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Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

Nope. That video of fighters yesterday drinking tea and mineral water, chatting quietly in the routed general's mansion, those men were stone cold sober and calm as hell even in such a moment of triumph.
 
We don't hear about the local warlords much, but they still have a lot of power, don't they? Maybe the rapid and fairly bloodless advance of the Taliban has a lot to do with deals done with the warlords. Westerners always seem to underestimate the warlord/tribal structure, but it's a key to how the country functions. Our own governmental structures just don't fit.
 
A correspondent from the Washington Post has just said in a press briefing at The Pentagon that there were over 600 people on that flight out of Kabul earlier that had those desperate people clinging to the outside. He was asking if the spokesman could confirm what had happened to those poor souls outside the aircraft. :(
 
So the US send more troops to use force to clear the air field to facilitate exit.

Problem is the airfield is overrun with desperate people and if the US shoot any more it will likely provoke the Taliban to push in to restore order
 
David Clapson said:
We don't hear about the local warlords much, but they still have a lot of power, don't they? Maybe the rapid and fairly bloodless advance of the Taliban has a lot to do with deals done with the warlords. Westerners always seem to underestimate the warlord/tribal structure, but it's a key to how the country functions. Our own governmental structures just don't fit.
Click to expand...
One of the things that it is important to note about the Taliban takeover is that in large areas of the country local governance structures will remain almost untouched. The same laws and methods of dispute resolution will be applied, although there will probably be more of an effort to Islamicise the reasoning behind decisions now. And that's simply because central government in Afghanistan - even at its most functional and powerful (probably between the 1920s and 1960s) - has never been able to exercise much power outside of large cities.

I remember an Afghan businessman saying that after the first Taliban takeover the only difference for him was that he had to bribe different people in different places to move his product, and that the movement of the product actually got easier because the Taliban secured major roads to grease the wheels of their smuggling operations.
 
Sprocket. said:
A correspondent from the Washington Post has just said in a press briefing at The Pentagon that there were over 600 people on that flight out of Kabul earlier that had those desperate people clinging to the outside. He was asking if the spokesman could confirm what had happened to those poor souls outside the aircraft. :(
Click to expand...

See,this is how journalists earn their place on the list of people no one cares about - there's now no one left in the world who hasn't seen the video, so the hack knows exactly what happened to the people who were so desperate to escape that they clung onto the fuselage of an aircraft that was going down the runway at 180 mph - they died, in terror. He already knows that, but he just wants to get the recording of a press officer saying it, because he's a fucking ghoul.
 
kebabking said:
See,this is how journalists earn their place on the list of people no one cares about - there's now no one left in the world who hasn't seen the video, so the hack knows exactly what happened to the people who were so desperate to escape that they clung onto the fuselage of an aircraft that was going down the runway at 180 mph - they died, in terror. He already knows that, but he just wants to get the recording of a press officer saying it, because he's a fucking ghoul.
Click to expand...
I thought utter scum, why not ask something about the failure on the American side of things.
 
kebabking said:
See,this is how journalists earn their place on the list of people no one cares about - there's now no one left in the world who hasn't seen the video, so the hack knows exactly what happened to the people who were so desperate to escape that they clung onto the fuselage of an aircraft that was going down the runway at 180 mph - they died, in terror. He already knows that, but he just wants to get the recording of a press officer saying it, because he's a fucking ghoul.
Click to expand...


But he knows that the audience wants the details. If it bleeds, it leads. It will always be that way. That's why most people slow down to look at a crash on the motorway. Why so many people were filming the dying lad who was stabbed in Brixton road last week. The people falling from the plane will be the most remembered thing.
 
Elpenor said:
If they’re trying to present a veneer of nationhood to the world will they make a point of “retaining” doctors, engineers etc (while probably shooting everyone else?)
Click to expand...

they are canny enough to know that their long term prosperity/ survival means a relationship with the some of rest of the world is essential - the legitimacy aspect I have mentioned before. I dont expect this lot to take the same full brutal track as their dads did last century. wont be pleasant tho
 
David Clapson said:
But he knows that the audience wants the details. If it bleeds, it leads. It will always be that way. That's why most people slow down to look at a crash on the motorway. Why so many people were filming the dying lad who was stabbed in Brixton road last week. The people falling from the plane will be the most remembered thing.
Click to expand...
No, the utter humiliation of the United States will be the most remembered thing
 
This from the MoD was pretty fucking lame.
1. Yes, it's chaos
2. We might get 'our people' out...if the airport stays open
3. We didn't see it coming
4. (Official line) the mission was not a waste because "we stopped AQ attacking the UK"
5. The Taliban have changed and if they behave "in a certain way" there is a route to UK recognition

kinnel
 
kebabking said:
See,this is how journalists earn their place on the list of people no one cares about - there's now no one left in the world who hasn't seen the video, so the hack knows exactly what happened to the people who were so desperate to escape that they clung onto the fuselage of an aircraft that was going down the runway at 180 mph - they died, in terror. He already knows that, but he just wants to get the recording of a press officer saying it, because he's a fucking ghoul.
Click to expand...

The questions don't seem especially ghoulish - are journalists not doing their job by getting the Pentagon to confirm details of horrific and extraordinary events involving one of its planes?


Q: Couple other quick things. The video that we've all seen of people allegedly falling off a C-17 from an altitude, officials say the video's legit. Some say it's not. Do you have any clarity for us on that video?

MR. KIRBY: I do not.

....

Q: OK and then back to the video that we've seen the people falling off of the military transport jet, so you're not confirming one way or another whether that happened?

MR. KIRBY: I cannot.

Q: Can you take the question because we knew know if there pilot knew there were people hanging off. And then if they did who authorized that plane taking off with people hanging on.

www.defense.gov

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby Holds an Off-Camera Press Briefing

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby held an off-camera press briefing with reporters.
www.defense.gov
 
David Clapson said:
We don't hear about the local warlords much, but they still have a lot of power, don't they? Maybe the rapid and fairly bloodless advance of the Taliban has a lot to do with deals done with the warlords. Westerners always seem to underestimate the warlord/tribal structure, but it's a key to how the country functions. Our own governmental structures just don't fit.
Click to expand...

I would not have thought that the Taliban would have anything to do with the warlords...?
 
Yossarian said:
Wonder if it's a coincidence that the massive Taliban advances happened soon after a huge expansion in meth production.

www.bbc.com

Afghanistan, home to the heroin trade, moves into meth

A new report warns Afghanistan is becoming a major methamphetamine producer, leaving addicts in its wake.
www.bbc.com
Click to expand...
Their religion excludes them from those vices. So the BBC staff reporters makes this tosh up to get clicks.
The western media will be falling over themselves to get/invent the most gore filled stories in the next few weeks.
 
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