Afghanistan

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Oh, man. Scroll down and click on all the linked videos:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout ... l_airport/

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

Russia will start taking over security in Afghanistan within the next 100 days.

Only if it’s leadership has extremely short memories.

[huckelberry]

Biden's crystal ball failed.

Can you make this point without a metaphor?

Military and other intelligence assets appear to have exagerated the success of building an Afghan army willing to resist the Taliban. It is possible military leaders wished to emphasis the successes of operations under their direction.

[Alf'Omega]

If I suggested this event moved the probability of Republicans taking the Senate and House in 2022 higher, and upped the odds of Trump or someone like him claiming the White House in 2024 would you believe it? Would it concern you?

We are all part of an interconnected system. These things don't happen "over there" without consequences everywhere.

Biden's crystal ball failed. The Taliban are able to make a wreck out of the withdrawal plan. People will experience a wish to blame somebody.

It certainly isn't a good look for Biden after recently saying it was "highly unlikely" the Taliban would be taking over the entire country so quickly. Of course, I think most of us read right through that as mere political talk. At the end of the day, I cannot say I'm surprised by anything except maybe the fact that we actually made an agreement with the Taliban that they'd not interfere with our withdrawal. The US troops being sent there are just to facilitate the process I believe, and that action is based more on fears of what could happen as opposed to what's actually happened. Meaning, have any Americans there been kidnapped or threatened by the Taliban in any way? From what I've read, the Taliban is engaged in diplomacy with the existing government to ensure a "peaceful" takeover.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group is in talks with the Afghan government "for a peaceful surrender" of Kabul, after insurgents entered the capital's outskirts. "The Islamic Emirate instructs all its forces to stand at the gates of Kabul, not to try to enter the city," a spokesman for the Taliban tweeted.

The Taliban asked Afghan civilians to remain in their country and not leave out of fear. The order came as Kabul residents reported seeing insurgents peacefully enter some of Kabul's outer suburbs, triggering panic and fear in the population. “No one's life, property and dignity will be harmed and the lives of the citizens of Kabul will not be at risk," the Taliban said, reported Reuters. The Afghan Presidential Palace tweeted on Sunday that Afghan security forces had control of Kabul even though firing occurred at a number of places in the capital.

I think at this point we should just hope that the current Taliban has learned some lessons and isn't going to be identical to the Al Qaeda of 1998 when they were planning attacks on the US.

[Alf'Omega]

Can you make this point without a metaphor?

Military and other intelligence assets appear to have exagerated the success of building an Afghan army willing to resist the Taliban. It is possible military leaders wished to emphasis the successes of operations under their direction.

Agreed. We were led to believe the Taliban was for the most part gone, or at the very least irrelevant. In reality they've been hiding in the mountains awaiting our departure, and apparently they've been successfully recruiting new members from the Afghan population.

[Alf'Omega]

Just saw that at least seven people were killed as they clung to a military plane that was taking off.

[Alf'Omega]

Republicans delete webpage celebrating Trump’s deal with Taliban

Page touting former president’s ‘historic peace agreement’ disappeared over the weekend

[Alf'Omega]

Agreed. We were led to believe the Taliban was for the most part gone, or at the very least irrelevant. In reality they've been hiding in the mountains awaiting our departure, and apparently they've been successfully recruiting new members from the Afghan population.

I am not aware of anyone that thought the Taliban was gone. I am sure those people are out there, I just do not know them. Hell, there are people that still think that Kinko's exists. Seriously though, who thought the Taliban was, for the most part, gone? And they thought this based on what?

As Res, Doc Cam and others have pointed out, that conclusion cannot be made based on facts or history. That tribal crap in Afghanistan has now kicked both Cold War armies' asses. This time though we got egg on our smug face.

Just the impression left by the media over the years, based on fewer and fewer reported instances of military clashes that led to deaths. For the first decade of the war in Afghanistan we were constantly reading how one Al Qaeda operative after another was killed after such and such attacks on our troops resulted in retaliation. Those clashes with the Taliban diminished significantly during the second decade of the war, and so the impression offered up by the media and the political talking heads who wanted to put this war behind us, was that our military had already decimated their ability enough so as to make their presence irrelevant.

[Alf'Omega]

Republicans delete webpage celebrating Trump’s deal with Taliban

Page touting former president’s ‘historic peace agreement’ disappeared over the weekend

So this is Trump's fault? Or the fault of Republicans?

I am not sure what we are laughing at here.

Obviously I'm laughing that Republicans are so quickly trying to distance themselves from something they were embracing as a huge victory just a few years ago.

What's happened in Afghanistan recently is no one's fault, but just an inevitable consequence of the war. Removing our troops entirely had to happen at some point, and everyone in office had kicked that ball down the field instead of dealing with it head on because they knew it'd be a mess for them politically. Remember Trump promised to remove all troops by Christmas 2020, but obviously that didn't happen. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pent ... christmas/

[Jersey Girl]

Just saw that at least seven people were killed as they clung to a military plane that was taking off.

I saw the same on CNN. It is heart breaking. I spent a good deal of time last night reading about Afghanistan. I still don't know that I fully understand the geopolitical history of the region. I do think I have a handle on what's going on right now and it seems to me that the same or similar scenario would have taken place if Trump had won the election and followed through on his agreement with the Taliban.

As an aside. We had another poster register here under a similar screen name. I thought it was you. In light of that, would you show me some identification? One way to do that without derailing this thread would be for you to simply scan the first few pages of this very thread and tell me the name of the poster who was on our old board when we were. Just one name and that'll do it for me.