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Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

Canada is trying to get people out. Target is the same as the UK - 20,000.


Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says two Canadian military aircraft are set to resume “flying regularly” into Kabul as part of the international effort to evacuate civilians and citizens fleeing the Taliban takeover.

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Global News has confirmed the development comes after Canada and the U.S. reached a deal to allow Canadian aircraft to begin flying into and out of Kabul. But there are no details yet on when the flights will begin arriving in Kabul or returning home.'


eta: should be higher than Germany.... :D
 
I enjoy your posts, and I've learned a lot from them over the years; but honestly I think you should probably just pull your pants up here. Yes, the PMC in general and most governments are going to rationalise co-operating with the Taliban govt of Afghanistan. For reasons, as you say, none of them good.

I don't think the answer is othering and monstering, as Brainaddict pointed out, it misses the point that they won. Against NATO, and the US and UK in particular. In the main because of corruption that NATO supported, for reasons (none of them good).

So, to see it from a less Eurocentric point .. what may have happened, is that lots of Afghans preferred a harsh government they understand but see as honest, if brutal (and has there ever been a time in Afghanistan that life was not brutal for most people?) .. over a foreign-backed, corrupt government that allowed NATO (and the US and UK in particular) to bomb their shit.

I don't think medieval really says anything useful about this situation, except to stoke up the othering and the monstering. Which is fine, if you like that sort of thing and after all this is the internets. Islamo-fascist? I think that will do just fine, simplistic as it no doubt is. Medieval is just .. to me it's like calling them kids.

Glad you agree with both of the points that I’ve made. That the previous characterisation of the Taliban is being reconstructed before our eyes by the state/(s) and by the archipelago of the PMC around it/them. Second, that none of the reasons for this are defensible and all lead in tragic directions for ordinary Afghans.

However on two points we do not agree. Firstly, the charge made by you and others that to highlight and interrogate the meaning of their adherence to imposing sharia is ‘Eurocentric’. This is pure post-colonial studies confusion guaranteed to lead to disorientation: emptying out the full history, development, ideology and political orientation of the Taliban. Ironically it demands that we must limit our understanding: tracing its emergence through a purely euro-centric lens and set of reference points. Yes, the existence of the Taliban and its ideas are partly a response to repeated - failed attempts - to colonise Afghanistan but to pretend that alone is a sufficient explanation is hopeless I’m afraid. And yet, a lot of what I’m reading is ground in that superficial and disorientating analysis. There is a whole history of the development across the region of thought, practise, ideas, power and structures of feeling developed completely outside of the woefully narrow post-colonial lens.

Also, othering is precisely where we need to be. This is, as you say, a particular strain of islamo-fascism rooted in medieval practises and ideas. It’s bitterly ironic that, for much of the parts of the left that spends significant amounts of its time wrongly seeing the fascist bogey man everywhere and hurling the accusation around, that it’s incapable of recognising a particular form of it when it actually emerges.
 
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That's fair enough and yes I agree. But actually using the word medieval as a descriptor undermines a lot of that moral high ground IMO. It's unnecessary, only superficially true, and in the long run probably counterproductive.

Anyway. I've said my thing.

Plus (facetiously, but ) if they're medieval and they beat us, what does that make us?
 
And worse. What's with the tarring?

at least our brave boys kill children, rape, torture and murder civilians, "for the right reasons"

etc etc
 
That's fair enough and yes I agree. But actually using the word medieval as a descriptor undermines a lot of that moral high ground IMO. It's unnecessary, only superficially true, and in the long run probably counterproductive.

Anyway. I've said my thing.

Plus (facetiously, but ) if they're medieval and they beat us, what does that make us?

Aye, and I’ve said mine too. But, the real counterproductive politics is to mischaracterise who they are. Anyway, enough, there will be more to say as all of this unfolds
 
at least our brave boys kill children, rape, torture and murder civilians, "for the right reasons"

etc etc
Yes, because that’s totally widespread, not illegal at all, and part of occupation policy. Fucking idiot.
 
Othering and acting the exact same way as colonialists from previous eras means the moment the US retreat the formerly occupied are left with nothing. No industry, no civil service, no development, no money in their national bank. Why because they Afghans ane not to be trusted, they might favour rival States in the future. They are written off as an asset.
 
I'm not an expert, but I'm not really convinced they're any of those things.
Compared to a fully equipped army they are. They travel around on trucks with handheld weapons. They'll have some minor artillery but I haven't even seen pictures of them in a tank, though with the evaporation of the army they might have some soon.
 
I found this (it’s a thread) really interesting, about the Talaban’s interpretation of sharia law and why their implementation is part of their appeal to (some) ordinary / non-extreme people in the context of Afghanistan.

 
It's possible to be against the Taliban and western imperialism. It's a total fucking mess and both sides are shit.

That's not what happens here though, is it. Good old Urban leftie rules dictate that an outrage is not an outrage nor a disaster a disaster unless it can be attributed to the US or the UK, and criticism of murderous factions be immediately offset with 'the west is just as bad'. We've even got cunts here complaining about the Taliban being characterised as "medieval", ffs, and this BillRiver bellend throwing "Daily Mail reader" slurs at people critical of head-chopping, women-stoning, scum. Fuck off. This is why the left will never form a government in this country again. Wankers.
 
I found this (it’s a thread) really interesting, about the Talaban’s interpretation of sharia law and why their implementation is part of their appeal to (some) ordinary / non-extreme people in the context of Afghanistan.



I can only read that up to 6. Twitter does this thing now where you can't click 'see thread' (in entirety) unless you join. Fuck Twitter seriously. It's one thing having a near takeover of all comment on news, another to actually stop people even reading unless they join the club.
 
I can only read that up to 6. Twitter does this thing now where you can't click 'see thread' (in entirety) unless you join. Fuck Twitter seriously. It's one thing having a near takeover of all comment on news, another to actually stop people even reading unless they join the club.
That is crap. The main point is clear by 6 though.
A legal system applied consistently across regions & without bribes involved is a desirable thing if your life’s been screwed by the lack of such a thing, even if the content of it the punishments etc are brutal.
 
I can only read that up to 6. Twitter does this thing now where you can't click 'see thread' (in entirety) unless you join. Fuck Twitter seriously. It's one thing having a near takeover of all comment on news, another to actually stop people even reading unless they join the club.


Just sign up, I understand the handle Donald J Trump is available now...
 
That is crap. The main point is clear by 6 though.
A legal system applied consistently across regions & without bribes involved is a desirable thing if your life’s been screwed by the lack of such a thing, even if the content of it the punishments etc are brutal.


Yeah, which is why they've gone across the country unopposed. Meanwhile the former President rocks up in Dubai with $169,000,000 in cash on him.
 
That's not what happens here though, is it. Good old Urban leftie rules dictate that an outrage is not an outrage nor a disaster a disaster unless it can be attributed to the US or the UK, and criticism of murderous factions be immediately offset with 'the west is just as bad'. We've even got cunts here complaining about the Taliban being characterised as "medieval", ffs, and this BillRiver bellend throwing "Daily Mail reader" slurs at people critical of head-chopping, women-stoning, scum. Fuck off. This is why the left will never form a government in this country again. Wankers.

War crimes from Western and Western-backed forces in Afghanistan were widespread and rarely punished, which seems very relevant to any discussion of how the Taliban gained strength and why support for the Afghan government remained weak. It's not the first insurgency where the killing of civilians boosted recruitment.

In 2015, an American AC-130 gunship destroyed a hospital in Kunduz and circled back to fire on survivors fleeing the burning building - 42 people were killed and the US personnel involved only received letters of reprimand. In the years after the US loosened the rules engagement in 2017, 800 children were killed in airstrikes.

Overreliance on airstrikes without adequate civilian protections, relying on abusive warlords to fill security and political leadership roles, and largely ignoring wholesale corruption and rights violations, fostered deep resentment and distrust of the U.S. and Afghan governments, grievously weakened Afghanistan’s military and political capacities, and made it far easier for the Taliban to gain ground.

 
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Compared to a fully equipped army they are. They travel around on trucks with handheld weapons. They'll have some minor artillery but I haven't even seen pictures of them in a tank, though with the evaporation of the army they might have some soon.
And the Americans have left all their kit behind because its simply too expensive and difficult to ship it back to the US. They've got equipment and enough firepower
 
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