With the US-led NATO forces hastily exiting Afghanistan, a windfall awaits the Taliban that includes an army of well-trained soldiers equipped with latest weapons and gadgets, well-planned military bases but most importantly, something the Taliban never dreamt of—an air force, reports senior journalist Sanjib Kr Baruah.
As scenes of horror and terror continue to unfold in Kabul amid Presidentish Joe Biden’s haphazard and increasingly desperate evacuation efforts, many of us have said all week that it didn’t have to be like this.
Here’s the proof.
Raheem Kassam revealed on Wednesday that under President Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo’s State Department had ordered the creation of a “Contingency and Crisis Response” office whose job would be avoiding “a future Benghazi-style situation for Americans overseas.”
But while Biden lied to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday that “We planned for every contingency,” behind the scenes Biden’s State Department had already “revoked the funding and the approval” for Trump’s response team, according to Kassam.
Biden didn’t plan for every contingency. He killed our ability to respond to the most likely contingency.
Lithium is a strategically important element, essential for making batteries for smartphones, laptops, electric cars. Almost entire consumer electronics containing power cells are using Li-Ion batteries. In the last 12 months, lithium futures already prices went up 300% – and they’re poised to increase thousands of percent more, as growing electric cars production will increase demand at least twenty times.
The Biden administration admitted on Tuesday that the Taliban had captured a significant amount of U.S. military equipment originally supplied to Afghan security forces during the militants’ blitzkrieg on Kabul in recent weeks — and the U.S. doesn’t know exactly how much American gear they’ve lost to terrorist hands.
The refugees will include “particularly vulnerable” Afghans still in the country or who’ve already fled to neighboring states, which in addition to female leaders and government employees also comprises human rights defenders, persecuted minorities and journalists.
The terrorist dirtbags of the Taliban, having had the entire nation of Afghanistan handed to them by Joe Biden, are now having a grand old time mocking the media world the Democrats have created. They’re gibing at Democrat-endorsed social media censorship, making Joe Biden and his fawning press a figure of fun, and using their own access to social media to consolidate power. Grotesquely enough, they know where the U.S. vulnerabilities are, given the house the Democrats have built.
The Taliban view themselves as the humble servant of God on Earth. Their name literally means “students,” in this case, “students” of medieval-era extremist teachings under the Sunni-Hanafi Islamic school. But where terrorist allies of the Taliban such as al Qaeda are centered in Salafi-jihadi narratives, the Taliban are more complicated. They also have roots in Pashtun tribal politics, a dynamic that has given the group enduring influence in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Dark age returned to #Afghanistan.
The Taliban are punishing the journalist that worked with foreign media in Jalalabad.#Kabul. pic.twitter.com/hzND30Zhgj
— Hizbullah Khan (@HizbkKhan) August 18, 2021
h/t Canuklehead
Michael Moore compared the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to the Taliban’s takeover of the capital city of Kabul in Afghanistan.
“Their Taliban, our Taliban, everybody’s got a Taliban,” the 67-year-old filmmaker tweeted Tuesday to his millions of followers.
He should have used a picture of Antifa.
Now, the American president’s decision to allow Afghanistan to collapse into the arms of the Taliban has European officials worried he has unwittingly accelerated what his predecessor Donald Trump started: the degradation of the Western alliance and everything it is supposed to stand for in the world.
If you’re a go-getter and a self-starter who likes a challenge in the workplace, the United Nations has a great job opportunity in a dynamic and rapidly changing Middle Eastern country.
My suggestion: 
The Taliban has given its first official news conference in Kabul since the shock seizure of the city, declaring it wants peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” the movement’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.
The insurgents seek no revenge and “everyone is forgiven” he said.
Mujahid said women would be allowed to work and study and “will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam”.
The Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the Western-backed government, he said, saying the movement was granting an amnesty for former Afghan government soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces.
“Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors,” he said.
He said private media could continue to be free and independent in Afghanistan, adding the Taliban was committed to the media within its cultural framework.
“We intend to hold them to that commitment,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters amid a barrage of questions about the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
SULLIVAN: “The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment.”
“…We are talking to them about what the exact timetable is for how this will all play out.” pic.twitter.com/RhUtHbgwgr
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 17, 2021
Afghanistan’s all-girls robotics team is trying to escape the country and make it to Canada while the Taliban, known for its cruelty against women, continues to regain control over the nation.
“To talk to these girls and listen to them crying over the phone to be saved… Begging that the Canadians save them… These girls have a future—they deserve to have a future. They all want to go to college. They will not be able to do that if they remain in Afghanistan,” said human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley on CBC News Network.
The Taliban, now in near-total control of the country, are going door to door in newly conquered Kabul searching for journalists and political opponents, according to multiple outlets on the ground.
After their lightning conquest, there is little to indicate the group will moderate their strict Islamic beliefs
Who are the Taliban?
The Taliban were born out of the mujahideen fighters who opposed the Russians during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which began in 1979. Founded by Mullah Mohammad Omar, a local imam in Kandahar, in 1994, they were initially formed of a small group of madrassa students who were angry at the depredations of the warlords in the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Their influence rapidly spread over the following two years.
‘The Taliban will ban all art’: An Afghan female filmmaker’s plea
“If the Taliban take over they will ban all art. I and other filmmakers could be next on their hit list,” Sahraa Karimi writes in an open appeal that was sent to global media organizations on August 13 and circulated on social media as the Taliban took control of major cities in Afghanistan and encircled the country’s capital, Kabul.
The filmmaker is also documenting the situation on social media and has since posted on Facebook and Instagram different videos showing her fleeing to the Kabul airport, joining crowds of other Afghans as they scramble to reach the capital’s last remaining exit.
“Seemingly friendly” is the new “mostly peaceful.” Enablers and grifters never stop… https://t.co/7qEZFncBTA
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) August 16, 2021
h/t Mauser
