Afghanistan – Page 29 – Blazingcatfur

Afghanistan: US decision to withdraw lays bare a not so special relationship with the UK

… America acted unilaterally over Afghanistan – actually maybe that should be Joe Biden acted unilaterally. The administration was not much interested in what the UK thought. Mr Biden, from what I have been told, was not much interested in the red flags being raised by his intel community and military top brass, or by the warnings delivered from London. He wanted out. The warnings of HM Government – and my understanding is they were made strenuously – fell on deaf, indifferent ears in Washington.

In those circumstances – and let me depersonalise this – what is a British prime minister to do? If the 800lb gorilla is going to leave the room, what is the much smaller primate meant to do? The idea that the British armed forces could have swarmed in to fill the vacuum left by a US withdrawal is unrealistic.

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021August 23, 2021•0•Afghanistan, UK, USA

Did ‘gender studies’ lose Afghanistan?

Twenty years of war in Afghanistan are over. What comes next is 20 years, or even more, of recriminations and blame for why the war ended as it did. Scholars and partisans still argue over the reasons America lost in Vietnam, so why should Afghanistan be any different?

On the plus side, the debate promises to be far more interesting. When it comes to Vietnam, partisans debate rules of engagement, bombing strategies, funding levels, and the Tet Offensive. With Afghanistan, the question could be: did gender studies cause America to suffer its most humiliating defeat ever? Cockburn wishes he was joking.

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021August 23, 2021•0•"Peak Woke", Afghanistan

Meltdown of a Superpower

A week after the Fall of Kabul, the flailing hegemon continues to embarrass itself:

America’s official deadline for total withdrawal from Afghanistan is August 31st, so half the remaining time has already elapsed, and in that first week of a final fortnight, according to the Department of Defense, it evacuated just 2,500 Americans – or about 350 per day. That seems an under-performance – or, as The New York Post’s front-page headline distills it, “DUMKIRK”.

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021August 23, 2021•0•Afghanistan

Taliban spokesman rejects foreign troops extension

The Taliban say they will not extend the deadline for Western forces to leave Afghanistan.

Spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC’s Yalda Hakim that 31 August was a red line and that any extension would be a “clear violation” of the Doha agreement between the United States and the Taliban.

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021•0•Afghanistan

WARMINGTON: There will be no movie about rescue mission heroes didn’t show up for

It was the rescue mission that didn’t happen.

A large group of Afghan interpreters and their families were gathered together by Canadian government officials in a group and waited all day and night for the heroes to come and take them into the safe confines of the Kabul airport.

These are the Afghan interpreters, LECs and families who gathered for the heroic Canadian rescue next to Kabul Airport that never came pic.twitter.com/gFLySFYHED

— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) August 23, 2021

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021August 23, 2021•0•Afghanistan

‘Nothing short of miraculous’: Immigration minister defends Canada-Afghanistan evacuation

Marco Mendicino made the statement during an interview with The West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson on Sunday, after being asked if he was worried that they would not be able to bring home everyone they had promised to by the time the Americans wrap up their evacuation efforts.

by Sarcasticat•August 23, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan, Canada, Refugees

Taliban’s special forces outfit providing ‘security’ at Kabul airport

Taliban-linked social media accounts claim that members of the group’s Badri 313 outfit are providing “security” at Kabul’s international airport. Badri 313 is a special forces wing of the Taliban’s army. It has been responsible for some of the group’s key battlefield successes and has also conducted complex “martyrdom” (suicide) operations.

by Sarcasticat•August 23, 2021August 23, 2021•0•Afghanistan, Taliban

No biggie, but ISIS appears to be in Kabul

Earlier today we described how some British troops are describing the situation around the airport in Kabul as “the worst they’ve ever seen.” Well, they may need to expand their horizons a bit in terms of extremes. CNN is reporting that the Pentagon is working on an “alternate route” for Americans, allies and our helpers to get to the airport and it’s not just because of the massive crowds blocking the roads or the Taliban checkpoints turning people away. (Which we were assured wasn’t happening.) No, this is an entirely new wrinkle in the picture. There appears to be solid intelligence indicating that ISIS-K (which is just a rebranded ISIS offshoot that’s taken root in Afghanistan) is on the prowl and looking to perpetrate attacks in or around the airport. But that can’t be right, can it? Apparently, it can. (CNN)

by Sarcasticat•August 23, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan, ISIS, Islam's War On Civilization, Islamic State

Biden Admin Believed Taliban Assault Was a Peace Negotiation Strategy

We have the absolute very best people in charge.

As the Taliban mounted a conquest of Afghanistan, the Biden administration continued to believe that the Jihadists were interested in peace and that their campaign of conquest was a negotiating strategy.

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan

Was It Worth It? A 19-Year Combat Veteran on the War in Afghanistan

The time has come for America to reaffirm the purpose of the military.

America’s longest war is coming to an end. As an active-duty officer, it has been very depressing to watch how quickly Afghanistan has fallen. More than 2,300 military service members and approximately 3,900 U.S. contractors have lost their lives, with another 21,000 injured. The financial cost has been a staggering $2 trillion. Now should be a time for reflection to consider the profound sacrifice of life and resources that the American people have given for the past 20 years. Was it worth it?

by Blazingcatfur•August 23, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan

Putin warns terrorists & Taliban fighters ‘disguised as refugees’ could be flowing out of Afghanistan amid chaos of US withdrawal

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the overnight collapse of the American-backed government in Afghanistan could pose a serious threat to countries surrounding the troubled Central Asian nation, including his own.

Speaking on Sunday as part of a meeting with members of the governing United Russia party in the run up to parliamentary elections next month, the president said that the number of civilians fleeing Kabul poses challenges for the international community. “Who are these refugees? How can we tell? There may be thousands, or even millions,” Putin said. “The border is a thousand kilometers – they will get on everything, a car, even a donkey, and flee across the steppe.”

by Blazingcatfur•August 22, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan

The flaw at the heart of humanitarian intervention

Would the people lamenting the scenes at Kabul airport be happy with a reinvasion of Afghanistan?

One of the most interesting aspects of President Biden’s speech on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is that it shows he suffers from faulty memory syndrome. Like many of the rest of us, I suspect.

Today Biden says that the mission of the allies in Afghanistan ‘was never supposed to have been nation-building’. But back in the early years of the conflict then Senator Biden was all for this now dirty phrase. ‘Our hope is that we will see a relatively stable government in Afghanistan,’ he said in 2001. One that ‘provides the foundation for future reconstruction of that country’. He was still holding to this line in 2003 when he said that the only alternative to nation building was ‘a chaos that churns out bloodthirsty warlords, drug traffickers and terrorists’.

by Blazingcatfur•August 22, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan

Kevin Newman: The people we left behind at the gas station

In the age-old tradition of large lumbering bureaucracies and armies and reporter stake-outs, this was an excruciating weekend of ‘hurry up and wait’. Their only shelter in the dusty and brutal Afghan sun was the red white and blue canopy of a self-serve gas bar. Maybe ten families who had completed the path to Canadian citizenship were told by government of Canada text to come to this spot late Friday with the promise of a Canadian Armed Forces flight waiting on the nearby airport tarmac.

h/t CC

by Blazingcatfur•August 22, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan

Pope Francis: ‘Dialogue’ Is the Only Path to ‘Peace and Security’ in Afghanistan

Pope Francis has a terrific idea for how to bring peace to Afghanistan, and it’s basically the same solution he offers for every problem under the sun: dialogue. Yes, of course. The Taliban are killing and mutilating women and hunting down Christians because no one has bothered to sit down and talk with the poor dears. Never mind that American representatives were in discussions with the Taliban for over a year in Doha long before the Afghanistan debacle. Apparently that wasn’t the right kind of dialogue, which, if we have now, will fix everything.

The pope said so.

by Blazingcatfur•August 22, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan, Pope Francis, WTF?

Leftists in U.S. and UK Want Reparations Paid to the Taliban

Richard Burgon, a member of the British Parliament for the far-Left Labour party and Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, demonstrated Tuesday that the Left’s commitment to the redistribution of wealth is indefatigable: He declared that what the West really needs to do now is start forking over money to the Taliban. Burgon tweeted: “The crisis in Afghanistan is the result of 20 years of disastrous military intervention. Just as in Iraq & Libya, backing US-led invasions led to a huge loss of life. There is no military solution in Afghanistan. The focus now should be on reparations and supporting refugees.”

h/t Marvin

by Sarcasticat•August 22, 2021August 22, 2021•0•Afghanistan, Batshit crazy lefties, Reparations, Taliban, UK, USA