Biden says he does not regret Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban take over more towns

[Dwarvenhobble]

Afghanistan war: Biden says he does not regret troop withdrawal

The US president urges Afghan leaders to fight for their nation, as more cities fall to the Taliban.

www.bbc.co.uk

US President Joe Biden has said he does not regret his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, as the Taliban continue to make advances.

Mr Biden urged Afghanistan's leaders to unite and "fight for their nation".

The Taliban have taken at least eight of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening more.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said the US was keeping the commitments it had made to Afghanistan, such as providing close air support, paying military salaries and supplying Afghan forces with food and equipment.

In their latest major advances, Taliban militants seized two more provincial capitals - Farah city and Pul-e-Khumri - on Tuesday.
Officials said the insurgents had raised their flag in the main square and on the governor's office in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, which is located about 200km (125 miles) from the capital Kabul.


A local journalist and provincial council member told the BBC that the western city of Farah had also fallen.
Other gains by the Taliban this week include the key northern city of Kunduz. It is considered a gateway to mineral-rich provinces and is in a strategically important location close to the border with Tajikistan, which is used for the smuggling of opium and heroin.

UK Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Sir Nick Carter told the BBC that if the state fractured, the "ideal conditions" could emerge for international terrorism and violent extremism.

Guess Biden has realised Trump can only work as a villain for so long and the US better put in some effort to help make sure there's some-one else to hate and cause trouble.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Damn, so despite the USA starting a war with a third world nation twenty years ago when I was in highschool with no exit strategy, no plan besides get the bad guy, and no local support, local forces are still losing to the guys who won the Afghan Civil War despite literally every military advantage we can give them short of sending our own ground troops.

Who could have possibly seen this coming. Maybe we shouldn't've bombed, kidnapped, or otherwise terrorized as many civilians as we did for two decades for no particular reason.

 

[Piscian]

I sometimes wonder if the US will be remembered as the country who most proved that "those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"... I guess we'll see.

 

[Dreiko]

Afghanistan basically IS the taliban, the non-taliban folk are like a plutocratic autocracy. Either nuke them out of existence or just let them be taliban, staying there is useless.

 

[Gordon_4]

Afghanistan basically IS the taliban, the non-taliban folk are like a plutocratic autocracy.

For a minute that looked like a tautology to me.

 

[Adam Jensen]

Well, what's the alternative? Stay there forever? If you couldn't deal with the Taliban in 20 years, what's the point in trying further? And who gives a shit?

 

[Gergar12]

Unless we are willing to blow up and massacre every Pashtun village, and fully destroy every mountain in Afghanistan, AND station border guards at every possible border crossing on ALL of Afganistan's borders. There is no winning this war against the Taliban, and at that point, you are a bigger monster than they are, and will likely face civilian uprisings from even liberals in that country.

It's impossible, and Kabul will fall like Saigon, but Biden is pursuing a decent strategy, keep Kabul from falling with airstrikes until a Republican comes into office, and then it's their problems, which is the best you can expect from a seasoned politico like Biden.

Edit: and the reason he wants to keep Kabul from falling is that the MSM or mainstream media will attack him on it if he doesn't. Given their pro-war bias, and the fact that they are owned by many defense contractors, and they are doing ads for defense contractors.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Shockingly, pointing guns at people and firing indiscriminately into crowds without apology is not the best way to get a populace to like you. Even if you claim you're only trying to shoot the "bad guy"

 

[Chimpzy]

So, mission accomplished?

 

[Seanchaidh]

So, mission accomplished?

Yes, as we've got a ton of justification for yet more war.

Also, letting the Taliban control Afghanistan should help ETIM destabilize Xinjiang.

 

[stroopwafel]

Also, letting the Taliban control Afghanistan should help ETIM destabilize Xinjiang.

China was the first one to sweep in and make a deal with the Taliban to secure it's border, get access to the country's huge copper deposits and be provided security for it's Belt and Road Initiative.

Anyways it's truly sad for the Afghan people. Imagine having to live in such a country where you got a small taste of freedom, where women didn't have to be veiled from head to toe and where children could go to school, only for the fundamentalists to return like the cancer they are and take it all away again. The desperation on those people's faces is heartbreaking. Someone described military action against the Taliban once as ''trying to wipe away ants with a broom''. The Russian army have also broken their teeth on Afghanistan and now the U.S. I only hope their retreat won't destabilize the entire region like it did with Iraq when it destabilized Syria and gave rise to ISIS and caused a massive influx of refugees into Europe.

The entire campaign was a disaster from the start with a complete lack of knowledge about Afghanistan and it's history but leaving like this and letting the country be overrun by the Taliban again only to return to the exact same spot as 2001 is a serious affront. The very least they could have done was support the Afghan army with a local squadron for air cover other than this 'over the horizon' deployments that always come too late.

 

[Seanchaidh]

China was the first one to sweep in and make a deal with the Taliban to secure it's border, get access to the country's huge copper deposits and be provided security for it's Belt and Road Initiative.

ok, and?

 

[stroopwafel]

ok, and?

I read that as you implying that Taliban rule would be a negative for China due to Xinjiang. To which I replied China already anticipated on that move.

Maybe you implied something else then you can disregard my comment.

 

[Seanchaidh]

I read that as you implying that Taliban rule would be a negative for China due to Xinjiang. To which I replied China already anticipated on that move.

Maybe you implied something else then you can disregard my comment.

Anticipating the move doesn't mean it isn't still bad. Islamists in power right next door is likely to strengthen the exact sort of nationalism that China is contending with in Xinjiang irrespective of the diplomatic relations between the two parties.

 

[stroopwafel]

Anticipating the move doesn't mean it isn't still bad. Islamists in power right next door is likely to strengthen the exact sort of nationalism that China is contending with in Xinjiang irrespective of the diplomatic relations between the two parties.

Not really. The Taliban still need money and they would have a powerful ally in the UN due to China protecting it's interests. You can be sure once BRI and copper mining is well under way that China will veto any UN resolutions once the Taliban starts chopping off hands and stoning women to death again. For the remainder China have little to fear from uyghur minorities in Xinjiang considering how any resistance is easily squashed.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Not really. The Taliban still need money and they would have a powerful ally in the UN due to China protecting it's interests. You can be sure once BRI and copper mining is well under way that China will veto any UN resolutions once the Taliban starts chopping off hands and stoning women to death again. For the remainder China have little to fear from uyghur minorities in Xinjiang considering how any resistance is easily squashed.

Lot of dubious assumptions there.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

could be losing my mind, but i swear conservatives were strongly anti-interventionist for years, especially during Obama, till recently when Biden pulled out. like isn't that why they said they voted Trump over Hillary the "warhawk"? now there's loads of militant right-wing articles cropping up in my rando news feed who couldn't be more interested in everything bad that may be going on in these foreign countries

 

[stroopwafel]

Lot of dubious assumptions there.

How so? We know what the Taliban is capable of. We know the history of China when it comes to veto'ing any resolution concerning human rights violations in countries like Sudan, Iran, N-Korea etc. We know what the Chinese policy is in establishing economic ties with corrupt regimes in Africa.

The Chinese agreement with the Taliban falls perfectly in line with their usual modus operandi.

 

[Avnger]

How so? We know what the Taliban is capable of. We know the history of China when it comes to veto'ing any resolution concerning human rights violations in countries like Sudan, Iran, N-Korea etc. We know what the Chinese policy is in establishing economic ties with corrupt regimes in Africa.

The Chinese agreement with the Taliban falls perfectly in line with their usual modus operandi.

He's fishing for excuses that justify the genocide China is committing within its borders.

 

[Seanchaidh]

How so? We know what the Taliban is capable of. We know the history of China when it comes to veto'ing any resolution concerning human rights violations in countries like Sudan, Iran, N-Korea etc. We know what the Chinese policy is in establishing economic ties with corrupt regimes in Africa.

The Chinese agreement with the Taliban falls perfectly in line with their usual modus operandi.

none of that addresses the assumptions you are making about how it will affect China's internal politics.

He's fishing for excuses that justify the genocide China is committing within its borders.

I'm aware of the interests of the US Empire and how they are furthered by normalizing ETIM-- taking them off terror lists and so on-- and giving territory to the allies of ETIM. Empowering ETIM is almost precisely the analogous strategy that the United States pursued against the Soviet Union in its manipulation of the Soviet-Afghan War.

At this point it is unclear if another World Trade Center attack lurks sometime in the coming decades. Our leaders certainly do not seem to give a shit if we find out or how.