maomao
普費斯
Me.
Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished
- Thread starter toblerone3
- Start date
The Nazis, the East Germans and the Soviets had widespread national support for their regimes, which is precisely why they, yes, had lots and lots of people shopping their own family members. I mean, obviously nobody can prove anything about “every family”, but it was certainly widespread. This is kind of the point — the ability to control through fear comes hand in hand, generally, with widespread support giving you agents in every housing block. If the Taliban can control through fear, this is implicitly probably because they have this kind of support. I’m not sure I can think of many, if any, regimes in history that were massively unpopular but managed to rule through fear alone.
teqniq
DisMembered
This, essentially. The U.S. backed regime were unbelievably corrupt, the evidence is on this thread. But I have no time for religious hardliners of any persuasion whatsoever. But it's funny (not so much) how people who are very critical of the Taliban don't have too much to say about some of their major backers or our government's attitude towards them. Pakistan and Saudi for example.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Ok, so we've gone from agents in every family to agents in every housing block, to which I'd say I'd be very surprised if the Taliban were unable to achieve the latter with great ease.
Nobody is suggesting that the Taliban won't achieve any support either. Of course they will, but this developed from Maomao's assertion that this Taliban victory was achieved through popular support when there's very little evidence of that at all.
I’m not really that clear what it is that you think has happened, is happening and is going to happen. Do you think that the Taliban are like a foreign invader but that people in all the major cities have not interfered with their advance out of sheer fear? Or something else (please elaborate if so)?
ska invita
back on the other side
The British and US army act with impunity. Of course these are war crimes and of course they are unchallenged and will remain so.
Even internal investigations find no wrong doing even when it's inescapable the outrages that have been committed.
If just one politician or general received justice it would be a welcome step in the right direction. The Hague is a theatre anyhow... I want to see a collapse of the class that continues the great game in all its forms, only that will do for it.
Words can't express how much disgust I have for these recent invasions of the 'islamic' world. That I helped pay for them sickens me. That they are so widely supported and justified is deeply depressing.
What's more it can only be understood in the context of centuries of criminal Imperial murder. "Medieval" if you want to reach back to the crusades.
You can look at the way the heights of imperialism past were presented to the public and wonder how ridiculous the justifications were. Yet so little has changed. The attitudes remain identical even if the realities of power have changed.
The reaction from the political class and media commentators about UKs place in the world this last week has been illuminating for it's lack of self awareness and continued fantasies of global power.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Geneva Conventions and the Hague don't exist to trouble the UK, or any Western European nation. The US at least had the decency to not sign up to the charade of the Hague. It was troubled nicking the Serbian cunts cos they 'looked like us'. They'll happily go after brown folk all day long though.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
No they're not a foreign invader but yes, their advance has been unopposed primarily through fear.
Are you trying to suggest that they were emergent from the civil war through popular support and remained dominant until 2001 through the love of the people?
teqniq
DisMembered
I don't think it's necessarily primarily through fear though that is certainly an ingredient. A very large helping of pragmatism has been involved. This thread has a fair amount of evidence of deals being struck by government officials once they saw which way the wind was blowing.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Though maybe the white pashtuns with ginger hair confused them. Though maybe not if they had a big fuck off machine gun on the back of a truck.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
I'd agree with that but it's a pragmatism born of fear.
When someone's likely to kill your family it's easy to get pragmatic.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Pashtuns sometimes have blond hair and blue eyes, but yes, I find a massive machine gun and an RPG does tend to focus the mind.
bimble
floofy
Threads gone stupid that was quick.
Does that explain the young men who joined up as taliban soldiers or do you need a different slightly more complex story for that? And all their mums & uncles and the people who were sick of the extreme corruption of the recently overthrown regime , were they all just scared of the nasty talibans as well?
Does that explain the young men who joined up as taliban soldiers or do you need a different slightly more complex story for that? And all their mums & uncles and the people who were sick of the extreme corruption of the recently overthrown regime , were they all just scared of the nasty talibans as well?
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
It's not possible to end an endless war.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
fear and surprise
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
It is, Biden has just done it. Unless you want to pedant it, which could lead to some kind of...war.
not-bono-ever
meh
Haven’t we been over this ? The taliban are not yer average dictator despots despite using the same tools once in power. And on the route there. It’s not fear but kinda anti fear pragmatism- the taliban negotiated with the various regional and ethnic groupings to get support. And passage .That’s how it works out there. Kabul might as well be another country when compared to the rest of the country.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
It’s a big thing for the US. Give arms to an army that can only exist for your support. Flee the field and see the client army collapse and all the ordnance taken by the enemy. Was a big thing in Iraq and now Afghanistan.
maomao
普費斯
In terms of basic threat to life who killed more the Taliban or the yanks? Yanks/British killed 300,000 plus. Also easier, if unpleasant, to avoid being killed by Taliban. They don't just randomly bomb weddings or wipe out your village because the next village along told them you were insurgents.
It's a fair question, yours. If there's no commitment to years more providing a backup force, deterrent, logistical support or whatever. AT some point the vast majority of US and rest of NATO personell were going to leave.
But in the dead of night without telling your colleagues who have to stay behind seems a bit... Off.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Shoot the officers.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
If he has, it never was, was it soldier?
Stands to reason, dunnit?
Gosh, I think you’re dreadfully naïve on this one
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
It was, in the same way the Gordian Knot way. Biden is Alexander here...
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Sandals are never cool. AK47s pair with boots. Loving the range of colours though, as the late, great Robin Williams said,
"You know, this whole camouflage thing, for me, doesn't work very well. I can't see you. You know, it's like wearing stripes and plaid. For me, I want to do something different. You know, you go in the jungle, make a statement. If you're going to fight, clash. You know what I mean?
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