Fate of Afghanistan, Taliban resurgence

[uuuhname]

yeah I don't think I've seen so much gaslighting from the MSM ever before in my life, and that's saying something.

[Edge-]

Well... According to this gem in The Hill

Hill op-ed section...literally never. They've hosted Sebastian fucking Gorka, their op-ed section is a dumpster fire.

[PhaelixWW]

Well... According to this gem in The Hill... Nuclear holocaust is neigh upon us just because we no longer have an active war ongoing.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-ho...to-nuclear-war

That's an opinion piece, and the author just happened to have worked in both the Nixon and Ford GoP White House administrations.

His other recent opinion pieces include:

• Biden is steering America to lose asymmetric wars
• Biden’s foreign policy fiascos demand immediate changes
• Biden is losing the ‘geopolitical Olympics’
• Biden abandons the poor, middle class, and national security
• Republicans rejoice: Federal Tax Reform may set off California Taxpayer Revolt
• The Grinch Steals Joe Biden’s Christmas
• Joe Biden’s Looming Disaster
• Biden Victory: Bonfire of the Insanities
• Joe Biden’s Dangerous, Top Secret “Foreign Policy”
• Biden Strikes Out with Harris, the least-worst of his choices
• Buy the Dip: Bet on Trump
• America’s Post-Pandemic Political Shift to the Right
• Trump’s Namaste Magic in India Eludes American Media
• Trump is the 20/20 Vision for 2020
• Impeachment Just Confirms Trump’s Leadership
• Trump is Right to Shake Up NATO
• Trump’s Unimpeachable Foreign Policy
• Trump’s winning weapon: Time
• Trump’s foreign policy magic act
• The strange greatness of Donald Trump

That's just from the last two years or so; the list just goes on and on.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sensing a wee bit of a bias here. And there's no both-sides here; you can see the shift once Biden is elected. We go from articles praising Trump to articles maligning Biden.

[Edge-]

[*]Biden is steering America to lose asymmetric wars

This one gets me so much because like...we've lost most of the asymmetric wars we've fought. That's how asymmetry of stakes generally works, they have the homefield advantage and all the emotional investment while the "invaders" (the US) are remarkably not emotionally invested in the fight at all.

Hill's op-eds are truly garbage, even if they've ejected John Solomon and his Ukraine conspiracies.

[arandomuser]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/08/31/p...mpression=true

this is like super politically incorrect
but the taliban has been pretty good on keeping their word
all of the outrage from "noo you cant give taliban names of people to escort out" and " its a kill list for the taliban to murder americans!"
and the taliban actually does it, lol. I will admit i am genuinely suprised by the taliban doing some ok things like executing the leader if isis-k. Are they good people?absolutely not they will treat woman/gays like shit BUT so does our top allies in the region and what matters is theyve known not to attack any westerners which is in their own self interest, and with this 20 year pointless war out of the way we can focus on bigger issues

[PhaelixWW]

This one gets me so much because like...we've lost most of the asymmetric wars we've fought.

And, I mean, he worked in the White House administration during the Vietnam War, sooooo...

[Breccia]

"Impeachment Just Confirms Trump’s Leadership"

What the fuck?

On topic: say what you want about TheHill OP EDs, they do have both sides at least. This one's by a law professor and raises some points we've discussed here.

A lot of it is "well what choice did he have left after W, Obama and Trump?" which we've gone over plenty. There's also this:

Given the ubiquity of images of mayhem and carnage at the airport and condemnation of Biden on virtually all media and social media outlets, it is not surprising that less than one-third of Americans currently support his handling of Afghanistan. That said, if history is a guide, the political damage to Biden may not last. In 1975, for example, following the disastrous evacuation of Saigon, President Gerald Ford’s approval actually ticked up. A few months later, a significant majority of Americans credited getting the United States out of Vietnam as Ford’s greatest accomplishment.

It’s worth noting that more than 60 percent of Americans approved of Biden’s decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. That percentage is not likely to go down. And it is possible, it seems to me, that as time passes, a majority of Americans may conclude that despite the grievous loss of 13 American lives, ending America’s longest war, completing the largest non-combatant evacuation in U.S. history in so short a time, and under such dangerous conditions, is evidence of competence and compassion.

Ford, of course, was not facing a vindictive rabid fanbase intent on rewriting history (to the point of worshipping Confederate traitors) but the overall idea is still out there. By 2024, the US might have forgiven the way we left (and might remember that ISIS set off that bomb and put the blame where it belongs) and remember that we left.

I'm less convinced, but a lot can happen by 2024.

[jonnysensible]

Taliban are going to have massive governance issues. Leaders in each province trying to chart separate courses while being infiltrated with foreign jihadists.

Saw them saying they couldn't tell ISISK and Talibs apart in Kabul. Its going to be no milk and honey for them.

Still they will be high for a while yet considering they made America surrender and flee.

[Endus]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/08/31/p...mpression=true

this is like super politically incorrect
but the taliban has been pretty good on keeping their word
all of the outrage from "noo you cant give taliban names of people to escort out" and " its a kill list for the taliban to murder americans!"
and the taliban actually does it, lol. I will admit i am genuinely suprised by the taliban doing some ok things like executing the leader if isis-k. Are they good people?absolutely not they will treat woman/gays like shit BUT so does our top allies in the region and what matters is theyve known not to attack any westerners which is in their own self interest, and with this 20 year pointless war out of the way we can focus on bigger issues

Like, even when people were chanting "KILL LIST", I was thinking "why the fuck would the Taliban kill anyone on those lists?" They do so, they potentially give the USA reason to come back, and any others on the list scatter. They don't kill those on the list, but let them through as requested, and the USA gets them half the world away from Afghanistan where they can no longer be relevant to the Taliban and their operations in any way, which is as good as killing them, in practical terms.

Sure, there was a possibility they'd be idiots about it, but as it turns out, they're not that stupid.

Unlike everyone who claimed this was a "kill list", who probably need to wear a bib to dinner every night.

[Easo]

Shalcker, stop trying to muddy the watters. It already is annoying reading all the gloating by Russia and China, there is a lot of bullshit included, like those dogs.

Watching Mike Pompeo try to pretend he had nothing to do with all of this is delightful, tho.

Whole "team" are smartassing now, washing their hands and pointing fingers.
We know that Trump voters tend to forget and forgive everything, which is why I dislike this.

It should hurt Trump more, considering that dumbass brokered the deal. So, I don't know why you are blaming Biden.

Should I laugh or cry? Dude... When have the voters ever, anywhere, remembered anything more than a year ago?

The withdrawal was done under Biden's orders, he easily can be blamed. At the very minimum- for having really bad advisors who couldn't predict that it would take less than 2 weeks.

Yeah, fuck Bush voters.

Totally missing the point. Though we can add them too, why the hell not...

this my friends, is what we call the anger stage of grief.

*eyeroll*

He continually talks about following his military advisors regarding Kabul, Bagram, and the evacuation plans. I don't think he gets to pass this on to incompetent lieutenants unless he's prepared to ask one or two of them to leave their posts.

Well following military advisers is the way to do it, because after all he's a civilian and not really privvy to how this is supposed to be done.

I do think said military leaders and advisers fucked it up and some of them will need to put their keys on the table for this eventually.

If USA military/intelligence departments are worth their salt there should be house cleaning going on as of right now.

Taliban are going to have massive governance issues. Leaders in each province trying to chart separate courses while being infiltrated with foreign jihadists.

Saw them saying they couldn't tell ISISK and Talibs apart in Kabul. Its going to be no milk and honey for them.

Still they will be high for a while yet considering they made America surrender and flee.

It always has been easier to gain the power than hold onto it. IF they are smart (they did some realpolitik this time after all) they will let the tensions cool a bit before tightening the screws, though the reports coming in are saying that they generally are the same ones from 20 years ago, facade will drop sooner or later.

[uuuhname]

*eyeroll*

quick question, are you mad at people voting for the guy who didn't run on leaving Afghanistan or for not voting for the guy who did? kinda confusing.

[tehdang]

If USA military/intelligence departments are worth their salt there should be house cleaning going on as of right now.

The intelligence sphere is already covering their ass. They leaked to NYT and WaPo that they’d produced estimates covering a rapid failure of the Afghan army and fall of Kabul. The implication was that Biden was well informed and chose to disregard it.

They are overseen by civilian leadership, ultimately the President. If he doesn’t see to the firings, he tacitly agrees that he overruled any existing concerns and advice and made the decisions on his own authority, which is his right.

The pullout was a debacle and is a debacle. And the messaging on why that happened flips between the military/intelligence trying to sell the idea that it was always going to be this messy, and that military/intelligence couldn’t possibly have foreseen this contingency and planned for it.

[Orange Joe]

Mother of slain Marine suspended from Instagram after posts critical of Biden

https://thepostmillennial.com/mother...critical-biden

Oooof now I'm not sure if US government is less totalitarian than Taliban

Since when did the US government control Instagram?

[Biglog]

There was very little complaining after 2016 when Hillary lost, and yet Trump supporters were very quick to pounce on any criticism of Trump's often radical moves as being 'sore losers'. Fast forward 4 years and conservatives have shown themselves to be 100x more sensitive and soft about being upset about decisions made by the winning President. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was decided at Doha by Trump. If you disagree with the decision to withdrawal, just be aware you disagree with Trump's decision. That was agreed to, signed, and scheduled by Trump and Pompeo a year ago. He was just going to wait until his 2nd term to do it since he knew it might be a clusterf*, which it was. A nice landmine set by Trump for Biden. When you have a selfish President like Trump where causing problems for your political enemies takes priority over what's good for the country, that's what you get. That is precisely why he was the worst President in US history. We have never had a President that intentionally did not send federal assistance to states as punishment because he did not win the state in the election. He had quotes while campaigning that "If I don't win this state I'm never coming back". That's how he treated red states. He didn't even visit blue states.

There is no winning argument for staying in Afghanistan. Spend more lives and US dollars on a country where the majority supported the Taliban over the US supported Afghan government? 20 years did not change that. Conservatives saw the money given to the Afghan military was embezzled by the generals who lived like kings. Fiscal responsibility and supporting the military used to be one of the cornerstones of conservatism.

But in today's politics of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson effectively leading the GOP, they need to have nightly content for their show to pander to the cultish base and bashing Biden for any decision he makes is the ratings playbook. Conservative viewers are being fed hate like cattle at the trough for ratings numbers. There are no apologies after conservative host claims are proven untrue or hosts are caught in lies. There is no fact checking. It's all about agenda rather than reporting events, so that is why they are happy to push debunked reports or even straight-up lie since the lies generate hate. Laura Ingraham just got caught in a lie last week, no apology. It even just happened today that conservative hosts pushed a report of a Taliban helicopter flying with a person that was dead hung under it. That is to appeal to the base that for some reason thinks WE handed equipment to the Taliban, which is lie #1. Lie #2 is that the full video it turned out the person under the helicopter was simply in a harness, also Taliban, and not harmed in any way. But they used a fuzzy still image intentionally in order to push a lie. They do this by cropping pictures to use them out of context often too.

I would just suggest periodically reviewing the sources of info and where you are getting them. Are they credible? Have they been frequently proven wrong or to be *intentionally* misleading viewers. Every newspaper or news outlet occasionally puts out minor corrections that an editor missed. But if the news you get every day in and out is not from a credible source that has a long-term reputable standing in reporting news, has a clear political agenda behind it, and/or the reports they make end up being untrue or debunked on an almost daily basis, etc. then it might be time to find a better news outlet. I've seen people compare a minor spelling correction from the New York Times to OAN pushing false voting machine conspiracies, like they are comparable. That's when you know they are so knee deep in being programmed that they are no longer even thinking for themselves.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1432541307952680965

In which Ted Cruz, a man who fled his state during a cold snap and blamed his teenage daughters as an excuse, apparently has some thoughts on Americans "abandoning" Americans.

A topic which is is intimately familiar with.

[Breccia]

A topic which is is intimately familiar with.

Yeah, the GOP is desperately trying to make "we left Afghanistan" turn into "the way we left Afghanistan is the worst thing since they canceled Firefly". Again, I would love to hear his defense as to why Trump didn't do this like he promised.

[Milchshake]

Watching Richard Engel publicly go through "withdrawal" symptoms on twitter is a thing.

[Sterling Archer]

Republican Congressman attempted to enter Afghanistan with load of cash to evacuate five Americans

Oklahoma Republican Congressman Markwayne Mullin twice tried to travel to Afghanistan with a large amount of cash in an attempt to rescue five Americans in Afghanistan but was rebuffed by an ambassador and the Pentagon, the Washington Post reports.

A former professional mixed-martial arts fighter, Mullin contacted the US embassy in Tajikistan on Monday saying he was in the Georgian capital of Tblisi with a large pile of cash. He wanted the embassy staff to help him violate Georgian law to get the cash into the nation; from there, he said, he was going to hire a helicopter to get a woman and four children out of Afghanistan. The embassy staff refused his request.

One week earlier, Mullin was in Greece, where he demanded the Pentagon give him permission to fly to Afghanistan. The Pentagon refused his request, which came after the unauthorized showboating trip to Kabul by Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich).

Hopefully he doesn't end up as the next Sidney Reilly.

And on a completely unrelated note, I seem to be missing a team of writers.

[Edge-]

Republican Congressman attempted to enter Afghanistan with load of cash to evacuate five Americans


Hopefully he doesn't end up as the next Sidney Reilly.

And on a completely unrelated note, I seem to be missing a team of writers.

Man, everyone seems to think they're the main character nowadays.

[ati87]

The intelligence sphere is already covering their ass. They leaked to NYT and WaPo that they’d produced estimates covering a rapid failure of the Afghan army and fall of Kabul. The implication was that Biden was well informed and chose to disregard it.

They are overseen by civilian leadership, ultimately the President. If he doesn’t see to the firings, he tacitly agrees that he overruled any existing concerns and advice and made the decisions on his own authority, which is his right.

The pullout was a debacle and is a debacle. And the messaging on why that happened flips between the military/intelligence trying to sell the idea that it was always going to be this messy, and that military/intelligence couldn’t possibly have foreseen this contingency and planned for it.

The failure of Afghanistan is a collective failure of the US and major alias (UK) who never really tried to build a sovereign country who could function on it's own.

The US spend 20years building a country that they could control, so they paid warlords and drug producers to achieve this. And yea, when you build a corrupt country don't be surprised that things fall apart the moment you aren't paying off those warlords.