up and holding each others hands in the air and going "Yeah!"
Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished
- Thread starter toblerone3
- Start date
July 28th.
In the next picture they're all doing that pupils pass A level thing, jumping up and holding each others hands in the air and going "Yeah!"
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
I had that same thought. I'd be blasting the shit out of it if it was me.
klang
klang
there's a photo of some Houthies posing and chewing khat on Tawakkol Karman's bed after they entered Sana'a. It haunts me to this day.
Curiouscarl
Active Member
Most people in the UK will benefit from a good history lesson.
Like the Boer war. They didn't give a crap about the health of the soilders. When it related to their personal health.
They just didn't want a weak army/soilders. The government cannot and do not care.
If a fool gets into power it's our systems fault. If a fool stays in power, its our fault.
elbows
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking this reputation is probably based on the perception of street level corruption, eg routine bribe demands by police and other local officials. Rather than the trousering of national budgets by those at the top.
Omar had the classic 'reclusive, pious and frugal' reputation, and I've not gone looking for any evidence to the contrary due to a lack of time.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
strange you mention the boer war. i think it was the first war in which fewer british soldiers died from illness than from combat/wounds
Curiouscarl
Active Member
High rates of refusal from lower working class towns. They were to ill be even be killed in action.
I didn't say I didn't like complexity, read before you spew more ignorant bullshit. You seem to want to have an argument as you seem to imply, bizarrely, that I don't care about the situation abroad. Acccusing me of using the situation is disgusting, grow the fuck up. Or are you another of these pretend anarchists on here who are in love with the romance of revolution but have no stomach for anything of substance.
The things I mention are precisly to indicate that, if the government doesn't care about people in communities that put them into to power, it stands to reason they will care even less about refugees and interpreters. It has nothing to do with nationalism and you clearly don't even know the meaning of the word, inverted or otherwise. I am questioning, quite credibly given their history (particularly their very recent history re: immigrants), their motivation in hosting emergency cabinet meetings. Are they acting in the interests of the state or are they helping the people you claim to be concerned with?
You can either answer that question or I'll be happy to put you on ignore. I don't need stupid vicious arguments with trolls in my life.
You've not explained what you found offensive.This is actually offensive bollocks. I have no personal links to the military but listen to people who've been there, read something. Yeah it was a job. But I don't know about you but if I'm given a job, i like to try doing it well, not leave the place in a worse state than I found it. That's what the people on the ground dealing with this shitshow have been trying to do the last 20 years.
The failings are on the high strategic level, policy level and a failure to accept the reality of what sort of place Afghanistan is. The limitations of what could be done and naive hopefulness and lack of a longterm cohesive fully supported plan.
Not cos the military don't give a shit.
Curiouscarl
Active Member
Existence.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
you say it's disgusting but you haven't denied it.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
I'll happily answer your question by making two points. Firstly, most of the response's I've seen from what passes for liberalism/the left fall into two categories: the anti-imperialism of fools celebrating a defeat for America (if you want to know why that's reductive read Pickman's model post above which nails the essential uselessness and wrongheadedness of those responses). Or they processes the events through their own self-indulgent (Western centric) lens - which is how I read your post - and where the lives of ordinary Afghans and the wider set of processes that a victory for medieval fascism almost inevitably unleashes are less important than what is exercising them: Brexit, Blair, Trump, Johnson, the price of fucking fish, whatever. Whichever way you elide matters that's exactly the same thought processes as that of the British state: our interests and worldview first. The second point is that the COBRA meeting might as well discuss food shortages, floods and loyalists for all the good it will do. It's a meaningless and pointless meeting which cannot take any decisions because there are none to be taken. The damage is done. The game is up. The decision making process since 1946 has led to this point.
Here's a question back. Do you now accept that conflating 'Brexit related food shortages' or 'floods' or a 'demo' with an unfolding human disaster with geo-political ramifications looks shit?
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You chose to read my post through a lens that was applied uncharitably and without justification.
Whether COBRA meetings are or aren't effective isn't the point. The public can reasonably conclude that they are called for good reason. I simply don't believe the government cares about Afghani people because, again, if they don't care about the other issues I mentioned when they would directly affect their supporters why would they care about Afghani people? They haven't shown any compassion for migrants thus far and are still deporting, iirc, Windrush citizens that have an even stronger claim to British citizenship than a refugee of the Taliban.
And to be clear, I am not arguing for a hierarchy in such claims. I don't think a windrush citizen shoudl be deported anymore than a refugee should be left to drown. Both have strong claims and, in a just world, would be helped. However the Windrush citizen is already a British citizen. That's what the scandal was so pernicious.
So no, I don't accept your accusation of conflation since I made none
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Some scenes from the airport courtesy of AFP and Reuters
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
The situation at Kabul international airport is "tenuous", and US officials are considering evacuating all Americans and leaving Afghans behind, according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.
The decision to abandon Afghan allies has not yet been made, said CBS National Security Correspondent David Martin, but it is "on the table" and will be explored if American troops cannot take control of the airport.
The decision to abandon Afghan allies has not yet been made, said CBS National Security Correspondent David Martin, but it is "on the table" and will be explored if American troops cannot take control of the airport.
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
The one with the kids covering their faces, presumably to hide identity in case they become a target.
bimble
floofy
Taliban has established a very efficient 'taxation' (extortion) system though, for years now, a beaurocratic & reliable one where they give you receipts and everything, taxing businesses, imports & exports of all kinds of stuff, as in the days when opium was their main thing are long gone. Maybe that to some extent makes them trustworthy, in that it's a system that works, like a proper state, predictable.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
4pm - Military flights taking part in the evacuation from Kabul airport are set to begin again shortly after a short pause, a US official has told Reuters.
4.49pm -
It is unclear when they will resume, he added. US troops are currently working to secure the airport.
US action resulted in the deaths of two armed individuals, the Pentagon said.
4.49pm -
Pentagon: All flights halted at Kabul airport
All military and civilian flights in and out of Kabul airport have been halted, a Pentagon spokesman has said.It is unclear when they will resume, he added. US troops are currently working to secure the airport.
US action resulted in the deaths of two armed individuals, the Pentagon said.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
let's see how trustworthy and predictable they are with their treatment of people in the new emirate
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
Could someone who knows explain the risk to the UK of terrorist groups basing themselves in Afghanistan? Our politicians keep going on about it. But nearly all the terrorists who attack in the Uk are home grown.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Seen anything about UK flights? Know they've instructed people to go to a camp by the airport and wait for a flight but seen nothing on the schedules.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
The anti imperialism of fools:
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Also worth noting - there are UK citizens still stuck there - ones who have nothing to do with gov or military. People who got citizenship here and then moved back in the hope of things being stable. Still waiting to be evacuated last I heard. Until a few days ago gov was telling them to pay their own way commercially as a first choice, very expensive too obviously.
Offensively crude and simply inaccurate to ascribe the attitude of the military to what's happened there over the last 20 years as not caring.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Leighsw2
strictly off the record
I'm not sure what you mean here? Surely the points she makes are correct - all we can do now is to try and secure escape routes for refugees and provide asylum. And also to discharge our debt to those who worked for us.
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