planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Fantastic line.
Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished
- Thread starter toblerone3
- Start date
The ones falling off the undercarriages of US milatary planes won't be getting out. The Brits will because vast amounts of cash is being handed over undoubtedly.
gosub
~#
And then he goes and square peg in a round holes it, by bringing up the Falklands
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
I am extremely sorry you and your comrades are being put through this. It is fucked.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
No, they won't. AFAIK though, while the gov were telling people to pay for commercial flights they're no longer doing so, seeing as there are none. Case I know is a woman with her three kids who lived here long enough to get citizenship after her asylum claim, moved back when things seemed stable. Was told to go the camp and await evacuation. Hopefully flown out by now. So not all contractors or military support.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
What confused me was the anti-imperialism of fools bit...unless I'm being a bit slow.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Exactly what i thought when they said on the news about another 200 UK service personnel being flown out this afternoon.
Will they be able to land; if they can what are they landing into and what could they realistically do?
On the face of it, the Taliban could make things pretty difficult for the foreign forces if they wanted to.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Found this commentary from a Singaporean think tank on China-Taliban rapport, not much startling in the assessment of interests but has a few figures on the scale of investment in the country I wasn't aware of: US Afghan Withdrawal: Enter China and Taliban? | RSIS Also notes the friendly noises the Taliban have been making.
The US still have over 28,000 personnel stationed in South Korea although the fighting in that war ended nearly seventy years ago.
But interestingly South Korea pay the yanks for their attendance. Biden and Blinken brokered a deal in March this year that sees the US pocket $1billion per year rising annually.
Perhaps the former Afghan administration should have set aside some cash from the billions they received to do the same.
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JimW
支那暗杀团
Thought it famously never officially ended?
Yossarian
⏭️
After about 85 years in politics, Biden's good at telling half-truths instead of outright lies - apparently the real meaning of his words was "It's not technically inevitable since they have the numbers and equipment to fight off the Taliban, but it appears extremely likely that the Taliban will prevail. Still, I do not see this as a good enough reason to reverse my predecessor's withdrawal plan."
bimble
floofy
Boris Johnson under pressure to set up resettlement scheme for Afghans
Tories and Labour MPs call for asylum in UK for refugees amid fears high-profile women will be targeted
I mean what even would happen if in a bout of generosity having banged her head priti patel suddenly said yeah, bring those 250 women judges to Heathrow immediately. That's not even feasible realistically now is it , even if it was last week?
I may have to edit from war ended to fighting ended.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Bit of pointless pedantry from me but IIRC it is one of those quirky factoids journos love and often mention.
bimble
floofy
email has arrived from the organisation there that i have done work stuff with (its an international NGO focussed on women's economic empowerment, been active there for many years). Says
".. every step is being taken to protect the safety of project staff and members. Our team are safe and accounted for. .In the immediate term, in accordance with contingency plans, our team will shelter in place and await the formation of a new government. Once this new government is formed, we will apply to continue operating..'
".. every step is being taken to protect the safety of project staff and members. Our team are safe and accounted for. .In the immediate term, in accordance with contingency plans, our team will shelter in place and await the formation of a new government. Once this new government is formed, we will apply to continue operating..'
Hollis
bloody furious
Massive difference with the Falklands though is that was an external occupation, quickly removed, not leaving any "civil war" situation.. I find this historian interesting on the subject..
As an aside I'd be livid (among other things) if I was ex-services now.. sense at the time in Iraq and Afghanistan that the deaths of serviceman were used in the media to maintain momentum for the wars.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
He could have started by devising an exit plan worthy of the name.
RainbowTown
Well-Known Member
Thank you for posting this. It needed to be said.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
What would that have looked like?
Kevbad the Bad
Amiable Bowel Syndrome
To have an exit plan don't you need to know why you went in in the first place?
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Latest update suggests things are spiralling out of any control that there may have been.
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
6000 more US troops on the way, 600 (may have misheard that) more Brit's on the way, Taliban have taken over the civilian side of the airport. Is there a possibility the new landlords are going to allow an orderly withdrawal? They seem to be seeking international recognition and that would be a politic move. I saw a report earlier that a US general had reached an accomodation with one of the Taliban negotiators in Doha, I forget the details and can't find the report now but the yanks wouldn't be sending 6000 troops that can't land. Just pulling together some of the things I've seen over the day and hoping for the best. All PA/Reuters/Sky sources, no twitter nonsense.
Obviously this won't help the women of Afghanistan or the people left to the mercies of local commanders but hopefully some of the people at the airport will get out.
/clutching at straws
It's fucking tragic and am surprised it's affecting me so much. I've never been near the place but I guess 20 years of seeing it on TV, watching documentaries, reading the papers, keeping up to date and knowing a few people that went out there means it has taken root in my head as well. I can't begin to imagine how the people that went there with good intentions feel to see it fall apart.
And then the (attempted) comprehension of what the people there are going to have to put up with for the foreseeable future, it's awful.
eta: typed all that before brogdale 's post above. Fucksakes.
Obviously this won't help the women of Afghanistan or the people left to the mercies of local commanders but hopefully some of the people at the airport will get out.
/clutching at straws
It's fucking tragic and am surprised it's affecting me so much. I've never been near the place but I guess 20 years of seeing it on TV, watching documentaries, reading the papers, keeping up to date and knowing a few people that went out there means it has taken root in my head as well. I can't begin to imagine how the people that went there with good intentions feel to see it fall apart.
And then the (attempted) comprehension of what the people there are going to have to put up with for the foreseeable future, it's awful.
eta: typed all that before brogdale 's post above. Fucksakes.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
The first picture is completely surreal, apart from the soldier and the guy he's pointing his gun at, everyone else is stood around completely ignoring it as if nothing is going on.
The plane in the 2nd picture belongs to KamAir an Afghani budget airline (I was amazed to learn that there was such a thing) so unless one of those people can fly a plane then I don't think that one is going anywhere.
I suspect the only planes in and out of Kabul from tomorrow onwards are going to be military (mostly American ones) with the last couple possibly leaving in a blaze of gunfire. The Americans are only going to evacuate Americans, probably other Westerners (in which category I would include the apparently solitary South Korean still there) and Afghans with a connection to the West (if they can). Anyone else who turns up at the airport is not going to get on a plane and will quite possibly risk being shot either by the Yanks or the Taliban.
bimble
floofy
For a year no American soldier has been killed, because the taliban knew they were leaving. If they realised that it was inevitable the Taliban would win the country back then there was a good long window of opportunity, now missed, to plan and execute a withdrawal that would at least save the lives of some / a few 100 thousand people who won't have a chance now.
I think they really didn't realise it, were too deep in the delusion that having spent this much money surely they'd done a top job of 'nation building'.
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
Some of the photos of the Taliban are very disturbing. The way they look in the lens seems to say "you're next". As soon as this supposed 2 week evacuation agreement is over, I think they'll just kill anyone with a camera.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Yeh. Surely a metric of top nation building would be the non-existence of an insurgency. If you are having peace talks in Doha with a load of fundamentalist twats then that's not really a great sign of nation building
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Sadness in their eyes
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