On the edge of Kabul with tons of civilians around that is a nightmare situation as well - you can't just go in heavy without crazy risk of mass collateral casualties.
Afghanistan - 20 years on
- Thread starter GreatAuk
- Start date
On the edge of Kabul with tons of civilians around that is a nightmare situation as well - you can't just go in heavy without crazy risk of mass collateral casualties.
Oh yikes, got a link?
edit - just saw on the telegraph website re: their recent press conference, not good for any eligible Afghans who haven't made it there or who are awaiting processing etc...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-n...biden-boris-johnson-taliban-press-conference/
Soldato
Apparently it's going to take the US at least two days to evacuate all their military personnel, so there's going to be some fun come next Sunday.
Civilian personnel should have been evacuated months ago, the Taliban are holding all of the cards now, they can get away with refusing another extension and giving ultimatums because allied forces are surrounded, outnumbered and probably outgunned thanks to all of the weapons that were stupidly left lying around.
I really don't know what the US thought was going to happen - though they've chucked a fair amount of equipment and money at the Afghan forces they've done very little to set them up for the reality of the situation without the US - irrespective of whether they were prepared to fight or not. How anyone thought it wouldn't be a rapid collapse boggles my mind.
Not that it really means anything but it is funny looking at groups of them as there tends to be a range of different styles more typified by different countries/armies i.e. stiff and straight down, more relaxed and/or finger nearer or further from trigger, safety or controls, etc.
All right on Iran and Russia's doorstep. Neither of them get on with the Taliban. I bet they are secretly as ****** off as we are about the US bailing.
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Soldato
Soldato
So how many will Biden leave behind?
To be fair I don't think the US underestimated the Taliban - what seems to be the case is they were seemingly completely blind-sided by just how quickly the Afghan army would collapse due to whatever reasons resulted in:
-Poor/non-existent transition of the Afghan army to a stand-alone, autonomous, force from being part of and beholden to US interests. (Largely I suspect because of the way the US handled it)
-Linked to above essentially being left "wrong footed" on the ground for the task in front of them.
-Massively less numbers actually existing and willing to fight.
-US pulling support for stuff like maintaining their air-force.
-Many soldiers exhausted, under-supplied and in many cases hadn't been paid in months.
Training camps for small-arms, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training.
I imagine some of them are clued on well beyond what people might think.
Soldato
Trigger discipline is just one of those things that comes naturally, I find myself practising it when using sealant guns, the hosepipe or even the bloody TV remote. 
Soldato
Well that's fine if the Taliban want to build something even vaguely resembling a modern society, but they're just as likely to shoot them and/or marry off the women to their fighters.
I would absolutely love to be proven wrong.
Soldato
Looks like the UK will stay a bit longer according to sky news
Soldato
Unless they have a cast iron guarantee from the Taliban not to kick off I'm not sure that's a great idea TBH.
Soldato
I'd call thier bluff IF we had the airlift capabilities, the air support and the rest of it if it went pear shaped.
We don't.
It's once again showing how underfunded our forces, as are the rest of the EU's actually are, despite the Russian/Chinese aggressive stances plus Iran etc etc.