US, NATO Outta Afghanistan 2021

[Remius]

If there is anything in Bidens favor it's that this is happening now. Lots of time for things to happen between now and next election.

Also, he's old. Just saying.

True. But the mid terms are coming and he has other things that are derailing.

August turns into a month of crises as Biden stares down a pivotal moment in his presidency

President Joe Biden is facing multiple August crises with Afghanistan on the verge of collapse, Covid-19 patients overwhelming hospitals in some states, persistent inflation concerns, an uncertain path forward for his sweeping infrastructure agenda and surging attempted border crossings.

www.cnn.com

 

[Altair]

True. But the mid terms are coming and he has other things that are derailing.

August turns into a month of crises as Biden stares down a pivotal moment in his presidency

President Joe Biden is facing multiple August crises with Afghanistan on the verge of collapse, Covid-19 patients overwhelming hospitals in some states, persistent inflation concerns, an uncertain path forward for his sweeping infrastructure agenda and surging attempted border crossings.

www.cnn.com

This is fair. I would say more, but I think the least the Afghans deserve now is a thread not derailed by American (OR CANADIAN)politics.

 

[suffolkowner]

Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China

After the fall of Kabul, what’s next for Afghanistan? | The Strategist

After their rapid victory in Afghanistan, do the Taliban have the capacity to govern and keep unified control? David Kilcullen, professor of international and political studies at the Australian Defence Force Academy, says the Taliban ...

www.aspistrategist.org.au

Counting on the Pashtuns to counter the Uyghur's is a strategy that I hope backfires on China just like Pakistan riling up Afghanistans Pashtuns while hoping their own stay under control looks dangerous too me as well

Afghanistan and Pakistan Ethnic Groups

An ethnolinguistic map of showing different language and cultural groups across Afghanistan and Pakistan.

www.nationalgeographic.org

 

[Brad Sallows]

Also, as FJAG said, WTF did you expect Biden to do once Trump signed the agreement?

Spent his first few weeks overturning almost everything else Trump did. Why not this? What made Trump's agreement more inviolable than, for example, Obama's deal with Iran?

How should Biden roll back the last two decades and fix the situation over the weekend?

He's the president of the US. So far, he's waited a few days, then given a 10 minute speech and gone back to his vacation. Not sure how the preceding two decades required him (or more likely, his close staff) to set such a f*ck up in motion.

Gonna enjoy watching some people try and put lipstick on this. Most seem to be trying to pretend that the decision to leave, and the decision to leave in disorder, all had to be one package.

 

[dapaterson]

For those of us of a certain age, the "Afghan Girl" was a defining image of the 1980s in Afghanistan. Years later, the photographer who took the original picture found her. Her answer to a simple question reveals some of the challenge the west faced.

Had she ever felt safe?

"No. But life under the Taliban was better. At least there was peace and order."

A Life Revealed - National Geographic Magazine

Seventeen years after she stared out from the cover of National Geographic, a former Afghan refugee comes face-to-face with the world once more.

web.archive.org

 

[Brad Sallows]

I suppose she experienced it differently than some.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I read in an interview with her that the National Geographic photographer pretty much forced her to show her face for the picture despite her objections and fears that she would get in trouble for showing her face.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Short & sweet explaining a quick Taliban victory/ANA defeat, via an academic/think tanker in Singapore:

• "... widespread corruption in Afghanistan’s defence and interior ministries ...
• ... the embezzlement and corruption undermined morale within the ranks of the army...
• ... no ideological cohesion within the army or a sense of national duty and belonging
• continuous political interference and reshuffling of office holders as high as interior and defence ministers, governors and police chiefs also affected the ANDSF’s battlefield performance ...
• ... the Taliban’s smart military strategy of taking control of major border crossings, main highways and besieging the big cities crippled Kabul’s ability to send reinforcements and supplies ...
• ... despite receiving years of training and billions of dollars worth of equipment, the ANDSF never developed the capacity to stand on its own ..."

 

[MilEME09]

Honestly we need to stop forcing our brand of democracy on everyone. Focus more on the human rights, etc... Afghanistan corruption doomed them as much as it screwed Ukraine in 2014, even more so actually. It is also a country of no national unity or identity. I could throw ideas and what it's all day but they failed them selves because we essentially turned a blind eye to a hell of a lot of corruption.

 

[Kilted]

I read in an interview with her that the National Geographic photographer pretty much forced her to show her face for the picture despite her objections and fears that she would get in trouble for showing her face.

I guess it happens from time to time.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I guess it happens from time to time.

Looks like me dealing with problems at work.

 

[Kirkhill]

The fall of Kabul is a major disaster.

...It is a major disaster, in particular, for the tens of thousands of Afghans who helped Western journalists and diplomats in an attempt to build a better country,...

So Much for a ‘Foreign Policy for the Middle Class’

And thereby hangs a tale

Western journalists ... attempt to build a better country

The Bully Pulpit indeed.


And they wonder why their congregations are quitting them.

 

[Jarnhamar]

https://preview.redd.it/j042gae4zxh71.gif?format=mp4&s=e7c855d729eb0095afe53bcfa408fef784aabcc7

Women allegedly protesting in Afghanistan

 

[The Bread Guy]

https://preview.redd.it/j042gae4zxh71.gif?format=mp4&s=e7c855d729eb0095afe53bcfa408fef784aabcc7

Women allegedly protesting in Afghanistan

For now ...

 

[OldSolduer]

For now ...

Til the “journalists “ all depart. Fuck

 

[The Bread Guy]

Til the “journalists “ all depart. Fuck

Until people outside AFG stop G'ing AF #NextShinyThing

 

[OldSolduer]

Until people outside AFG stop G'ing AF #NextShinyThing

Which is in about five days.

 

[Infanteer]

Interesting, and expected if true.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

https://preview.redd.it/j042gae4zxh71.gif?format=mp4&s=e7c855d729eb0095afe53bcfa408fef784aabcc7

Women allegedly protesting in Afghanistan

While the leadership appears to be smarter than last time, a lot of their rank and file are uneducated farm boys, who won't have much patience for "uppity city girls" being immoral and I doubt the leadership can contain their stupidity for long enough to make it look like a peaceful transfer.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Hopefully they try flying them after reading the instruction book The Taliban Air Force - An Inventory Assessment