Afghanistan

Torn over current events. Yes I agree with the US Administration in that they need to learn to police and defend themselves but the fact that its rapidly falling into what it was is very worrying. Had one of my kids lost their lives in this conflict I would never have been happy tonight I would be very very fucking angry at the waste of lives.
 
Now they have pulled out, how will the US ever get their hands on the 3 trillion dollars worth of rare earth metals under Helmand province ?

I suppose after you have spent a trillion dollars on the war with no end point in sight you have to cut your losses.

As much as I would like to think it was all done for the right reasons. I can't help but think someone making lots of money, whether that be defence contractors or those who would have access to the mineral wealth was a strong factor in deciding to go to war in the first place.
 
I’m sure Pakistan and the other islamic countries close by will see the threat that the Taliban pose and do all they can to rein in this terrorist, murdering, despotic regime....
 
Fode N The Hole said:
You have a point, but unfortunately any other British Prime Minister would have followed America into that conflict.

We played the most important role after the USA and incurred the second highest losses but see belligerents on the allied side below. We were always going to be involved.

Invasion (2001):
Afghanistan Northern Alliance
23px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png
United States
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United Kingdom
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Canada
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Australia
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Italy
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New Zealand[1]
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Germany[2]

Couldn't post all belligerents (post invasion) because forum software doesn't like all the flag images (max 20 images per post). Click link below.

en.m.wikipedia.org

War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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Thats why initial point was about ‘the powers that be’. It was something no one should ever have got involved in. Winless. Pointless. Futile.
All so george the cowboy could play at war.

dont mean to be aggressive over it, it just makes my blood boil.
 
city2 said:
We have stuck our oar in that’s the trouble and now left them to defend themselves whilst the yanks and all other countries together could not defeat them.
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I'd be interested to know how much of that is "couldn't" and how much was "weren't allowed to." A war that costs UK or US lives is very unpopular back home. As someone who knows fuck all about military conflict, I imagine the sort of large-scale operations required to completely cripple the Taliban would be far more costly in both military and civilian lives. But let's be honest, it's extremely likely that the imminent civil war is going to cost far more lives in total.

I also don't like this idea that Afghans are happy to live under the Taliban and women are happy to be oppressed. If that was the case, then hardline Islamists would have easily won the elections. The very fact that they have to resort to violent takeover proves that they lack the popular support necessary to actually seize power peacefully.

What's most depressing about this is how seemingly unprepared the government was for this offensive. Surely they knew it was coming? I thought the whole point of the 20 years being in the country was to prepare the government forces to be able to stand on their own two feet, and yet the Taliban are able to take back vast swathes of the country without any sort of meaningful fightback.
 
Is there any sites that actually detail the tactics they're using?

The way they're sweeping across the country seems remarkably fast.
 
crooky said:
Is there any sites that actually detail the tactics they're using?

The way they're sweeping across the country seems remarkably fast.
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News this morning basically suggesting most regional centres and leaders are just handing over territory to the Taliban in negotiations rather than fight battles that they can see are no longer winnable in the longer term.
 
Biden learnt his foreign policy under Obama .It was always unsustainable to leave Afghanistan with an an undefeated Taliban . Seeing as the Taliban have more than one foot in Pakistan the mission was flawed from the start.
The danger here is the message to allies of an increasingly insular USA that they are willing to leave them to it if they lose interest in the face of a stubborn aggressor.
The Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland , Taiwan and even NATO should all be a little uneasy today.
 
johnnytapia said:
I’m sure Pakistan and the other islamic countries close by will see the threat that the Taliban pose and do all they can to rein in this terrorist, murdering, despotic regime....
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The situation with respect to Pakistan is a bit more complex than many realize, as this excellent and revealing book review demonstrates:

www.google.co.uk

Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven – review

Anatol Lieven's clear-sighted study asks if Pakistan has lost control of its international narrative
www.google.co.uk www.google.co.uk

Here's an extract from it:

'Some of Lieven's cliché-busting seems straightforward enough. Islamist politics, he demonstrates, are extremely weak in Pakistan, even if they provoke hysterical headlines in the west. Secularists may see popular allegiance to Islam as one of the biggest problems. But, as Lieven rightly says, "the cults of the saints, and the Sufi orders and Barelvi theology which underpin them, are an immense obstacle to the spread of Taliban and sectarian extremism, and of Islamist politics in general."

From afar, a majority of Pakistanis appear fanatically anti-American while also being hopelessly infatuated with Sharia. Lieven shows that, as in Latin America, anti-Americanism in Pakistan is characterised less by racial or religious supremacism than by a political bitterness about a supposed ally that is perceived to be ruthlessly pursuing its own interests while claiming virtue for its blackest deeds. And if many Pakistanis seem to prefer Islamic or tribal legal codes, it is not because they love stoning women to death but because the modern institutions of the police and judiciary inherited from the British are shockingly corrupt, not to mention profoundly ill-suited to a poor country.'

Lieven’s lengthy and extensive study (which I read a couple of years ago and can vouch for - it's very sane and well-balanced) has been in print for a while, and so may be slightly dated by now.

But his Twitter feed isn't, and it provides links to authoritative articles of interest, as well as some caustic observations of his own about recent events. Certainly, as a professor and former journalist, who was based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he is well-placed to comment, and he would be my go-to person if I was seeking to keep tabs on what is taking place in that part of the world.

 
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