Afghanistan - 20 years on

Taliban 'carrying out highly organised manhunt'
The Taliban are carrying out a highly-organised door-to-door hunt for people on their wanted list, says the head of the group providing intelligence to the UN.

"What we have seen is that the Taliban, in advance of moving into all major cities in Afghanistan, not just Kabul, is that they have a more advanced intelligence system," Christian Nellemann, of the Norwegian Centre for Global Analyses, told the BBC.

"They have lists of individuals and even within the very first hours of moving into Kabul they began a search of former government employees - especially in intelligence services and the special forces units."

He said that, not only could this lead to mass executions, but also a "mass revealing of our methods and the intelligence networks that the West has provided. So this could undermine severely a number of our Western intelligence services."

As we reported earlier, the Norwegian Centre for Global Analyses’ report to the UN also said the Taliban are recruiting new informer networks to collaborate with their regime.
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I wonder how that nob head of the armed forces feels now about his inclusionary not our enemy Taliban
 
Minusorange said:
I wonder how that nob head of the armed forces feels now about his inclusionary not our enemy Taliban
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Not really a laughing matter but I had to chuckle seeing one of these Taliban manhunts with the guy with an RPG aimed at the suspects and other Taliban at close range.
 
jokerguv said:
Taliban executed ISIS leader one day after Afghanistan conquest

Couldn't help but notice the picture in that article with the guy on the left holding the gun in an awkward way and it seems to be pointed towards the chairperson. Clearly a stark difference from the 2 below.

Maybe there's more to the argument that the Taliban 2.0 are a mix of "bandits" with proper trained soldiers integrated within.
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To quote (paraphrasing mind you) a former Squaddie workmate of mine, with 3 tours and the scars to show it under his belt, The problem was we were training the Army but unfortunately knew that a fair percentage of them were Taliban who were there for the free lessons, but, you can't prove it nor indeed do anything about it, they went along, they got the best in training, and have now simply taken off their Army uniform and taken their knowledge back to the boys...., untrained they kicked the U.S.S.R. out, now we have trained them, they know damn well we won't be back.

And thats the take of a proud ex soldier who served out there, which I find scary to think about.
 
Scania said:
To quote (paraphrasing mind you) a former Squaddie workmate of mine, with 3 tours and the scars to show it under his belt, The problem was we were training the Army but unfortunately knew that a fair percentage of them were Taliban who were there for the free lessons, but, you can't prove it nor indeed do anything about it, they went along, they got the best in training, and have now simply taken off their Army uniform and taken their knowledge back to the boys...., untrained they kicked the U.S.S.R. out, now we have trained them, they know damn well we won't be back.

And thats the take of a proud ex soldier who served out there, which I find scary to think about.
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They've been getting training all over - including Pakistan. Probably half of those trained into the Afghan army either were Taliban or support the Taliban.

I dunno if this is any better than the alternative but the likely alternative was a long protracted civil war with the US and UK having to do significant support for the government forces.
 
Uther said:
I do (probably naively) wonder if we'd be better off trying to get on with them, rather than turn them into a pariah country as we no doubt will.
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Even under this guise, and the hardline elements are still there, the Taliban do not represent something we should in any way encourage or support by getting on with them IMO. That isn't to say we should point blank refuse to acknowledge them ever if they do actually make an attempt to bring the country up to a more civilised level.
 
The west doesn’t care enough to go in again. Especially now our leaders have finally realised the majority support the taliban. If terrorism grows there and strikes the west we’ll just use drones or larger.

I feel most sorry for people like my school friend who served there, ended up traumatised by the things he saw and committed suicide when he returned. ******* waste. We never should have gotten involved.
 
Rroff said:
Not really a laughing matter but I had to chuckle seeing one of these Taliban manhunts with the guy with an RPG aimed at the suspects and other Taliban at close range.
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If it's the images I think then at least he had the correct warhead. Drives me mad when watching combat footage in dusty places and you see them firing HEAT warheads at personal.
 
Robbo said:
Biden not covering himself in glory with these shambolic interviews, although I suspect his memory issues aren't his fault.
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He seems quite upset and not liking being questioned. Couple of times he even seems to struggle to remember whether the Taliban or Afghan forces were on our side.

EDIT: That last bit it was like he is being kept out of the loop of decision making and someone else is actually running the show :s

Malevolence said:
If it's the images I think then at least he had the correct warhead. Drives me mad when watching combat footage in dusty places and you see them firing HEAT warheads at personal.
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To be fair they might not always have the luxury of choice of warhead. Though I wouldn't personally know the difference without looking it up.
 
"Pentagon pressed on why British paratroopers leaving Kabul airport to rescue citizens but Americans aren't"

"
At a press briefing, Fox News' Jennifer Griffin said: "General Taylor, British paratroopers are leaving the airport, going into Kabul to rescue and evacuate some of their citizens who are trapped [and] can't get to the airport because of the Taliban."

"Why isn't the U.S. doing that?" she asked."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-british-paratroopers-afghanistan-kabul-airport

Biden is in his bunker and has took all public remarks, press briefings and press conferences off his schedule.
The guy has lost the plot and he knows it.
 
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