Afghanistan - 20 years on

Soldato
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The taliban have already agreed to not fire at the US troops going back to last year as part of the withdrawal package.

Do you think they ate stupid enough to start lighting up the airport on us diplomats etc and force the US to counter attack them?

Exactly. They've swanned back in with zero issues so why poke the bear now?
 
Soldato
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Where are the left's SJWs to protest against the patriarchy, the fact that Kabul Pride will not go ahead next year, millions of Afghan women and children will be oppressed, treated as servants, raped at will, punished by lashings and beheadings and to encourage the Taliban to respect people's "pronouns"?!

They are demanding we pay the Talian for damaging the country
 
Soldato
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trump started the withdrawal, he said so himself:


But either way, this outcome was going to happen sooner or later.
Trump may have started it and may be crowing that Biden couldn't stop it, but that's just not true. Biden could have run the withdrawal very differently if he wanted, or chosen an alternative path.

The Doha deal was rubbish and gave the Taliban legitimacy it shouldn't have had, and in true US foreign policy tradition ignored the actual government of the people it concerned. However, even considering the deal I think it could well be argued that the Taliban haven't really stuck to it and therefore US shouldn't necessarily have been bound by the terms.

Even if the government was always going to fall to the Taliban (which I'm not sure is actually the case had a different path been taken), the withdrawal could have been managed in a much more organised way which would have allowed all those eligible the chance to leave the country.
 

B&W

B&W

Soldato
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Check out Suhail Shaheen Twitter account, official spokesman of Taliban.

A Shia march was held in Kabul today, it was allowed none were harmed. Girls also were pictured going to school, can't find it now but this goes with what the Taliban were saying.

The country is sick of war, most Talibans are pretty young. a lot of people across the Islamic world have congratulated them, it's there time to proove themselves better then they were before. Would be the wise thing to do.
 
Soldato
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Check out Suhail Shaheen Twitter account, official spokesman of Taliban.

A Shia march was held in Kabul today, it was allowed none were harmed. Girls also were pictured going to school, can't find it now but this goes with what the Taliban were saying.

The country is sick of war, most Talibans are pretty young. a lot of people across the Islamic world have congratulated them, it's there time to proove themselves better then they were before. Would be the wise thing to do.

Sorry, don't buy it
 
Soldato
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Check out Suhail Shaheen Twitter account, official spokesman of Taliban.

A Shia march was held in Kabul today, it was allowed none were harmed. Girls also were pictured going to school, can't find it now but this goes with what the Taliban were saying.

The country is sick of war, most Talibans are pretty young. a lot of people across the Islamic world have congratulated them, it's there time to proove themselves better then they were before. Would be the wise thing to do.
We've had 20 years of nation building which failed in a week.

We absolutely should let the nation build itself, whilst offering support to those displaced by the upheaval. Diplomacy will almost certainly be more successful than what we've just witnessed.
 
Soldato
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The Taliban, a brutal, totalitarian Islamist terrorist organisation that treats women worse than dirt and murders gays, are on Twitter yet Trump, an idiot, but a legitimately elected idiot, is banned. That says a lot.
 
Soldato
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We could have sustained a presence in Kabul easily. This is political only. Joe Public hasn't heard a peep from Afg in years.

And do what? As soon as the Taliban start doing something the troops don't like what do they do? How long before the soldiers start getting abused and then attacked? It would just take one incident to kick it off, a few people on each side get shot and then we right back in it. We are either fully in or fully out. Its time to get fully out. If they request our help that is a different matter. Can't see it happening though.
 
Soldato
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Check out Suhail Shaheen Twitter account, official spokesman of Taliban.

A Shia march was held in Kabul today, it was allowed none were harmed. Girls also were pictured going to school, can't find it now but this goes with what the Taliban were saying.

The country is sick of war, most Talibans are pretty young. a lot of people across the Islamic world have congratulated them, it's there time to proove themselves better then they were before. Would be the wise thing to do.
As nice as it would be if the current Taliban have changed their ways, it seems more likely that this is just a front for social media. What we've heard about recent activities in areas they already controlled seems to indicate they haven't really changed that much. And if they were as progressive as they make out then why pursue a bloody military campaign for years rather than try peaceful political activism?

Time will tell I suppose
 
Soldato
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Check out Suhail Shaheen Twitter account, official spokesman of Taliban.

A Shia march was held in Kabul today, it was allowed none were harmed. Girls also were pictured going to school, can't find it now but this goes with what the Taliban were saying.

The country is sick of war, most Talibans are pretty young. a lot of people across the Islamic world have congratulated them, it's there time to proove themselves better then they were before. Would be the wise thing to do.

Will they be the new friendly taliban 2.0 when reinforcements arrive. Interviewed on ITV news one of the commanders said they expect 10,000 reinforcements to arrive in kabul.
 
Soldato
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And if they were as progressive as they make out then why pursue a bloody military campaign for years rather than try peaceful political activism?
I genuinely don't believe there would have been a peaceful exit strategy for the Taliban when it comes to dealing with the US war machine. Can you envisage it?

Not that I'm suggesting they were searching for one, through.
 

B&W

B&W

Soldato
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We've had 20 years of nation building which failed in a week.

We absolutely should let the nation build itself, whilst offering support to those displaced by the upheaval. Diplomacy will almost certainly be more successful than what we've just witnessed.

Yes. The deal with the USA was not to attack American troops and they stuck by that deal.

People seem to forget that ISIS khurasan (Afghan Isis) is opposed to Taliban and they have been killing each other over the years.
 

B&W

B&W

Soldato
Joined
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Birmingham
As nice as it would be if the current Taliban have changed their ways, it seems more likely that this is just a front for social media. What we've heard about recent activities in areas they already controlled seems to indicate they haven't really changed that much. And if they were as progressive as they make out then why pursue a bloody military campaign for years rather than try peaceful political activism?

Time will tell I suppose

Depends if all there members are listening, I heard there will be a murder trial for the guys that killed that comedian. Even if they don't find them guilty it sends a good message.
 
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