Afghanistan

I felt very sorry for the (still fairly young) ex-soldier on TV last night. He was quite badly wounded out there and is still suffering the effects, and he lost ten mates from his company, killed. Now he is asking what was it all for, and it obviously hurt him to see a place he had fought and bled for back in the hands of the Taliban.

It's natural, I think, to want to believe that sacrifice was not in vain. If you had a son or daughter killed in a war, would you not want to believe that it was to achieve some greater good? Not that it was pointless? I can understand that.

The truth is though this war was unwinnable. We also have to face up the fact that our Army is now quite small, and not particularly well-equipped. It really isn't on to play Billy Big Bollocks around the world unless you are prepared to pay for our forces a) to be adequate for the job in terms of numbers and b) as well trained and equipped as any army in the world. Politicians in this country get off on pretending that we're some massive World Power. We ain't, and it's time to accept it and move on. We can't solve our own problems, let alone every other fucker's.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
There was a period when I was absolutely immersed in academic works and reputable journalistic writing about Islam, Islamic history, Middle Eastern politics, Iran, the 'War on Terror', ISIS etc.
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Forgot to mention that a problem with keeping on top of all this is how much you forget if you are not actually teaching any of the content.

For example, all I can now remember of Robert Fisk's mammoth 1332 page The Great War for Civilisation : The Conquest of the Middle East, is the bit in a footnote on page 84 where he describes stumbling across an Afghan tribesman outside Jalalabad who was stood on a box in order to sodomise a camel.
 
Gabriel said:
It would be more realistic for now and healthier for future generations if both the US and U.K. accepted and admitted that this represents a defeat. When you know what it is like to lose a war and accept it, you’re less likely to enter another unnecessarily.
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The involvement by the US and UK in the Middle East since Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 has been a disaster.
The fact of invading Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden who was found years later in a one bedroom bedsit with a fire stick goes to show what a major fuck up this had been with Bush and his poodle Blair.
 
I remember my late dad telling me when it first kicked off 20 years ago that "they'll never win that battle. The Russians tried and failed" he said "the terrain's just to mountainous and rough" well he was bloody right. Like an ants nest, pour a load of water down the hole the ants disappear. Stop the water and they just reappear from all the crevices.
 
DTKOAG said:
The involvement by the US and UK in the Middle East since Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 has been a disaster.
The fact of invading Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden who was found years later in a one bedroom bedsit with a fire stick goes to show what a major fuck up this had been with Bush and his poodle Blair.
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To be fair, it was hardly a roaring success beforehand either.

Some of the fantasy surrounding Bin Laden’s ‘cave complex’ was incredible, and the press were happy to publish ‘fictoids‘ that owed more to Jame Bond films than any firm reality.
 
Gabriel said:
It would be more realistic for now and healthier for future generations if both the US and U.K. accepted and admitted that this represents a defeat. When you know what it is like to lose a war and accept it, you’re less likely to enter another unnecessarily.
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The US has "lost" or completely failed to get their objectives in plenty of wars and they never learn a thing unfortunately. Wars far from home, where it's not your innocent civilians suffering don't tend to cause much change.
 
BigOscar said:
The US has "lost" or completely failed to get their objectives in plenty of wars and they never learn a thing unfortunately. Wars far from home, where it's not your innocent civilians suffering don't tend to cause much change.
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Yes, but that’s only our opinion. Until it’s recognized as so and the prevailing opinion amongst Americans, then more wars are likely.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
Forgot to mention that a problem with keeping on top of all this is how much you forget if you are not actually teaching any of the content.

For example, all I can now remember of Robert Fisk's mammoth 1332 page The Great War for Civilisation : The Conquest of the Middle East, is the bit in a footnote on page 84 where he describes stumbling across an Afghan tribesman outside Jalalabad who was stood on a box in order to sodomise a camel.
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Was he successfull?
 
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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They are doing deals with the various factions to stand aside, there isn't much actual fighting.

By doing a deal each faction preserves it's leadership structure and fighting capability, so if the new regime struggles they can exert leverage and be in a position to capitalise on any weakness.
 
“Senior military sources say the Home Office is reluctant to give many of these people asylum because of the message it will send to other refugees.” @Times

In addition to leaving behind people who helped us in the shit, we’ve even pulled visas from students who won places to study here.

‘A month is a long time in politics and Afghanistan’ @guru-Murphy

 
‘BREAKING — The Afghan president Ghani is relinquishing power and an interim government led by Taliban is formed‘ @Al Arabiya
 
And where is our government or foreign secretary on one of the biggest UK foreign policy failures in modern history?

No doubt we'll suddenly hear something urgent around COVID come out about this week to detract attentions away. Lockdown anyone?
 
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