Afghanistan

Erik Prince may get his privatized war in Afghanistan after all – the tail end of it, at least. The mercenary is reportedly charging $6,500 per head to fly people out of the Taliban-controlled country as the evac deadline looms.

With August 31 as the final deadline for Americans to leave Afghanistan, public and private security forces alike are tripping over themselves trying to get their men (and women) out of the country – and some less scrupulous figures are taking cash to expedite the process, according to a Tuesday report from the Wall Street Journal.

Western nation-builders thought they knew what was best for Afghanistan – they didn’t have a clue.

The first time Western powers installed and backed a leader in Afghanistan, it didn’t end well. His name was Shah Shujah; when he was lured out of his palace, supposedly for peace talks with the Afghan forces that had been deposed by the West, they shot him.

I get the impression the experts of the west payed attention almost solely to their fellow grifters in the Afghan elite with scant notice of the general populace.

This explains the peculiar fixation on their magic totem Malala who was trotted out at every opportunity to shame the “Islamophobes.”

A sort of working girl gets shot in the face success story that they peddled to show that Islam wasn’t really so bad after all and just look at the proof here in our mighty Malala.

At the end of the day Malala was just one more con.

She made out like a bandit she did.

The dust hasn’t settled in Afghanistan. The crisis that has erupted since Joe Biden decided to abandon Bagram Air Base and the rest of Afghanistan will continue long past his arbitrary August 31 deadline. After that, the people of that country will be subjected to pogroms the likes of which have not been seen since the Vietnam communists and the Khmer Rouge swept across southeast Asia, killing untold numbers along the way. A refugee crisis is already underway and will eventually become a major issue for Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and Europe. It’s no exaggeration to say that Biden has destabilized much of the world along with fracturing U.S. alliances across the board.

Cripes they gave them Russian Equipment!

The Taliban have captured more than 100 Russian-made helicopters in various states of operability, the head of a Russian state arms exporter has said, but will be largely unable to use them with little access to maintenance crews and spare parts.

As the Taliban overran the Afghan army and took control of large stores of arms and vehicles, it also captured at least 100 Mi-17 Hip helicopters, a Russian-made transport aircraft procured by the US for the Afghan armed forces because it was comparatively cheaper and easier to fly than US-made UH-60 Black Hawks.

Canada is racing to wind down its Afghanistan evacuation effort ahead of America’s 31 August deadline, as officials warn some may be left behind.

As of 24 August, Canada had airlifted more than 2,700 people out of Kabul, including Canadian citizens, Afghans and other foreign nationals.

But efforts have been stymied by chaos on the ground, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan acknowledged on Wednesday.

“We are pushing our people and our aircrafts to their limits,” he said.

Canada has vowed to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees, but has not specified a timeline.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the Taliban have promised to allow foreigners and Afghans to leave Afghanistan beyond 31 August, when a US-controlled airlift will end.

He said Washington and its allies had “a responsibility to hold [the Taliban] to that commitment”.

Mr Blinken said the US was still on track to complete operations at Kabul airport by the end of the month.

There are still thousands inside and outside the airport wanting to fly out.

So the US airlift will end as scheduled on the 31st perhaps sooner, and the Taliban have promised to allow Afghans, US and other foreign citizens safe passage after that date. I guess Pigs really can fly.

About only 5 percent of the people the United States has evacuated from Afghanistan are Americans seeking safe passage home.

More than 82,300 have been airlifted from Kabul since the government’s collapse nearly two weeks ago, but the Pentagon says that, as of Wednesday, only 4,400 Americans were rescued in those evacuation operations.

The Taliban claims opium poppy cultivation was stopped and the flow of illegal drugs halted when it was last in power in Afghanistan.

But although there was a sharp drop in 2001 – when it was last in control – opium poppy cultivation in Taliban-held areas has risen in subsequent years.

There is no way the Taliban will outlaw this cash cow.