Afghanistan - 20 years on

kitkat9933 said:
Not going to fightback as a 1 man against the Taliban. The Taliban normally just kill the men anyway, whereas the Women they tend to have a biological need for. Not too dissimilar to how male lions tend to take over a pride kill the men and the Male cubs but keep all the female ones.
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You mean they'd rape and/or take the women as their wives
 
mid_gen said:
In the 21st century, soft power, not military power is what matters. Our leaders are too dense to see it....just sit around scratching their heads while China uses economics to spread it's influence around the world....while we continue to pour money and lives down the drain in far off conflicts, and pander to populist movements at home by cutting foreign aid.
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China has the best strategy, no doubt about that. It won’t be long until they’ll own most everything.
 
GreatAuk said:
What an absolutely shocking thing to admit to. If that was really what they were thinking, then people like Mr Bolton should probably not have bothered lying to the people of the West and Afghanistan.

I know the 'geopolitical chess' aspect has always been part of it, but like other people I had let myself believe that there was a bit of genuine hope and belief in creating a new and better society in Afghanistan. Obviously that was a foolish belief.
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It's pretty naive to think any country or state (and I include the UK in that), bar the odd few don't rely on their "geopolitical chess" aspect for continued prosperity and safe existence. That's why states vie for geopolitical power. It's existential.

The mistake the US made is using the Afghan government as a puppet. Thinking that their money bought that. As such they (and we) were an occupying force and not an ally. That's why they never really won hearts and minds and why the Afghans never had true democracy and self governance as a reason to fight. That's why an already corrupt country had a reason to become even more corrupted.

China will now do the same, they won't care at all about empowering Afghan people either.

And wrong headed people will wonder why there's so many refugees and migrants.
 
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mid_gen said:
In the 21st century, soft power, not military power is what matters. Our leaders are too dense to see it....just sit around scratching their heads while China uses economics to spread it's influence around the world....while we continue to pour money and lives down the drain in far off conflicts, and pander to populist movements at home by cutting foreign aid.
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but how can the west compete with a place that pays people chicken feed and doesnt give a fart about human rights. china are winning the economic war but its not a level playing field. they are the workshop of the world but the workers have nothing
 
Supposedly the Afghan Military flight has 'crashed' over Uzbekistan, which it entered illegally?

They can't even flee right, never mind run a country.
 
dave28 said:
but how can the west compete with a place that pays people chicken feed and doesnt give a fart about human rights. china are winning the economic war but its not a level playing field. they are the workshop of the world but the workers have nothing
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China has a burgeoning middle class that is getting filthy rich off the back of all the manufacturing skills and capacity we gave them. I don't know if you have spent much time in China, but it's not a communist country any more, hasn't been for a long time.

We're in the process of handing over our leadership in sciences and engineering by whoring out our universities to foreign students.

It's all pathetically short-sighted.
 
mid_gen said:
China has a burgeoning middle class that is getting filthy rich off the back of all the manufacturing skills and capacity we gave them. I don't know if you have spent much time in China, but it's not a communist country any more, hasn't been for a long time.

We're in the process of handing over our leadership in sciences and engineering by whoring out our universities to foreign students.

It's all pathetically short-sighted.
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Last documentry i seen the Gov in China were bulldozing peoples homes and giving them zero compensation, forcing people into "reeducation camps" and marching children all day and making them stand facing a wall all day in silence. No i have not been there, im not crazy enough to go
 
Begbie said:
Supposedly the Afghan Military flight has 'crashed' over Uzbekistan, which it entered illegally?

They can't even flee right, never mind run a country.
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Really the West should have trained all the women how to be combat ready, they're unfortunately the ones with the most to lose here so will most likely fight, the men, obviously they don't care whether it's fauxmocracy or Taliban rule, they enjoy their freedom either way even if their wives and daughters do not get any freedom. Quite selfish attitude really from all these cowards
 
deuse said:
The labels indicated the State Department, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all present. Unfortunately for Biden, also clearly visible was the CIA and 'Doha Station.

You're not supposed to do that by US law. They outed the CIA staff.
10/1 the Chinese and russians will have spies there to see who else is there.
Incompetence abounds at every point of the compass. It should have been taken down.
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Entirely unsurprising, this is the White House these days:

 
mid_gen said:
China has a burgeoning middle class that is getting filthy rich off the back of all the manufacturing skills and capacity we gave them. I don't know if you have spent much time in China, but it's not a communist country any more, hasn't been for a long time.

We're in the process of handing over our leadership in sciences and engineering by whoring out our universities to foreign students.

It's all pathetically short-sighted.
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Without going off topic for the main thread, it is very pathetically short-sighted. I dread to think what the UK would be like as an economic power in 100-200 years.

As for China, they may have a burgeoning middle class getting filthy, but that's also off the back of their own poor. As much as people complain about the wealth divide in this country, they haven't seen the likes of China where the poor are essentially homeless and with practically zero charities/foodbanks to help them. The poor class are then paid a pittance wage to work 140 hours a week just to get by whilst providing a fortune for their middle class.
 
dave28 said:
Last documentry i seen the Gov in China were bulldozing peoples homes and giving them zero compensation, forcing people into "reeducation camps" and marching children all day and making them stand facing a wall all day in silence. No i have not been there, im not crazy enough to go
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If all you watch is scary documentaries, it's probably easy to believe China is a stereotypical communist hellhole a starving worker underclass being trodden into the dirt.

The reality is a massive and rapidly growing middle class that is swanning about in gleaming shopping malls and neon-lit cities buying designer fashion and driving luxury cars. It's not just the party officials that are getting rich....
 
Minusorange said:
Really the West should have trained all the women how to be combat ready, they're unfortunately the ones with the most to lose here so will most likely fight, the men, obviously they don't care whether it's fauxmocracy or Taliban rule, they enjoy their freedom either way even if their wives and daughters do not get any freedom. Quite selfish attitude really from all these cowards
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There are women in the ANA albeit very small numbers. They're obviously now very fearful for their lives. The Taliban aren't likely to look kindly at a woman who's also been combat trained.
 
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