Afghanistan - 20 years on

The Running Man said:
Peaceful transition to what?

The area was already awash with jihadis who would have ridden roughshod over the civilians. Don't forget the Al quaeda/terrorists who had come over from Iraq etc as part of the isis push.

Assad holds the army together, without them it would be impossible to completely have stopped isis.
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All of which happened a long time after the fighting started. Would isis even have had a chance to take hold in Syria had he stepped down rather than send in the tanks against his own people?
Anyway, it's off topic.
 
It's heartbreaking for all of those Afghan's who wanted to make a go of it, assisted allied forces and will now likely be left to the wolves. Biden asked for a 3mth extension what exactly have they been doing with it? even the Dunkirk evacuation seemed to be better organised than this.
 
deuse said:
The democrat and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says this

"That’s what this is: the horrible consequences of endless war and failed US policy going back to the 1980s when we backed the Taliban against the Soviets"

Just shows have thick these idiots are.
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Just repeating what shes heard on social media, brainless.

The Running Man said:
Even the civilians in Syria etc were prepared to rise up if needed and die.

But conversely had assad not been supported by Russia etc it would have been a similar end result there, a country run by jihadis.

Thankfully assad had the army and enough support to endure.
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I don't think we should ever been thankful dictatorships are kept in power by.... other dictatorships.

There are real democratic forces in Syria opposed to Assads tyranny, unlike in Afghan.
 
Puzzled said:
I see we are sending more troops to help with the evacuation.

Wonder what would happen if the taliban start executing civilians while we still have troops on the ground. I doubt they will as I bet they can't believe their luck at the moment, they seem to have taken the city without resistance using a small group of fighters. But it would put the UK / US governments in a very tricky situation if atrocities are carried out while they have enough troops on the ground to stop it.

If the taliban allow flights to continue and don't attack US / UK forces then this could be the way for the least bloodshed (for us anyway) but its tragic for the poor sods left behind. What a shambles :(
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I'm not sure we can say that they haven't already been executing civilians. Information leaving the country is quite limited, and there have been reports of Taliban going house to house looking for certain people in some areas, Taliban in some places demanding daughters be turned over to them to be their wives and the bbc had Interviewed an internal refugee a couple of days ago who said the Taliban had executed men and boys in her village.

It may look quiet on the streets of Kabul where the news reporters are, and the Taliban spokesmen may be talking about a peaceful transition etc, but I don't think that means that these things aren't going on behind the scenes or in more remote areas.

Even if there were large scale executions going on right outside the airport I don't think our armies would do anything - governments have made it quite clear that we're abandoning the country come what may.

Agree it makes sense for the Taliban to hold off attacking the airport and our forces. As long as they don't do something to provoke a response our government will leave them to it, but if they did attack I think its fair to say the recent halt to air strikes would quickly be reversed.
 
deuse said:
The democrat and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says this

"That’s what this is: the horrible consequences of endless war and failed US policy going back to the 1980s when we backed the Taliban against the Soviets"

Just shows have thick these idiots are.
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Not defending her as I've got little time for her but the US missed its opportunity with Afghanistan back in the 80s. If they had pumped more money in to the country, built roads, schools, hospitals when the Afghans were grateful for their help against the USSR then the country could have gone a different way. Instead they pulled the plug once the Soviets were defeated.
 
Colonel_Klinck said:
You only need to read veterans pages like Funker 530 and see the majority of comments saying this was inevitable the minute the troops left. The Afghan army is a joke, it was never going to hold back the Taliban, lots simply took the pay when it was still getting paid but were ready to join the Taliban the minute they arrived and lets not forget that the Taliban isn't an invading army, its Afghans simply taking back the country from invading armies.
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There was a lot of that but it isn't the entire truth - there was 20-30K from the NDS, airforce, etc. willing and able to fight - around 70K in total who didn't just run the first chance they got but between the actions of their government and the US they never stood a chance - all the while Biden berating them for not fighting.
 
With tensions so high, an attack on US or it's allies on the ground in Kabul right now would be a VERY bad move for the Taliban. They just want NATO out the country, let's see if the commanders can control the people on the ground.
 
Hopefully this doesn't escalate out there, looks like it could be one wrong move away from turning a bit nasty.

Trying to catch up on it all from the day at the minute, how are the US admin slopey shouldering this one? Wonder how our MPs will spin this.
 
deuse said:
The democrat and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says this

"That’s what this is: the horrible consequences of endless war and failed US policy going back to the 1980s when we backed the Taliban against the Soviets"

Just shows have thick these idiots are.
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She’s correct


Opponents of Western wars and military interventions aren't full of "I told you so" triumphalism.

They're angrily despondent at believing these wars will end in catastrophe, being demonised for doing so, and having to watch history repeat itself again and again and again.

Its vile how many people are arguing that the Afghani people were too weak-willed to fight the Taliban when the obvious truth is that in 20 years we couldn't build them anything worth fighting for. You'll steadily see the politicians who long claimed the war was a huge mistake shift to "we did a great job, but these people simply cannot be helped"… when the reality is the infrastructure we set up wasn’t fuit for purpose and despite unlimited resources, there was a spectacular failure to install a government that would pay and feed the Afghan army.
 
These clueless pathetic spineless politicians will spin it and get on their slippiest suits because they have 0 accountability over anything it seems, the half brain dead will lap it up as well.
 
deuse said:
So a case of doing one thing, then saying another thing in a private conversation.
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:confused:

What are you smoking? He voted to go into Afghanistan in 2001 though from 2009 onwards there is plenty of public information that shows he wanted to get the troops out!

You seem to be a person that has an agenda and will stick to your own 'facts' no matter what evidence is pointed out to you; I'll leave you to it ...
 
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