Not a bad thing. Imagine the country the US could be if they spent that much on their own infrastructure and citizens.
Biden says he does not regret Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban take over more towns
- Thread starter Dwarvenhobble
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I feel like Worgen has done that, but I really do think you guys are focusing on the wrong dude here. Beanie man is way better than dude who is professionally salty at video games. You should be comparing him to lower rungs, like Darksyde Phil or something.
So a group called the Northern Alliance has taken back Parwan from the Taliban led by the Vice President Amrullah Saleh
here is a some of them
considering how close they are to the capital this is going to be something
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No.
I like to imagine DSP sees himself as an independent observer, given his relatively alien perspective on human existence.
I very much doubt Rumsfeld would have liked for the almost trillion dollar they spent on Afghanistan and all the lives and sacrifice it cost to be inherited by the Taliban and a legendary warlord on ISI's payroll who were both responsible for that failure.
It's a bad thing if you rely on other countries for your own defense. Traditionally the U.S. has taken over the role of protecting Europe since the end of WW2 but they have made it more than obvious they are no longer willing to carry that burden and made repeated urges for European countries to increase their military budget to 2% GDP(combined healthcare/social service would still be 30 times more than that). Meanwhile geopolitical conflicts make the world more unstable with each passing day. Many European countries seem completely oblivious to that fact and don't realize how things have changed. It makes those countries easy prey not just because it undermines their own authority(ie Russia encroaching on the E.U.'s outer borders with Nato being largely ineffective to act as a deterrent) but also makes those countries easy prey for manipulation efforts by outside forces. Weakness is provocative as the saying goes. Perceived weakness make other countries act in a way to further undermine your authority. Russia for example will continue to test how far it can go.
It wasn't his trillion dollars or his lives or in any way his sacrifice. But he did grow wealthier over time.
Some people are protesting the Taliban takeover. Pretty brave especially since it's the Taliban they are protesting against.
Edit:
Apparently kids are also protesting this may get ugly
No, I don't think so.
I think it's more straightforward than that - Pakistan wants Afghanistan under a friendly regime, they don't want Afghanistan under a regime that might favour the USA, China, Iran, Russia etc. against Pakistani interests. The Taliban are their allies - part of the link here is that there's a ethnic dimension, because the Taliban are primarily Pashtuns, and Pashtuns are also a significant proportion (10-20%) of the Pakistani population. It would have always been in their interests to undermine the US-backed regime, partly out of general principles that they'd prefer it as their own back yard, but with an additional edge because the USA is significantly more friendly with India than Pakistan: and as we know, Pakistan and India do not get on well at all.
I don't know it would have been worse, but this swing to be friendlier with the Taliban I think reflects the US government as a whole knowing the Taliban would win. Even if too little too late to use as a leverage to hold them back from an offensive, it signalled to the Taliban that the USA is willing to work with them.
Yes, and I think it's trickier than that in many ways.
The Taliban 20-30 years ago were extremely insular and unworldly in global politics. They are not anymore. They have clearly realised the value of PR and international opinion. They held back outside Kabul until it was clear it was an open door, and they've been in many respects restrained and relatively pleasant - firmly asserting themselves, but keen to display a constructive and practical transition.
Afghanistan has also changed. The allies really have vastly improved Afghanistan in many ways. Virtually everywhere has electricity, mobile phones, media has expanded, never mind higher human development with better health, education, etc. The Taliban now know they can't do what they like without it being likely everyone in the world will find out and harm their cause. If they undo a lot of those advances to run it like the medieval era again, they risk becoming very unpopular and undermining their rule. Thus I would not be surprised if that whilst it will still be shit and much more restrictive (especially for women), it might be significantly more moderate than pre-2001.
I thought the Onion was supposed to provide fake news. Not FAKE NEWS. The other fake news
Putting "American tradcons supporting Sharia Law" on my 2022 BingoI don't know why the right dislikes the Taliban so much.
Then again, neither does the right.
I do wonder how much of it is PR vs. the country becoming "Saudi Arabia, but poor"
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The original Northern Alliance fought against the Taliban during the Afghan Civil War, and still held about 10% of the country when the US invaded in 2001. It was an alliance of groups representing minorities that were opposed to, or persecuted by, the Taliban, who are Deobandi Sunnis of mostly Pashtun origin. Sunni Tajiks were the largest faction, with Shia Hazara, Sunni Uzbek and Turkmen, non-Deobandi Sunni Pashtun, and Shia Tajiks also represented. I believe its new incarnation is based in the Tajik majority region of Panjshir which contains the Panjshir valley, which was a base for Tajik militias during the Soviet-Afghan war, Afghan Civil War, and the 2001 invasion. Its geography makes it very difficult to attack, the valley is huge which allows a defending force to continuously regain high ground for very long periods. While breaking out of Panjshir may prove difficult for the anti-Taliban elements, it will be similarly difficult for the Taliban to actually flush them out of Panjshir.
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It signals that Trump is a fuckin' idiot. In all likelihood he did it out of spite. You don't just decide to work with the enemy that you've been fighting for 20 years and you don't just decide to release 5,000 of their warriors in a middle of a war against them.
Anyways, this is what the Taliban were up against, mostly, so it's no wonder they've taken so much of the territory so quickly:
Who is this and why was he on the Taliban's side?I don't know why the right dislikes the Taliban so much.
Then again, neither does the right.
I mean you guys do have Vaush to represent your brand of irrational hypocrisy and being a general asshole. Not sure why you think you have the high ground here.
Afghanistan is one of the world's biggest sources of cannabis and opium poppies, like they're absolutely everywhere. (And nobody took more advantage of that than the deeply depressed, unpaid, abused, and traumatised Soviet conscripts who got sent there, they were drinking aftershave and boot polish before they even left the central Asian republics.) Afghanistan wasn't in great shape economically before the Soviet Afghan War and hasn't improved greatly since so it's unsurprising that a lot of people just joined it to get paid, although due to the buggered economy they ended up often going unpaid anyway.