Afghanistan - 20 years on

The Running Man said:
The ira were supported by the people if Ireland.

Had the people of Ireland ousted them then no.

That's my point, if the people of Afghanistan outed the taliban it would have been over fairly quickly.
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People of America didn't support the colonials, but they ain't speakig cherokee these days are they?
 
The Running Man said:
The ira were supported by the people if Ireland.

Had the people of Ireland ousted them then no.

That's my point, if the people of Afghanistan outed the taliban it would have been over fairly quickly.
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You are looking at it too simplistically - it would need the whole population of Afghanistan to act in accord at the same time and that simply couldn't happen.
 
The Running Man said:
The Afghanistan people have opposed the US and British help for years and worked hand in hand with the taliban at virtually every opportunity or worked against the US with hostility.

Put simply a taliban which is made up for between 50,000 -75,000 members cannot possibly stand up to an entire country, their army and the US/UK forces.

Unless they are receiving lots of help from the local population.
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The lesson of history is that a small, well trained and motivated group of men can achieve an awful lot.

The Taliban don't, and don't need, to care what people want. They will enforce their will through violence.
 
This is what happens when you have rules against a enemy with no rules. The armed forces hands were tied from day 1 due to media and politicians in "doing the right thing" where the right thing was clearly the wrong thing in fighting a bunch of drug smugglers.
 
The Running Man said:
Yep especially if they didn't want to or weren't sufficiently motivated to.
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Easy to say when sitting behind a keyboard.

Unless a tribal warlord, etc. with good support behind them anyone trying to take the initiative against the Taliban would quickly meet their demise long before they could muster enough support to have the numbers to counter the level of organisation and weapons the Taliban have.
 
Longbow said:
Some of it manufactured in the US, but it should be stated that it belonged to, and was stolen from the Afghan National Army. That's all hand-me-down equipment, including the M16A2s which the US military no longer use for combat.
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Still a lot of free military equipment for the Taliban and still an upgrade from what they already had.

The Running Man said:
The Afghanistan people have opposed the US and British help for years and worked hand in hand with the taliban at virtually every opportunity or worked against the US with hostility.

Put simply a taliban which is made up for between 50,000 -75,000 members cannot possibly stand up to an entire country, their army and the US/UK forces.

Unless they are receiving lots of help from the local population.
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That might be true if the opposing military forces were operating under the same rules of engagement as the Taliban. But of course they're not. Not by a long chalk.

The only ways to suppress a group like the Taliban are to have such a vastly superior force that they can be suppressed without acting the same way as them (as had been done by the coalition forces for 20 years) or to have a somewhat superior force and to act with the same level of brutality (as had been done in some countries, e.g. Iraq under Saddam Hussein).

Do the former and you're a foreign occupation force and thus a target. Do the latter and you're a brutal regime and thus a target. Either way, the Taliban (or other group of the same type) continues to exist and recruit. The situation is even worse in a place like Afghanistan, where there are a lot of places where the central government (or occupying force) can't protect people. You'd need a million soldiers to garrison everywhere well enough to do that.
 
The Running Man said:
The ira were supported by the people if Ireland.

Had the people of Ireland ousted them then no.

That's my point, if the people of Afghanistan outed the taliban it would have been over fairly quickly.
Click to expand...

The people of America were the primary source of funding for the IRA back in the height of the struggles. The people of Ireland, by and large, had bigger problems to worry about. Like putting food on the table and clothing their kids. Much like the people of Afghanistan, funnily enough
 
d_brennen said:
The people of America were the primary source of funding for the IRA back in the height of the struggles. The people of Ireland, by and large, had bigger problems to worry about. Like putting food on the table and clothing their kids. Much like the people of Afghanistan, funnily enough
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Nah, Afgans want sharia law, their hands and heads chopped off. Afghan women definitely like the idea of being stoned to death.

It's a bit like voting Brexit. It's what they wanted really.
 
Rroff said:
Easy to say when sitting behind a keyboard.

Unless a tribal warlord, etc. with good support behind them anyone trying to take the initiative against the Taliban would quickly meet their demise long before they could muster enough support to have the numbers to counter the level of organisation and weapons the Taliban have.
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Yeah its kind like saying there's be no gang violence into uk if everyone just agreed to stop them.
 
d_brennen said:
The people of America were the primary source of funding for the IRA back in the height of the struggles. The people of Ireland, by and large, had bigger problems to worry about. Like putting food on the table and clothing their kids. Much like the people of Afghanistan, funnily enough
Click to expand...


Am I right in remembering there was a huge drop in revenue from the USA for them after 9/11 and new yorkers being introduced to what terrorism actually means
 
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