Afghanistan - 20 years on

Apparently the Taliban thugs are already knocking on doors and murdering people connected with the afghan army or associated with UK and US forces. So much for the Taliban version 2. Anyone in the world that ever believed they would change is a moron.

Also a former US ambassador was talking about Biden's statement and how he was saying he didn't need more US soldiers killed in Afghanistan, hence his withdrawing troops. The ambassador
said that the figures he has is that 17,000 Taliban were killed and only 17 US soldiers. In other words, that Biden is a fool and could have kept his troops there with minimum loss.
 
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CaptainRAVE said:
Who knows what to believe. If they’ve got any sense they’d play ball and join the international community.
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Yeah I mean i have no idea...

One thing that seems relatively clear to me, is that they can do whatever the hell they want and say whatever the hell they want - nobody is ever going back there, nobody can hold them to account - it's just a graveyard of empires. People like Dominic Raab can proclaim that "the Taliban must behave" or whatever, but it's all totally meaningless now.

I mean, suppose next month they start butchering people, and going back to their old ways - nobody can really do anything, it's water under the bridge!
 
Has Tony not given his 2 cents on this? We have heard so much from him on a number of important issues over the last few years.

Surely he has something to say about this significant event he started.
 
Merlin5 said:
Apparently the Taliban thugs are already knocking on doors and murdering people connected with the afgan army or associated with UK and US forces. So much for the Taliban version 2. Anyone in the world that ever believed they would change is a moron.

Also a former US ambassador was talking about Biden's statement and how he was saying he didn't need more US soldiers killed in Afghanistan, hence his withdrawing troops. The ambassador
said that the figures he has is that 17,000 taliban were killed and only 17 US soldiers. In other words, that Biden is a fool and could have kept his troops there with minimum loss.
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That's 17 too much for the American voters.

Democracies just don't have the constitution for a long-term project.

Skunkworks said:
Reminds of the so-called migrant crisis of 2015. Every news channel had the same clip or two of dishevelled women and children on repeat for days. Meanwhile on the internet there were literally dozens of videos of thousands well fed, well dressed young men violently storming borders.

The media can invert reality with what they amplify and what they ignore.
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The internet can invert reality as well, often with far greater success.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if the Taliban ended up splitting. The "moderates" that want to become legit and the old guard that wants to take it backward. Then they will start the infighting.
 
Ugley_Matt said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the Taliban ended up splitting. The "moderates" that want to become legit and the old guard that wants to take it backward. Then they will start the infighting.
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Certainly seems to be some division there - how that goes down though I don't know.
 
Ugley_Matt said:
I wouldn't be surprised if the Taliban ended up splitting. The "moderates" that want to become legit and the old guard that wants to take it backward. Then they will start the infighting.
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The guy running them now, the de facto President of Afghanistan, Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of the original founders of the Taliban. I don't see there being an old guard vs. moderates thing here. I'm sure there will be radical factions, but it isn't splitting on the lines you suggest.
 
Mr Jack said:
The guy running them now, the de facto President of Afghanistan, Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of the original founders of the Taliban. I don't see there being an old guard vs. moderates thing here. I'm sure there will be radical factions, but it isn't splitting on the lines you suggest.
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A lot of the younger ones don't seem to be fully onboard with the older school Taliban ways - how that plays out I couldn't even begin to guess.
 
Maybe the new wave Taliban enjoy iPhone and Instagram too much to give it up for the old school...

All a show as the international news is on them at the min, they probably playing the game
 
OspreyO said:
Why did they not run the evacuation from Bragram instead of Kabul. They could have controlled that better.
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They left Bagram some time ago.

It is an example of how the US did things - fair enough with the security situation leaving in the dead of night without telling anyone they were pulling out makes sense - but they didn't even give the Afghans a heads up after they'd completed it leaving the base poorly secured and lots of equipment which got looted before the Afghan army regained a security perimeter. Some of the blame goes to the Afghan leadership - but the US did a lot, and/or omitted doing things, in the final weeks and months which contributed significantly to leaving the Afghan forces on the back foot when it came to even having a chance.
 
2StepSteve said:
Listening to Biden tonight, I agree with a lot he has to say. But surely the intelligence had to have been there that this would all fall apart and fast as soon as the military was pulled out?

This will be a rinse and repeat when there is another attack on US soil.
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In very simple terms you think 300k vs 75k, well armed, trained by US army, they can defend and hold for a while.

But then when you read about the corruption, army not getting paid, and the reliance on US air strikes, you think disaster waiting to happen.

Also the question why was Afghanistan not 100% conquered when the US army was there, that failure indicates the Taliban had enough about them, that they were a motivated fighting force.
 
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