Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

He's always been a unique guy. And in a way he's not wrong. I think where he gives too much credit is the execution.

Another factor is that he was a soldier so when a squeamish lefty liberal media person says... 13 US soldiers died when ISIS blew them up... of course that looks like a cockup when they are expecting to hear from war that no armour was destroyed and no aircraft were shot down and no soldiers died.

Withdrawing in defeat is normally the most costly thing you have to do in war and they are very lucky the Taliban didn't try to kill every one they could while they were leaving... it would have been fairly easy to set up rockets and guns to shell the crap out of that airport and make the evacuation impossible and seriously costly... for both sides.

Realizing that you're in a geopolitical f&*khole and that there is already a withdrawal in place from the previous administration and choosing to not oppose it is definitely a first for the US in the last 20 years, but hardly real courage.

I am not suggesting he is courageous.... what I think Stone is saying that the pressure on him to keep a few people there or to send more in to support the withdrawal and then leave them there or just forget what Trump negotiated and just continue like it is business as usual would be enormous... from the Pentagon... from the Deep State... from the people donating money to him personally and his political party.

The Pentagon are not stupid but publicly announcing in advance that all air power support assets will leave three months before the final pull out deadline sounds like a direct attempt at sabotage, considering the role of air support in that conflict or any conflict the US is involved in is critical... what other conflict do you know of where the US withdrew air support months before withdrawing ground forces? It is unique... even more so because the US military and in fact all of HATO depends on air power as their strongest card in any conflict.... in difficult situations they only use air power.

Agree the Taliban Admin like previous US backed admin are not inclusive . The reason it should be inclusive is to do with stability .

They control the entire country and are sweeping up the pockets of resistance... Afghanistan is the most stable it has ever been.

Give them time and they might realise that for a foreign minister a woman might be their best choice as long as they can trust her... which is going to be the biggest problem.

Demanding the Taliban allow women and gender confused people and former opposition memebers into the government structures of Afghanistan is like demanding that the Ukraine allows Russians to stand for election and that the Ukrainian people be allowed to speak Russian if they want... and that isn't going to happen either.

Neither group has a reason to do such a thing, and wont unless put under serious pressure to do so...

For those who still believe that Taliban will be pro Russia.

The Taliban are an outlawed group in Russia... Russia hosted talks between the Taliban and the US to help the peace process, but Russia and the Taliban are not friends and nor do they need to be.

Russia does not want to invade or occupy Afghanistan again... but what they do want is a stable secure country that does not smuggle opium into their country or perform cross border raids to steal and kill from Russias neighbours.

If the Taliban stop the drugs and behave like a good civil neighbour Russia wont care what they do or if they are not besties by this christmas.

The fact that the US is gone is probably an excellent start and that the CIA is not pumping drugs into Russia via that direction any more would be a huge step forwards as far as Russia is concerned.

Smart man would take a swim instead of being cooked alive in full gear at high noon

Don't let the blue sky and sunshine fool you... that might be several kms above sea level and quite chilly... they all seem wrapped up and not interested in getting wet.

I would also suspect that unless they are locals they probably never learned to swim which makes getting into deep water quite dangerous for them.

The story claims this with no evidence and just names "sources".

Not a huge surprise though is it?

The US policy is that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which leads them to get in to bed with Chechen terrorists and ISIS from every country in the ME region which they are clearly not fighting... in fact many of the ISIS in Afghanistan were probably delivered there from Syria probably with the intention that they would fight the Taliban and allow the HATO forces a bit of respite from the fighting. In Syria ISIS are supported by Turkey and essentially operate with a cease fire regarding the Kurds and US forces unless they get in their way.

With many Israeli strikes essentially the Israeli Air Force was operating as the ISIS airforce where ISIS attacks seemed to be coordinated with Israeli attacks on Syrian government forces...

I perfectly understand the sensible strategy of using the enemies of an enemy against your enemy... but that does not make either your friend and when your main enemy is no longer a threat their enemy can potentially become more of a problem than the enemy you built them up to deal with for you.

A good example would be Nazi Germany to deal with the Soviet Union... ironically Pakistan and Saudi Arabia who you helped to deal with the Soviets in Afghanistan and then they helped the terrorists who perpetrated 11/9 against you... and brutally murdered a Washington Post reporter in the Saudi embassy in Turkey...

Women and now zoo animals... boy the UK media really care about those poor women and animals all of a sudden... why don't they put their money where their mouth is and get the western public who probably care more about these animals than they care about most of the afghan people suffering these last 20 years from foreign powers imposing their own culture and ideology on them by force, to donate money and buy these animals from the Taliban?

Tell some of the Taliban leaders they will pay cash for the animals and you can bet your ass they will suddenly become the safest creatures in the region... the London zoo could send a plane to bring them to the UK easy enough...

But lets not look for solutions... lets just complain about what bastards these people we have been trying to kill for the last 20 years are and how they are so different from us.

BTW how many cows and sheep and chickens do we butcher in the west each day, but they can't throw stones at a lion?

They have weapons... if they wanted to kill any of the animals they could do so if they wanted.

Isos wrote:So now they don't need Russia's permission to use russian bases inside Russia .


Natasha Bertrand
@NatashaBertrand
"We are not seeking Russia's permission to do anything," Sec. Austin says. Says Gen. Milley last week asked for "clarification" from Russia about the offer to use Russian bases in central Asia for counterterrorism missions following US withdrawal from Afghanistan

The yanquis are a bunch of prats with the mental development of an autistic 8 year old.

"We are not seeking Russia's permission to do anything," Sec. Austin says. Says Gen. Milley last week asked for "clarification" from Russia about the offer to use Russian bases in central Asia for counterterrorism missions following US withdrawal from Afghanistan

The US created and promoted the terrorism in the region and spent lots of good money on it when it seemed like it wasn't going to continue...

Russia will give permission for real counter terrorism but the US would never use it for counter terrorism, they would use it to support their own horses in a range of different races including anti Assad forces, so any suggestion probably never even bothered to be directed at Russia because of course they are not going to allow their bases to be used purely for US interests and against Russian and everyone elses in the regions interests...

Resistance forces ambush several Taliban positions throughout Rokha district in #Panjshir resulting in heavy Taliban casualties. #Afghanistan #NRF

Yeah, that is not going to make things better.... they are not going to start treating traitors with respect, or free their women folk to do as they please.

The amusing thing is that during WWII the civilised western force of Germany.... and I am talking general army, not the nazis... would shoot Soviet women in uniform. They did not capture any, or if they did they would be killed... sometimes sexually assaulted or raped and then murdered... no trial, no protection under international law that should have been afforded to them for fighting in a uniform... just shot... because they didn't think women should be soldiers so they treated them like armed civilians... partizans... and executed them on the spot.

In that sense the Taliban are more civilised than 1940s Germans... think about that the next anniversary of the second world war when Germany is invited and Russia is not...