Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

[DownwardDog]

What is the building they've chosen here to illustrate their point?

View attachment 283901

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. One of Stalin's "Seven Sisters".

 

[David Clapson]

I would not have thought that the Taliban would have anything to do with the warlords...?

They can't ignore them - their militias are too strong. The lack of fighting suggests there've been negotiations.

 

[clicker]

I was just checking the flight radar app to see if any planes are landing or leaving Kabul, and a US Navy Hercules(?) left Kabul 15 mins ago.
No idea what type of plane that is, but hoping its full.
I can't believe all those people have just been left.

 

[Gramsci]

The latest tragedy for the Afghan people reminds me of old soldier I talked some years back. He totally was against Tony Blairs wars. He was no lefty. As far as he was concerned when he was a soldier he was defending this country and its terrorities not going to war in other countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. Which in his view didn't have any direct connections to this country.

This country did not have to get involved in what was a US war. "we" the UK shouldn't have put our troops out there. "We" aren't a major power any more. Afghanistan became a proxy war between two superpowers. With tragically the Afghan people being the long term losers. This country was a bit player riding on the coat tails of US trying to make out it was still a world player.

 

[bimble]

Jesus fucking Christ and they must have left everything behind

thats exactly what i thought when saw the photo. Can't see any luggage at all. Quite a few babies and small children though that they managed to carry through all that chaos and get safely on board.

 

[ska invita]

I am extremely sorry you and your comrades are being put through this. It is fucked.

Beats being at The Hague for war crimes for taking part in an illegal invasion

 

[Yossarian]

A former Marine captain writes:

The hawks still circle and screech. The voices from the past 20 years who prodded us forward into battle return to the evening news to sell us on staying. “It’s not too late,” the former generals, secretaries and ambassadors say. “More troops can hold the line. Victory is just around the corner.”

But the speed of the Taliban’s advance makes clear that this outcome was always inevitable. The enemy had no reason to negotiate, and no reputation for restraint. The only question before President Biden was how many American soldiers should die before it happened. But if leaving now was the right decision for America, it is a catastrophe for the Afghan people whom we have betrayed.

Opinion | I Was a Marine in Afghanistan. We Sacrificed Lives for a Lie. (Published 2021)

Those of us who fought this war must now wonder: How could we have given the best parts of our lives to such a lie?

www.nytimes.com

 

[bimble]

similar piece of writing here

Afghanistan Meant Nothing

A Veteran Reflects on 20 Wasted Years

laurajedeed.medium.com

 

[ska invita]

As we're posting vets voices here's Joe Glenton who had the bravery to go AWOL and so on to jail rather than carry on taking part in this war crime

 

[SpookyFrank]

Jesus fucking Christ and they must have left everything behind

I hope they ended up somewhere better than Qatar, which is not a good place to be a migrant

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

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.

I've got no idea whether the reports are true, but the religion of the Taliban will be flexible on this point, I am sure. The Koran makes no mention of methamphetamine so even for a puritanical movement opposed to drugs, thus is their get-out clause if they decide they need it.

 

[teqniq]

Predictably grim:

Taliban 'marks doors of prominent women' as female anchors axed from TV

Many women fear for their lives now the Western-backed government has collapsed.

metro.co.uk

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Macron not hanging around in trying to raise the drawbridge... Afghanistan: Macron demands 'robust' EU plan against illegal migration

 

[teqniq]

Also predictably grim 'women and children make up to 50% of civilian casualties'

 

[kebabking]

The sole German plane to leave Kabul last night, an A400M cargo plane that normal carries 116 troops, but could in extremis, carry perhaps 300, took off carrying 7.

Yes, 7.

It's not just that it took 7 when it could have taken 300, it's that it took up a landing slot that someone else could have used, and maybe took an air-to-air refuelling slot that someone else could have taken, and then a landing slot in Kuwait or wherever.

 

[brogdale]

The sole German plane to leave Kabul last night, an A400M cargo plane that normal carries 116 troops, but could in extremis, carry perhaps 300, took off carrying 7.

Yes, 7.

It's not just that it took 7 when it could have taken 300, it's that it took up a landing slot that someone else could have used, and maybe took an air-to-air refuelling slot that someone else could have taken, and then a landing slot in Kuwait or wherever.

Sounds like they didn't/don't have the capacity to process at the airport, then?

 

[cupid_stunt]

The Taliban 'leaders' continue to make the right noises, but how that plays out on the ground is likely to be somewhat different.

The Taliban have declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government.
Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said: "The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims.
"They should be in government structure according to Shariah law."

He added: "The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join."
The comments by Mr Samangani represent the first on governance from a federal level across the country after their blitz across the country.

LINK

 

[gosub]

Sounds like they didn't/don't have the capacity to process at the airport, then?

More like that German government can't effectively gybe without Parliamentary support. General thrust of German politics was, until less than a fortnight ago was towards returning 30,000 Afghans. And they are on recess.




I

 

[bimble]

The Taliban 'leaders' continue to make the right noises, but how that plays out on the ground is likely to be somewhat different.

ha. yesterday's assurances to women was that they should not be afraid because their Honour would be protected.

 

[kebabking]

Sounds like they didn't/don't have the capacity to process at the airport, then?

The Germans don't, but others do - they could have stuffed the plane full of other nations evacuees, but they chose not to.

That's how everyone else is doing it - there's a big basket of people who have been cleared to leave, and each arriving aircraft is just taking as many as it can squeeze on and they'll worry about sorting them all out later. This is how European states do NEO, it just saves lots of time on the ground. There are 23 Irish nationals trying to get out, and because the Irish government has no airlift capability they'll just come out on any plane.

 

[Pickman's model]

The sole German plane to leave Kabul last night, an A400M cargo plane that normal carries 116 troops, but could in extremis, carry perhaps 300, took off carrying 7.

Yes, 7.

It's not just that it took 7 when it could have taken 300, it's that it took up a landing slot that someone else could have used, and maybe took an air-to-air refuelling slot that someone else could have taken, and then a landing slot in Kuwait or wherever.

is that including the crew?

 

[kebabking]

And in UK incompetence news...

The FCDO has a crisis team who go to disasters to help with consular stuff, travel documents, visas etc... (I've seen them in action, they're pretty good). They are still in the gulf - the MOD team arrived 4 days ago, on the third aircraft to arrive behind SF and two Coys of 2 PARA.

Dominic Raab has been on holiday in Cyprus...

 

[A380]

 

[Sprocket.]

The sole German plane to leave Kabul last night, an A400M cargo plane that normal carries 116 troops, but could in extremis, carry perhaps 300, took off carrying 7.

Yes, 7.

It's not just that it took 7 when it could have taken 300, it's that it took up a landing slot that someone else could have used, and maybe took an air-to-air refuelling slot that someone else could have taken, and then a landing slot in Kuwait or wherever.

I expected better of the Germans. Johnson has been on a telephone conference with Merkel this morning discussing international support for each other in getting nationals and Afghan support personnel out of Afghanistan. Let’s see how that works out.

 

[zahir]

This will probably continue to be the reality for most Afghan refugees trying to get to Europe.

 

[Dogsauce]

Can’t say I’m massively comfortable with the narrative of ‘won’t someone think of the ngo workers/university students/brave journalists/human rights campaigners’. Like these are ‘OK’ human beings and everybody else can fucking die in the fire.

 

[zahir]

Some reporting from Kabul

Afghanistan Has a New Government: The country wonders what the new normal will look like

Afghanistan has a new government. Its exact shape is not yet clear, but its contours can be discerned from a combination of messaging, how the Taleban entered and then took control of Kabul and reports from areas that had come under their control over the last few weeks, months and years. So...

www.afghanistan-analysts.org

 

[Idris2002]

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.

The snappers I've met have been generally sound. But for those who traffic in words, it's as you say, mostly.

 

[Pickman's model]

to be fair there's also a playful side to the taliban

 

[Idris2002]

I expected better of the Germans. Johnson has been on a telephone conference with Merkel this morning discussing international support for each other in getting nationals and Afghan support personnel out of Afghanistan. Let’s see how that works out.

Googling brings this up:

Wie der CDU-Außenpolitiker Johann Wadephul im Deutschlandfunk bestätigte, befanden sich allerdings lediglich sieben Menschen an Bord des Flugzeugs. Man habe nur einen Slot von 30 Minuten für die Maschine gehabt. "Und wir konnten nur die mitnehmen, die jetzt da waren", so Wadephul. "Es wäre auch unverantwortlich gewesen, mehr dort jetzt schon zum Flughafen zu bringen, weil gar nicht sicher war, dass die Maschine landen konnte.

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www.tagesschau.de

Which is roughly: "As the CDU foreign politician Johann Wadephul confirmed on Deutschlandfunk, there were only seven people on board the plane. You only had a 30-minute slot for the machine. "And we could only take those who were there with us," said Wadephul. "It would also have been irresponsible to bring more to the airport there now because it was not at all sure that the plane could land."