Afghanistan

[WhoMe]

The farcical comedy of 20 years and trillions of dollars amounting to fuck all vs seeing the women and young girls of a nation condemned to lives of subservience, forced marriage, rape.

[Buelligan]

[idunnosomename]

no jabba no badda.

[chveik]

i do wonder how exactly the us troops were involved in the drug trade. any trustworthy source out there?

i mean the whole narrative is so weird, hundreds of strikes and they couldn't disrupt anything, it even grew bigger.

[idunnosomename]

this is kinda worse than Vietnam isn't it? because the Saigon evacuation was 30 April '75, after the Paris Peace Accords 28 January '73 and the official end of American participation. And they didn't leave them a bunch of tech to take over?

this 20-year fuck-show collapsed in like a month and a bit, as a theocracy in exile quickly shooed out a bunch of mercenaries from understaffed rural stations, then surrounded the capital who promptly shit their pants without a shot fired

[Zetetic]

Think that probably points to how poorly reported the last 20 years have been really. It's not the case that they've sprung up from nowhere or even that they've not been negotiating US withdrawals in the last couple of years.

[Zetetic]

Maybe "poorly reported" is actually unfair in this case - it's not as though the BBC, for example, weren't reporting on the widespread resurgence in the last 2010s, it's just that it wasn't a subject that had much weight in the public consciousness by then apparently.

[idunnosomename]

oh surely they've had this offensive planned since Trump announced the withdrawal. really isn't difficult. you just scout out every regional station and work out how many lads with AK-47s you need to get them to fuck off, job done. in that video above Joe Biden is being openly disingenuous, or he's totally fucking senile, because anyone could see as soon as American heavy support to bomb any rural insurrection into cuntery they'd pull this off

[Hundhoon]

Has anyone seen pictures of the  opulence of the former British Embassy in Afghanistan  fuck me.its like the Taj Mahal 

In 1968 they sold it to Pakistan, bur yeah it looks like the most stunning property on the planet.

[bgmnts]

So do we invade Afghanistan again?

[idunnosomename]

more repeats! can't we invade somewhere else!

[imitationleather]

I know kids are all obsessed with Y2K-era stuff at the mo but recreating military invasions from that era seems a step too far.

[steve98]

Chaos at Kabul airport. God knows what these people are hoping for.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1427051609427689475

[evilcommiedictator]

Love all the accounts calling to think about the Women under the Taliban.
America should have done more about that, like say, sell more weapons to the Saudis

[mothman]

Chaos at Kabul airport. God knows what these people are hoping for.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1427051609427689475

Jesus. I went through an airport to leave a country a few days after a coup there and that was fucking terrifying enough, can't imagine what this must be like.

[Mobius]

Nothing new to add to this sad shitshow really... but just imagine the parents of kids who went off to fight and died in Afghanistan for freedom or democracy or whatever bollocks we were sold... to see it all reversed almost immediately. GOOD ONE AMERICA and england.

[Chedney Honks]

Time to start carpet bombing the place into the middle ages.

[pigamus]

Did Biden actually expect this outcome, or was he badly advised?

[bgmnts]

Presumably the plan is to pull out and watch it go to shit and then go back in under the guise of 'see we need to be there look how shit it is'.

Has to be that right?

How did we spend 20 years occupying a country, training a force and spending billions only for them to get turned over during a weekend by insurgents? I know they were probably too busy shagging children but still what the fuck? What an absolute waste of time.

[Helvetica Scenario]

https://twitter.com/BBCYaldaHakim/status/1426605800991207428

Petition calling for the decision to be reversed: http://chng.it/WvnfgVC4Gr

[Paul Calf]

Back to the previous page, this is a good point. Afghanistan has the perfect agricultural base for a totalitarian pariah state government which must fund itself based on black-market dealings.


then again:

"More land is used than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America" - wow, these utter cunts are going to be rich

So rich they'll probably make a run against Biden as the 'anti-establishment' candidate in 2024 and make headway in the conservative heartlands.

[bgmnts]

Afghanistan is quite rich in mineral resources isn't it as well? Why did the Soviets invade in the first place I assume it was something to do with resources.

[Zetetic]

I think it was more about not having a nominally allied government collapse on their doorstep, although everyone's had a look to see if there was anything valuable while they were there.

[Zetetic]

The New Taliban, open for business and not terrorists, rebrand is a bit interesting with that in mind with already some shopping around for infrastructure/investment partners.

No real reason to invade if they allow foreign direct investment and loading the government up with debt.

[finnquark]

Afghanistan is quite rich in mineral resources isn't it as well? Why did the Soviets invade in the first place I assume it was something to do with resources.

Factional disputes in Afghan Communism, the unpopularity of the party amongst the people and Brezhnev being senile.

[Retinend]

The New Taliban, open for business and not terrorists, rebrand is a bit interesting with that in mind with already some shopping around for infrastructure/investment partners.

No real reason to invade if they allow foreign direct investment and loading the government up with debt.

Are you hypothesizing or responding to breaking news?

[Zetetic]

The first sentence is an observation (and some regurgitated interpretation, I should admit) based on how hard they're briefing the "no revenge killings", "some education of women is alright", "not going to host terrorists if we're left alone" talking points. Ongoing public attempts to reach a beneficial setup with Russia and China - looks as though the latter might be making it clear that they're preparing "recognise" the new government.

No idea how much this briefing attaches to reality, but it shows a determination to make themselves basically acceptable to foreign powers.

The second sentence is hypothesising.

[robhug]

Nu-Taliban could be a real winner. The Leader appearing on prime time saturday night entertainment show Abdul's House Party where he gets gunged by the widower of a US soldier who DIA proving he's not all bad by grinning and giving the thumbs up etc

[AllisonSays]

The New Taliban, open for business and not terrorists, rebrand is a bit interesting with that in mind with already some shopping around for infrastructure/investment partners.

No real reason to invade if they allow foreign direct investment and loading the government up with debt.

I think you might be right about this. As long as the tyrannical and brutal theocracy is laced with some appeals to foreign cspital they'll be grand. Although (I read) there are sharp differences of opinion within the Taliban itself about that, so how stable it could be I don't know.

[bgmnts]

There's a clip of one of the leaders sending a message to Joe Biden and he talks about as long as the people adhere to Sharia law there wont be any problems (i'm paraphrasing) and then you get a close up of the guy wearing a massive gold watch.

Wearing gold and silk is haram in Islam.