“For the last seven months, I’ve watched generals engage in Twitter fights with people, debate the merits of critical race theory on Capitol Hill,” Parnell stated. “It seems like our generals were more concerned with fighting Tucker Carlson than they were the Taliban and we are seeing the tragic and disastrous consequences of that play out on the battlefield right now.”
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Thousands of people packed into the Afghan capital’s airport on Monday, rushing the tarmac and pushing onto planes in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government. U.S. troops fired warning shots as they struggled to manage the chaotic evacuation.
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing a stunning end to a two-decade campaign in which the U.S. and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan. The country’s Western-trained security forces collapsed or fled in the face of an insurgent offensive that tore through the country in just over a week, ahead of the planned withdrawal of the last American troops at the end of the month.
Civilians occupy the runway and cling to the exterior of a C-17 Globemaster III as it attempts to take off, Hamid Karzai International Airport, #Kabul, Kabul province. pic.twitter.com/PdBI33U3u1
— Malik Ali Raza (@MalikAliiRaza) August 16, 2021
Afghans surround departing plane and attempt to board in desperate move
More: https://t.co/mkJ5rlh0NY pic.twitter.com/zugvHqGzWM
— RT (@RT_com) August 16, 2021
Three stowaways ‘fall to their deaths from plane’ and five are killed at airport as increasingly desperate Afghans climb on MOVING US Air Force jet as they flee from Taliban: All US Embassy staff have now been evacuated
Pelosi released a statement praising the “wisdom of [Biden’s] actions.” The White House released a statement Aug. 14 detailing the administration’s decision to send 5,000 additional U.S. troops to help with the evacuation of personnel at the U.S.’ embassy and to support then-Afghani President Ashraf Ghani.
As the Taliban moves into Kabul and demands the unconditional surrender of the central government, Taliban commander Muhammed Arif Mustafa told CNN: “It’s our belief that one day, mujahedin will have victory, and Islamic law will come not to just Afghanistan, but all over the world. We are not in a hurry. We believe it will come one day. Jihad will not end until the last day.” The CNN “journalist,” demonstrating yet again its spectacular misunderstanding of the conflict (which, of course, is shared by the U.S. foreign policy establishment), followed that with “It’s a chilling admission from a group that claims it wants peace.” The Taliban does indeed want peace. It wants the peace that will follow the world’s submission to the hegemony of Islamic law.
They certainly have the weapons.
The Taliban are now in possession of more Blackhawk helicopters than 166 other nations around the globe. pic.twitter.com/2q9CyXcBNy
— CulturalHusbandry (@APhilosophae) August 13, 2021
The Taliban have 80,000 troops in comparison with a nominal 300,699 serving the Afghan government, yet the whole country has been effectively overrun in a matter of weeks as military commanders surrendered without a fight in a matter of hours.
It is a tale of two armies, one poorly equipped but highly motivated ideologically, and the other nominally well-equipped, but dependent on Nato support, poorly led and riddled with corruption.
The US aid spending watchdog for Afghanistan warned last month that the US military had little or no means of knowing the capability of the Afghan National Defense and Security forces (ANDSF) when required to operate independently of the US forces, despite spending $88.3bn (£64bn) on security-related reconstruction in Afghanistan up to March 2021.
A 20 year grift.
A worse President than Obama or Jimmy Carter…
This may become the most infamous — and devastating — press conference ever held by an American President. pic.twitter.com/j4kKwyPDVm
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
Hamid Karzai international airport. 16 August, 2021. pic.twitter.com/LXsAQPpFXG
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 15, 2021
h/t Killer Marmot and Mauser
Our longest war ends in another abject failure
‘Your country just betrayed us.’ So Haji Sakhi, a resident of Kabul, recently remarked to a New York Times reporter. ‘Look at what they brought on us,’ the 68-year-old Afghan continued. ‘They lost the war and just fled the country.’ His they refers to us — the United States of America.
Haji Sakhi’s unsparing judgment deserves sober consideration. Kabul is about to fall to the Taliban, faster than even the most gloomy experts predicted. Our nation’s ‘longest war’ is now ending in abject failure.
How are Americans — at least those few of us who attend to such matters — to apportion responsibility for the outcome? Who or what is to blame for ‘losing’ Afghanistan? Was it ever ours to lose in the first place?
Beijing is taking full advantage of the U.S. and NATO forces’ imminent departure from Afghanistan.
President Biden announced in early July that U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan by Aug. 31, a deadline moved up from Sept. 11.
Meanwhile, the Taliban is rapidly increasing its advances in Afghanistan as the American drawdown nears.
Amid images of helicopters evacuating key United States personnel from Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul, and news that the Taliban is moving into the city following Afghan president Ashraf Ghani swift evacuation Sunday, Biden administration Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week” to defend President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in such a swift and seemingly unorganized manner.
Earlier, a video emerged on social media allegedly showing Taliban* militants flying in a helicopter that the group had seized from retreating government forces. The insurgent group’s fighters also repeatedly reported capturing small arms and armoured vehicles supplied by the US to Afghanistan.
Some of the military vehicles previously operated by the Afghan Air Force stationed at Kandahar Airport have apparently ended up in the hands of the Taliban* after the terrorist group seized an airbase earlier this week.
Footage reportedly showing #Taliban at Kandahar airport #Afghanistan with 2 #US supplied UH-60 Blackhawk (one under maintenance, one on apron) and 2 stored Mi-17 Hip helicopters pic.twitter.com/STpePO12NO
— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) August 14, 2021
At just short of 20 years, the now-ending U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan was America’s longest war. Ordinary Americans tended to forget about it, and it received measurably less oversight from Congress than the Vietnam War did. But its death toll is in the many tens of thousands. And because the U.S. borrowed most of the money to pay for it, generations of Americans will be burdened by the cost of paying it off.
As the Taliban in a lightning offensive recapture much of the country before the United States’ Aug. 31 deadline for ending its combat role, and the U.S. speeds up American and Afghan evacuations, here’s a look at the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, by the numbers.
Amputations, stonings and executions of criminals could return in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, the organisation has admitted.
As its fighters prepared to assume power in Kabul, the militant Islamist group insisted it would protect the rights of women, the media and diplomats.
But, asked about violent punishment of offenders – a hallmark of brutal Taliban rule in the 1990s – a spokesman said: “That is up to the religious followers and the courts. They will decide about the punishment.”
Adverts of women wearing wedding dresses appear to have been painted over in Kabul after Taliban fighters entered the Afghanistan capital.
A man can be seen using a roller and white paint to cover up the large images outside a building in a photograph posted on Twitter by an Afghan journalist on Sunday.
The adverts appear to be outside Taj Beauty Salon, which describes itself as “the best bridal beauty salon in Afghanistan”.
I trust gas station Sushi more… https://t.co/0gj7UE1Y3o
— Fancypants Maloney (@fancypants_s) August 15, 2021
KABUL, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has left the capital Kabul for Tajikistan, a senior Afghan Interior Ministry official said on Sunday.
Asked for comment, the president’s office said it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons”.
A representative of the Taliban, which entered the capital Kabul earlier on Sunday, said the group was checking on Ghani’s whereabouts.
