Afghanistan - 20 years on

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I see they have announced a transfer of power will take place to the Taliban. Which concludes 20 years of seemingly pointless soldier deaths, terrible life changing injuries, and vast amount of money wasted, to be right back where the country was 20 years a go. Except now the Taliban has essentially been kitted up with conquered supplies courtesy of the ANA and paid for by the US and allies.

My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones and those soldiers now sitting at home with life changing injuries. I can't imagine how they feel.
 
Soldato
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Slightly confused reports about Kabul with some saying they Taliban are entering from all sides, but the officials in Doha say they've been ordered not to take it by force, and that people who want to leave will be allowed to. However I guess with the lack of any fight from the Afghan Army there may well be no contradiction there!

Sounds like there are official reports of the government planning to hand over power to a 'transitional' body including Taliban leaders.

Meanwhile smoke rises from the US embassy incinerators, high level staff have now left the embassy by helicopter. The US full withdrawal is now planned for Tuesday rather than 31st August.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/l...-as-last-government-stronghold-in-north-falls

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...afghan-capital-assist-evacuations-2021-08-14/

It seems the US is at least a little serious about holding on until Tuesday though, with 1000 extra troops now on their way on top of those already deployed to secure the evacuation effort.
 
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This was always the outcome, no President was closing the door on this with a different ending.

100% I think its the one major difference between Afghanistan and Iraq; Afghan was always going end up a mess; it always has been and probably always will be; Iraq (if there had ever been a plan) was at least somewhere that could just about be a functioning nation; and to an extent it is albeit perhaps a little more friendly to places like Iran than we would like.

Slightly confused reports about Kabul with some saying they Taliban are entering from all sides, but the officials in Doha say they've been ordered not to take it by force, and that people who want to leave will be allowed to. However I guess with the lack of any fight from the Afghan Army there may well be no contradiction there!

Sounds like there are official reports of the government planning to hand over power to a 'transitional' body including Taliban leaders.

Meanwhile smoke rises from the US embassy incinerators, high level staff have now left the embassy by helicopter. The US full withdrawal is now planned for Tuesday rather than 31st August.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/l...-as-last-government-stronghold-in-north-falls

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...afghan-capital-assist-evacuations-2021-08-14/

It seems the US is at least a little serious about holding on until Tuesday though, with 1000 extra troops now on their way on top of those already deployed to secure the evacuation effort.

The reality is that some of the groups on the ground (Taliban) will do what they want regardless of what the diplomatic side in Qatar are saying
 
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In my laymans eyes I can't see how the allied forces ever expected to beat the Taliban, its not as though they were wearing uniforms like the Germans in WW2, so they couldn't tell who was friend or foe.
In a documentary I saw a couple of years back is showed our troops going out each day, do some shooting and then going back to their base every evening. Meanwhile the Taliban saw which roads they were using and placed mines there.
There must be a reason why they couldn't take ground, set up camp and keep going forward wiping out the enemy as they went
 
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The Afghan army must have just signed up for the lols and never intended to fight the Taliban.
The rher way to look at it is. If they fight and lose as all their support has left they and their family will be brutally tortured/killed.

Why would you risk it?
 
Soldato
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I see they have announced a transfer of power will take place to the Taliban. Which concludes 20 years of seemingly pointless soldier deaths, terrible life changing injuries, and vast amount of money wasted, to be right back where the country was 20 years a go. Except now the Taliban has essentially been kitted up with conquered supplies courtesy of the ANA and paid for by the US and allies.

My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones and those soldiers now sitting at home with life changing injuries. I can't imagine how they feel.
Echo this adding. What utter travesty and cruelty has been beset upon the Afghan people; an entire generation exposed, teased and trolled with hints of Western values, promotion of feminism and an illusion of democracy is about to be swiftly quashed back to medieval theocratic brutality.
 
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Echo this adding. What utter travesty and cruelty has been beset upon the Afghan people; an entire generation exposed, teased and trolled with hints of Western values, promotion of feminism and an illusion of democracy is about to be swiftly quashed back to medieval theocratic brutality.
So much this. Going to be incredibly grim for a lot of people there.
 
Soldato
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This doesn't sit well with me at all. I find a lot of hypocrisy over this as well, outrage at the way Taliban rule and poor Afghanis this and that. We could stop a Taliban rule if we wanted, at a price. But that isn't a vote winner for the average public, yet they cry and complain when we pack up and leave leaving it to groups like the Taliban?

We did a lot of hard work 06-14 for a relatively settled situation for a few year, now that has instantly been written off with absolutely 0 hope. I mean, we get what we wish when we decide not to get involved or stay involved.
 
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Reuters reporting that Ali Ahmad Jalali a former Interior Minister (2003-2005) will take over as head of the "transitional" Government; he's currently based in the USA as a lecturer... seems a bit of an odd choice for a Taliban Government
 
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Reuters reporting that Ali Ahmad Jalali a former Interior Minister (2003-2005) will take over as head of the "transitional" Government; he's currently based in the USA as a lecturer... seems a bit of an odd choice for a Taliban Government
Could it possibly point towards a more moderate Taliban?

As if our migrant crisis wasn’t bad enough, it’s gonna get a lot worse now.
 
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Soldato
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The silence from our foreign secretary and other government ministers has been rather noticeable recently (only recent news seemed to have been a COBRA meeting last week) but seems parliament may be recalled to discuss Afghanistan.

Not sure whether there's anything much left to be discussed at this point though tbh... A bit late to make much difference whatever they say I'd have thought.
 

SPG

SPG

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We are not allowed to fight this water on how it should have been fought, western sensibilities and all the that.
 
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Could it possibly point towards a more moderate Taliban?

As if our migrant crisis wasn’t bad enough, it’s gonna get a lot worse now.

I doubt it, I expect he's more likely a puppet figured head for some kind of "partnership" government which is in reality conteolled by just the Taliban.

As for migrants, it seems most border countries have already closed the border so there may not be a mass out flow.
 
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