Fate of Afghanistan, Taliban resurgence

[Mihalik]

Its little wonder a lot of the locals call the Taliban Pakistan's puppet and are chanting death to Pakistan.

I doubt the Pakistani civilian government has much control over the ISI.

The ISI has a pretty clearly established track record of often doing stuff that's clearly contrary to the interests of Pakistan as a whole.

[Corvus]

And now the Taliban has banned all women's sports. Guess their fragile masculinity couldn't handle women who could outperform them.

Oh, and one for China. The Taliban's new Chief of Army is Qari Fashuddin, who has close links to the ETIM, the Uighur group that wants independence from China.

[Breccia]

And now the Taliban has banned all women's sports

Probably need those football fields for summary executions.

[Easo]

The "new goverment" membership says everything we ever needed to know. They can call it "interim" as much as they want, it is pretty clear what the path forward will be.
And I bet that Pakistan will recognize them, because of course they will.

spare me, gains that measure in the 1-2% range is supposed to mask the fact that the US gave millions if not billions of tax dollars to child raping opium farmers? I bet those kids really got a taste of the nation building the US was overseeing... what a sick joke.

Blah blah blah USA bad blah blah. What were the girls education numbers? 3% to 42%, if I remember correctly. Yeah, absolutely not an important achievement, who cares about few million people more getting education.
You really should stop hurting yourself.

[tehdang]

The prior three administrations should've emphasized how few troops were in Afghanistan, the low rate of casualties, how many troops we have abroad in other countries, and how difficult it was for effective terror cells to plot attacks on America. Then, after addressing that, go on to give the big "Arsenal of Democracy" speech about female literacy, child literacy, medical care, life expectancy.

The failure to convince American public opinion, or even to mount a good try, is the major issue here. It became the (arguably false) choice of fighting forever wars vs bringing our troops home partially because the poll numbers were thought to be static. It isn't quite the Rwandan genocide or siege of sarajevo when political opinion flips and a president might see himself fighting for his constituents by asking Congress for a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.

[uuuhname]

Blah blah blah USA bad blah blah. What were the girls education numbers? 3% to 42%, if I remember correctly. Yeah, absolutely not an important achievement, who cares about few million people more getting education.
You really should stop hurting yourself.

I'm not the one bemoaning the abject failure of this endeavor, you know. I'm not the one who has to cherry pick excuses for why we've been there for 20+ years and see literally all of what you say we worked for crumble to nothing in a matter of weeks. cool, you boosted education rates, the Taliban doesn't care, Americans really don't care either! they're not going to give a fuck about the topic of Afghanistan for longer than it takes for me to complete this sentence. you can thank the MSM and the military having as little oversight from congress as possible for that! not only was it the point to keep the real situation with Afghanistan away from the public spotlight but I don't know if you know this, but we have some real problems we have to deal with in our own country.

yes, America bad, maybe it should stop being bad? ending a war in a foreign country is a great first step!

[Beefhammer]

So wait, you are linking a Fox News article, where Trump LITERALLY negotiated with with terrorists to try to knock Biden? Are you high?

Little Texaslies. He just headline shops. Most articles he links to prove his point actually hurt his arguments. You're best not arguing with someone that lacks the integrity and cognitive ability he does. It only brings us down. Best response is to tell that's nice, go back to the kids table the adults are talking.

[jonnysensible]

saw ghani wrote a letter 'to all afghans' but only wrote it in english. I'd put money on him doing speaking tours in the west. scumbag.

[Gaidax]

Meh, who cares... it's done and gone.

Meanwhile Taliban will play "nice" as much as they can hold themselves, only just a massacre or two on the side in some province - this is so that they can get some concessions from the West. Then eventually they will round up all them protesters in Kabul and explain to each and every one of them in person what's up.

China will hug Taliban, offer some nice loan in exchange for resources and everyone will be happy ever after. This is including the West who are more than happy to get out of this mess. Those who are not happy, will be silently offed down the road to the powerless squeals of Western media. Taliban will make an effort to not go full blown crazy, just to keep some doors open, but they will most certainly won't be having any Western values and shit there in Afghanistan.

[Biglog]

The 2 countries who have been very quick to embrace the Taliban are China (it wants mining rights to Afghan minerals like copper, as well as access for it's new Silk Road through Afghanistan), and Pakistan. Pakistan wasn't even subtle, they had an ambassador in Kabul day 1 of the Taliban regime for talks, have used drones/aircraft/special forces to directly assist the Taliban in crushing the holdout forces in Panjshir, and Pakistan military forces have been photographed in Kabul this week assisting the Taliban with cracking down on rights protests. So Pakistan immediately went all-in on embracing the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is long-rumored to have been working closely with the Taliban if not covertly supporting them. Pakistan often made it costly for the US to logistically get goods to Afghanistan during the war. Bordering areas with Afghanistan were safe zones for Taliban to fight and then cross-back like Laos in Vietnam. And of course we all know where OBL was found hiding virtually in the open. The question now is whether Pakistan is just looking at the Taliban in Afghanistan as a close ally, or if as some are suggesting Pakistan will be pulling the strings and is looking at it as more of a puppet state. If this is a "new" Taliban that intends to behave more as a normal modern functioning nation that steps away from terrorism and severe human rights issues, maybe Pakistan involvement helping nudge them in the right direction is a positive. But from the outside, the whole situation is a bit eyebrow raising that Pakistan already has drones, aircraft, and Pak special forces in Afghanistan working directly with the Taliban.

For 20 years Pakistan and the Taliban have kind of been like a girlfriend that spends a little too much time with another guy, that she says is just a friend. And then the day you and her break-up she moves in with him. Like ok, I see what's been going on here lol.

[bladeXcrasher]

-snip-

Shame on anyone, especially in government, that thought Pakistan was a friend.

[Easo]

I'm not the one bemoaning the abject failure of this endeavor, you know. I'm not the one who has to cherry pick excuses for why we've been there for 20+ years and see literally all of what you say we worked for crumble to nothing in a matter of weeks. cool, you boosted education rates, the Taliban doesn't care, Americans really don't care either! they're not going to give a fuck about the topic of Afghanistan for longer than it takes for me to complete this sentence. you can thank the MSM and the military having as little oversight from congress as possible for that! not only was it the point to keep the real situation with Afghanistan away from the public spotlight but I don't know if you know this, but we have some real problems we have to deal with in our own country.

yes, America bad, maybe it should stop being bad? ending a war in a foreign country is a great first step!

You were the one who said that nothing was achieved at all. Having millions of educated girls in an extremely backwards country is an achievement. "Students" won't rule forever and the more educated people there are, the bigger the civilian disobedience and hope for the future. I don't care what the average American thinks and if they don't, it's on them. That includes you, it seems.

Maybe your dislike for the West is the issue and maybe America, after all, is not bad. I really wonder what would have been your solution to the talibs hosting AQ...

Shame on anyone, especially in government, that thought Pakistan was a friend.

Shame on Pakistan the country. We really need to stop mincing words regarding them. Just look at the whole Bin Laden raid and it's aftermath. I refuse to believe Islamabad did not know about his location.

[jonnysensible]

Having millions of educated girls

werent all the numbers completely bunk. i.e there was 700 schools in x district on paper, but in reality there was less that 50. The teachers drew a salary that got creamed by the local powerbroker but never actually did any teaching. (outside of the big cities)

[bladeXcrasher]

Shame on Pakistan the country. We really need to stop mincing words regarding them. Just look at the whole Bin Laden raid and it's aftermath. I refuse to believe Islamabad did not know about his location.

Kinda my point, anyone that thought Bin Laden was there unbeknownst to Pakistan and that they are a friendly nation after that, shame on them for thinking such.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

[JohnBrown1917]

Bin Laden could also just have been rid off if the US had accepted the Taliban's offer to hand him over.

But no, multiple pointless wars where needed instead.

[bladeXcrasher]

Bin Laden could also just have been rid off if the US had accepted the Taliban's offer to hand him over.

But no, multiple pointless wars where needed instead.

A more accurate statement would be the US refused to stop bombing Afghanistan, which in turn would have lead to talks about a potential offer for the Taliban to turn over Bin Laden.

No offers were ever made because those discussions never happened.

[Muzjhath]

A more accurate statement would be the US refused to stop bombing Afghanistan, which in turn would have lead to talks about a potential offer for the Taliban to turn over Bin Laden.

No offers were ever made because those discussions never happened.

Well, at the start the war the US could gave concentrated all their effort on OBL and the Base, instead of throwing thousands of troops at Kabul and the Taliban.
Leaving the paths open for OBL to split as his mountain fortress couldn't be assaulted nor surrounded well enough.

[Breccia]

Well, at the start the war the US could gave concentrated all their effort on OBL and the Base, instead of throwing thousands of troops at Kabul and the Taliban.

Actually so far that's one of the better hindsights I've hindseen.

The Taliban saw what bin Laden did, how he infuriated the most powerful military on Earth, and said "hell yeah, we want to stand between that rock and that hard place" and started making demands like they belonged at the big boy table on America's worst day in fifty years. The Taliban deserved every single square inch of boot we put up their ass. But they were never really the point. They didn't attack us -- they just asked for an ass kicking.

[YUPPIE]

I think Biden's actions in withdrawing and the ensuing anarchy, geopolitical losses (Taliban is now a firm ally of China), and oathbreaking in negotiating with terrorists, are either all clauses for resigning at least. He knew all this as well and keeps justifying his decision.

If people claim Trump would have done the same, Joe Biden had the power to cancel that order he laid out for withdrawing.

Now the future is uncertain.

[postman1782]

I think Biden's actions in withdrawing and the ensuing anarchy, geopolitical losses (Taliban is now a firm ally of China), and oathbreaking in negotiating with terrorists, are either all clauses for resigning at least. He knew all this as well and keeps justifying his decision.

If people claim Trump would have done the same, Joe Biden had the power to cancel that order he laid out for withdrawing.

Now the future is uncertain.

Wrong. Absolutely 100% wrong. Afghanistan would have went this way, no matter who pulled us out of the region. And NO ONE SHOULD BE NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS. We should have been talking with the Afghani government, but nope, Trump talked to the fucking terrorists.

And no, Joe Biden didn't have the power to cancel a fucking treaty from a previous government.

So fuck off with this ignorant bullshit.