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[FunkMiller]

From the other thread I know your wrists are a bit limp... but hang with me here:

What happens when you take a country full of those people you described, whom already committed terrorist attacks around the globe, and give them the best weapons (US taxpayer) money can buy?

My wrist is rock fucking hard, thanks very much. From all the... wank weight lifting.

The Taliban are a much more internal bunch of head choppers, without the predilection for spreading their brand of religious insanity around the the world. They just want to sell us their many, many illegal drugs.

However, if Al Qaeda, ISIS or any of the other loons get chance to take root in the country again, then that could well be a huge problem. You'd hope The Tabs would prevent that, knowing how much of a good thing they are on to.

You would also hope that the west would have the where-with-all to monitor that shit, but I guess worrying about how offensive movies are from the 80s is a lot of work, so it'll probably go by the way side.

 

[SF Kosmo]

After a few weeks of this, I wonder how many American soldiers just thought "fuck it" and just decided to spend their time drinking tea and smoking hashish along with their trainees:

 

[QuantumZebra]

My wrist is rock fucking hard, thanks very much. From all the... wank weight lifting.

The Taliban are a much more internal bunch of head choppers, without the predilection for spreading their brand of religious insanity around the the world. They just want to sell us their many, many illegal drugs.

However, if Al Qaeda, ISIS or any of the other loons get chance to take root in the country again, then that could well be a huge problem. You'd hope The Tabs would prevent that, knowing how much of a good thing they are on to.

You would also hope that the west would have the where-with-all to monitor that shit, but I guess worrying about how offensive movies are from the 80s is a lot of work, so it'll probably go by the way side.

I don't disagree with that analysis of their scope of beliefs/anger... but I find it a hard sell to say that we won't have another Al Qaeda variant crop up in that country.

You have folks with 20 years of anger at US occupation built up... while we've done good there we've also killed a lot of innocents in the mix. Made more enemies than friends, most likely.

Now they are armed to the teeth and from what I can tell, Russia and/or China are going to try and become besties with them.

There is simply no way this can be spun to be good or even a non-issue. This is really, really, really bad. The worst international fuck-up I can recall in my lifetime except possibly the choice to invade Afghanistan/Iraq in the first place.

 

[Raven117]

...and here in the west, we live under this constant offence culture that precludes anyone coming out straight and telling it like it is in Afghanistan: it's a backwards bloody country, full of religious zealots, both in The Taliban and out of it.

They have to sort their own shit out, the same way we all did hundreds of years ago.

Yup. Straight up. The West can help them with this (and hell, the Middle East could have as they were leaders of technology and thought throughout much of human history...before extremists Islam ideology took over), but it would be more "missionary" style work rather than just dumping 21st century way of doing things on them all at once.

I mean, for fuchsakes, what did we expect would happen?

 

[CGiRanger]

Yup. Straight up. The West can help them with this (and hell, the Middle East could have as they were leaders of technology and thought throughout much of human history...before extremists Islam ideology took over), but it would be more "missionary" style work rather than just dumping 21st century way of doing things on them all at once.

I mean, for fuchsakes, what did we expect would happen?

Weren't they spending money on trying to teach woke equity bullshit there? I mean, talk about laughable. Trying to bring "post-modern" sensibilities to a place that never became modern to begin with.

 

[QuantumZebra]

Weren't they spending money on trying to teach woke equity bullshit there? I mean, talk about laughable. Trying to bring "post-modern" sensibilities to a place that never became modern to begin with.

Yeah they probably should have focused a bit more on training the military to, you know, fight back, and build the country up.

I'm sure gender studies are going to matter a lot when they're lining LGBTQIA+ people up on walls and executing them.

 

[CrankyJay™]

I have several concerns but the newest one this morning is how many potential terrorists are evacuating on these C-17 planes?

The US had a plan in place to vet the people boarding but that’s all been thrown out the window.

 

[CGiRanger]

The latest press conference (with pre-screened/pre-approved questions) did absolutely zero to calm my concerns. In fact, lots of things didn't match with the reporting from Kabul itself.

 

[QuantumZebra]

Well this is a total nightmare, but at least we have memes:

 

[OverHeat]

Served there in 2010…don’t want to think about it anymore…

 

[HoodWinked]

Good thing we prioritized getting all the afgan men out first. We'll go back for the woman and children or what's left of them.

 

[Cockles & Whelks]

Good thing we prioritized getting all the afgan men out first. We'll go back for the woman and children or what's left of them.

Well with wages rising employers need someone to do the crap jobs and keep them low. Same scam as Angela Merkel worked a few years ago. "But the children and scientists!"

 

[Rat Rage]

The country is a lost cause. Lots of crazy religious people. Poverty. No economy. No education. No smart leadership. Lot's of destruction because of multiple wars. Nation building didn't work at all (may also be the fault of the west, who didn't do a good enough job). They didn't fight back, eventhough they should have had better training and weapons.

The crazies (Taliban) took over. Illiterate, deluted, barbarians. The only way is to flee this shithole for good. Everyone who stays will either die of global warming, poverty/hunger, the arbitrariness of the Talliban or covid.

 

[BouncyFrag]

And just like that...

...this debacle launches the Taliban into the digital age of biometric tracking. At the very least, this is a betrayal of incompetence.

 

[belmarduk]

Yeah they probably should have focused a bit more on training the military to, you know, fight back, and build the country up.

I'm sure gender studies are going to matter a lot when they're lining LGBTQIA+ people up on walls and executing them.

They put quite a bit of time and money into training the Afghani military. The problem is that rather than defending the country, the Afghani "troops" were more interested in using heroin and molesting kids.

 

[MrMephistoX]

It's also really clear that the military and intelligence officials advising the president were blowing smoke up his ass, as they had been for the last three presidents. And all of this just proves why no one should liaten to their bullshit anymore.

True but at the end of the day Biden made a bad decision and he owns that. Trump generally listened to his more hawkish advisors and ignored the doves so he may have at least let them plan for contingencies instead of leaving top grade weapons to the Taliban.

I don't disagree with that analysis of their scope of beliefs/anger... but I find it a hard sell to say that we won't have another Al Qaeda variant crop up in that country.

You have folks with 20 years of anger at US occupation built up... while we've done good there we've also killed a lot of innocents in the mix. Made more enemies than friends, most likely.

Now they are armed to the teeth and from what I can tell, Russia and/or China are going to try and become besties with them.

There is simply no way this can be spun to be good or even a non-issue. This is really, really, really bad. The worst international fuck-up I can recall in my lifetime except possibly the choice to invade Afghanistan/Iraq in the first place.

Don’t forget we imprisoned a shitload of Al Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS in Afghan prisons who were all just let out: if you think they were dedicated to martyrdom before 20 Years imprisonment wait till we see what happens now after they’ve been further radicalized and have a legitimate not just theoretical case for revenge. Something tells me they weren’t reading kinder gentler bits of the Koran in there.

 

[CGiRanger]

They put quite a bit of time and money into training the Afghani military. The problem is that rather than defending the country, the Afghani "troops" were more interested in using heroin and molesting kids.

Which again showed the futility of this whole endeavor. No one wanted to say it out loud (cuz if you do you're racist or such), but these people overall (not saying there's no exceptions, but they're not the norm) live in an utterly backwards barbaric society that have no controls over such behavior, and seemingly reward it instead.

A more lighter example of such, was hearing that, over in the West, it's typically frowned upon when you use your professional status to blatantly benefit your family and friends without hesitation (granted our elite class does it plenty, just not in plain sight), but over there, it's considered an insult if you do not use your position to reward your family and friends.

 

[BouncyFrag]

Weren't they spending money on trying to teach woke equity bullshit there? I mean, talk about laughable. Trying to bring "post-modern" sensibilities to a place that never became modern to begin with.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Don’t forget we imprisoned a shitload of Al Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS in Afghan prisons who were all just let out: if you think they were dedicated to martyrdom before 20 Years imprisonment wait till we see what happens now after they’ve been further radicalized and have a legitimate not just theoretical case for revenge. Something tells me they weren’t reading kinder gentler bits of the Koran in there.

Most likely they will not try to blow themselves up in the US but in Europe. America is really good at not only fucking up places worldwide but also making trouble for Europe. But hey - freedom!

 

[Raven117]

Weren't they spending money on trying to teach woke equity bullshit there? I mean, talk about laughable. Trying to bring "post-modern" sensibilities to a place that never became modern to begin with.

Im not going to blame everything on woke, it goes far deeper than that. But yeah, talking to folks of whom most can't even read and are probably stuck somewhere in 1400's-1600's mentality about transgendered rights, you might as well be teaching them about rocket science (without ever teaching them math).

Its literally like the people making these policies have never actually set foot in a third world country. A backpacker with a week in country could have told you this.

 

[BouncyFrag]

The situation is screwed on all sides, some of the stories coming out of there in the press are deplorable but I think the major things are being swept under the rug whilst the Taliban aren't pushing/controlling the airport to not cause further tension, everything that has been worked towards in terms of women's rights and education will be gone once they have complete control.

What a way to waste the progress that was made and potentially cause another mass migration event for the news to vilify and jump on.

But hey, all in all at least the Taliban are having a jolly good time.

They will defiantly have a jolly good time celebrating the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in the US Embassy in Kabul.

 

[RAÏSanÏa]

It is boggling to imagine what makes them think and act the way the do. They seem like partially uplifted savages. Not even developed beyond the caveman trope of hitting women on the head and dragging them back to the caves. Both literally and metaphorically.

 

[RAL1992]

They will defiantly have a jolly good time celebrating the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in the US Embassy in Kabul.

Exactly... It will be the Taliban's version of independence day, once they have the chance to completely influence infrastructure they will immediately operate against western powers, leading to a resurgence of groups like Al-Qaeda.

It's been a complete waste of lives that tried to make things better, I genuinely feel sorry for the servicemen and the people in the country that actually embraced having some sort of rights.

 

[CGiRanger]

Politico Reporter:

 

[Keihart]

Politico Reporter:

So Biden...

 

[DeepBreath87]

The lesson is this. There is no shortcut to modernity. You can’t just gift a modern, westernized cultural unto people who have no modern, liberal sensibilities. Expecting people to just suddenly believe in things like liberalism and democracy just because we do is asinine. The reason the Afghan military collapsed is because they don’t want to fight for the country we tried to build for them. They need to do it themselves.

Americans like to do this thing where we pretend everyone is the same. Everyone on earth has the same priorities and values as we do. They’re all just like us. As though if they were just given the chance, everyone, everywhere would create their own little USA.

Well it turns out that’s bullshit. The US doesn’t even really believe in itself right now. Why the fuck would we expect some poor Afghani soldier to fight and die for something we barely seem to believe in ourselves? It was always crazy.

 

[Patrick S.]

The short version of how I feel is fuck them all.

 

[belmarduk]

It looks like the Northern Alliance is regaining territory in some provinces. This video from today shows them re-raising the Afghan flag. Great to see that some of the people in Afghanistan are fighting against these Paleolithic fucks. It really sucks that there weren't more people like this who were receptive of our training and who genuinely wanted to better their country.

America should be rooting for the Northern Alliance, but that's all we should be sending.

 

[Chankoras]

It looks like the Northern Alliance is regaining territory in some provinces. This video from today shows them re-raising the Afghan flag. Great to see that some of the people in Afghanistan are fighting against these Paleolithic fucks. It really sucks that there weren't more people like this who were receptive of our training and who genuinely wanted to better their country.

America should be rooting for the Northern Alliance, but that's all we should be sending.

Northern alliance seem to be few of the competent ones.

Weren't they spending money on trying to teach woke equity bullshit there? I mean, talk about laughable. Trying to bring "post-modern" sensibilities to a place that never became modern to begin with.

That would be ironic since it was the West who empowered Mujahideen to fight against the saur revolution, which was a set back in terms of social equality etc, whether it would have have worked out or not that's a different story.
If you think in terms of them trying to spread "wokeness", "gender studies" and their "postmodernism" you're missing the point of the strategic importance of region for Russia, China and the West.

 

[Old Retro]

As a woman, I do feel a little bad for the women there and what will happen to them. But had Afghanistan gotten nuked on 9/12/01 I probably would have cheered along side many other Americans.

On a lighter note, I was watching CNN recently and saw they're gamers/wrasslin fans too?

 

[belmarduk]

Northern alliance seem to be few of the competent ones.

That would be ironic since it was the West who empowered Mujahideen to fight against the saur revolution, which was a set back in terms of social equality etc, whether it would have have worked out or not that's a different story.
If you think in terms of them trying to spread "wokeness", "gender studies" and their "postmodernism" you're missing the point of the strategic importance of region for Russia, China and the West.

I'm one of those nerds who likes to look at maps, this one was last updated four days ago:

The district the Northern Alliance captured (Andarab) is shown here under Taliban control. Hopefully they will update the map soon and we'll see more yellow.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

We've been there 20 years, spent over two trillion dollars and still the Afghanistan Government and Military still won't stand up and defend it's country. We should have left a long time ago, imo.

The Russians (and many other armies over the centuries) tried "devastating" force in Afghanistan and they gave up and left. The Western world can't seem to understand that we aren't going to change the Islamic culture. Yes, we can send an army to Afghanistan to kill terrorists, and those troops may make it possible for girls to go to school, but as soon as our troops leave then it goes back to the way it was before.

Why, because that's the way they have been taught their whole life by their Islamic leaders. The Afghan army was never going to defend a government that promoted women's rights any more than white nationalists in the US would fight for a government that promotes the rights of women/minorities/gays/lesbians/etc.

It shouldn't be a huge surprise, the Taliban walked back into Afghanistan without much resistance because they represent the culture that the majority of the Afghanistan men want.

What was the point though? Why bother?

 

[BouncyFrag]

The Taliban’s new ‘special forces’ showing off their shiny new guns.

 

[DeepBreath87]

The Taliban’s new ‘special forces’ showing off their shiny new guns.

Hey. Those sure look familiar.

 

[Tschumi]

I wonder about how consistent Taliban authority is, maybe these muppets shooting at people and going door to door are just, roving bands of brigands like we've seen in many war torn countries in Africa and the like...

i mean, i'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt, they've already started pissing me off lol, but i mean who's to know how disciplined they all are? They've been hiding in caves for 20 years, or recruited into that situation over the past 20 years, maybe the big guys at the top are genuinely saying 'gradual return' but then cocksure local commanders are like 'fuck that where's my spiked whip?'

This is only tangentially related, I once played high level indoor football back during uni against a player i really didn't like, he was always doing sneaky hits and trips and stuff, and when things didn't go his way he'd commit huge fouls, but he was also effective, league top scorer despite having really workmanlike ball control... i couldn't stand him lol, i kept shouting 'i feel sorry for your wife' at him lol... then someone told me he was in australia after being a guide for australian troops in afghanistan or something, my perspective on him instantly changed... i mean he's still a wanker but i respect that he managed to navigate that situation and find his way to some neighborhood in melbourne

 

[Tschumi]

Just a little note: A lot of images are recycled across conflicts, if you're getting a story from a secondary or tertiary news site, some twitters talking head wanker or something with horrific images it's worth considering that they might be taken from another conflict and put into this one as clickbait. Not saying that's the rule, but it's a possibility.

 

[Chankoras]

I wonder about how consistent Taliban authority is, maybe these muppets shooting at people and going door to door are just, roving bands of brigands like we've seen in many war torn countries in Africa and the like...

i mean, i'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt, they've already started pissing me off lol, but i mean who's to know how disciplined they all are? They've been hiding in caves for 20 years, or recruited into that situation over the past 20 years, maybe the big guys at the top are genuinely saying 'gradual return' but then cocksure local commanders are like 'fuck that where's my spiked whip?'

This is only tangentially related, I once played high level indoor football back during uni against a player i really didn't like, he was always doing sneaky hits and trips and stuff, and when things didn't go his way he'd commit huge fouls, but he was also effective, league top scorer despite having really workmanlike ball control... i couldn't stand him lol, i kept shouting 'i feel sorry for your wife' at him lol... then someone told me he was in australia after being a guide for australian troops in afghanistan or something, my perspective on him instantly changed... i mean he's still a wanker but i respect that he managed to navigate that situation and find his way to some neighborhood in melbourne

distribution of power seem to have a tendency more towards localization than centralization, so experience may vary depending on the benevolence of your local leadership.

 

[Airbus Jr]

 

[BouncyFrag]

 

[haxan7]

Welp

 

[Kenpachii]

Yeah they probably should have focused a bit more on training the military to, you know, fight back, and build the country up.

I'm sure gender studies are going to matter a lot when they're lining LGBTQIA+ people up on walls and executing them.

Why would you train, when u can just sit there smoke weed all day long and pretend to care to fight a enemy u don't even see as enemy.

If tommorow taliban would take over the US, they start to train you to fight americans and pay you for it. Would u fight them when they leave? or will u just roll over the next day and say fuck them as they no longer are relevant.

That's why they fall over.

US wants to make it a second america, they want to go back to where it was before all the shit show happened and that's why they also want radical islam back as rulers. They where born with it. The only people the taliban now have to put up with are the younger people that are younger then 20, because they know what the world is like now and they sure as hell won't want to go back to the shit hole that was there country before as they simple don't identify with any of it.

 

[EviLore]

 

[MightySquirrel]

Good thing we prioritized getting all the afgan men out first. We'll go back for the woman and children or what's left of them.

It's bizarre how the most vulnerable [children and women] are a tiny percentage in this picture. Should be the polar opposite. You can barely spot a few of them..

talibs can not even pretend that something will change for women on camera @50s

 

[SF Kosmo]

True but at the end of the day Biden made a bad decision and he owns that. Trump generally listened to his more hawkish advisors and ignored the doves so he may have at least let them plan for contingencies instead of leaving top grade weapons to the Taliban.

I don't think this is the case. He fired Bolton for defending forever wars. He ignored his advisors calls to stay. And according to reporting in some of the recent books he wanted to pull troops out early before he left office but got distracted by his mental breakdown over election conspiracy and coup plots.

I disagree about taking all the weapons we gave the Afghan Military away, like literally just surrendering on their behalf and not even giving them the choice to fight. That would be crazy to me.

People talk like the Taliban is Al Qaeda or something. The Taliban is the legit governing regime of the country now, and for the most part with the popular support of the people. We negotiated a deal with them. They are going to be a nation now. They have a military, they have weapons. But we have no reason to think they're going to be aggressive against any other country. And I am not that concerned about them having a helicopter they probably don't even know how to fly.

 

[Jaysen]

It’s been twenty years of failure. The thing that bothers me most as someone who served there for over a year are media members and politicians saying this withdrawal is an insult to everyone who served there. Not it isnt. If you served in Afghanistan, you always knew this was how it was going to go.

 

[Methos#1975]

I'm not in the military so I'm asking sincerely. Would an administration even be that involved in planning the logistics of a withdrawal? I always assumed at the presidential level you'd basically give the order to withdraw, and then the joint chiefs and about 20 layers of military would work out how to actually get that done.

Who do you think actually failed if it was publicly known for over a year that we're leaving? Previous administration, current administration, the generals, all of the above?

Really depends on what the exact order was, it seems Biden might have directly ordered the military to just leave without preparing a withdrawal plan for allies and support elements like diplomats for whatever dumbass reason.

 

[Methos#1975]

It’s been twenty years of failure. The thing that bothers me most as someone who served there for over a year are media members and politicians saying this withdrawal is an insult to everyone who served there. Not it isnt. If you served in Afghanistan, you always knew this was how it was going to go.

Funny enough me and bud was taking about this last night. Everyone of us that ever had boots on the ground there knew the second we left the Taliban was going to pop out of their holes and go crazy taking it back over as quick as possible. So if we knew, how the fuck didn't Biden and his advisors and even senior military leadership not foresee this lol

 

[MrMephistoX]

Most likely they will not try to blow themselves up in the US but in Europe. America is really good at not only fucking up places worldwide but also making trouble for Europe. But hey - freedom!

True and if they are principled and think about their Uighur Muslim brothers and sisters more than cash China/Xinjiang. You want to talk Muslim oppression yes we Bomb terrorists and accidentally kill civilians but that’s a straight up Muslim genocide right next door.

I don't think this is the case. He fired Bolton for defending forever wars. He ignored his advisors calls to stay. And according to reporting in some of the recent books he wanted to pull troops out early before he left office but got distracted by his mental breakdown over election conspiracy and coup plots.

I disagree about taking all the weapons we gave the Afghan Military away, like literally just surrendering on their behalf and not even giving them the choice to fight. That would be crazy to me.

People talk like the Taliban is Al Qaeda or something. The Taliban is the legit governing regime of the country now, and for the most part with the popular support of the people. We negotiated a deal with them. They are going to be a nation now. They have a military, they have weapons. But we have no reason to think they're going to be aggressive against any other country. And I am not that concerned about them having a helicopter they probably don't even know how to fly.

You know I didn’t vote for the guy so it’s coming from a place of disillusionment. What I meant was Trump listened to hawkish advisors who told him what he wanted to hear because he had a more aggressive knee jerk sense like with taking out Solemeni. The generals advising Biden and his Sec of Defense are way more dovelike. Of course I could be wrong and maybe he would have just said “fuck it we are leaving in May!” and it would have been just as bad of a train wreck. The reaction would have been way harsher for him we would be looking at impeachment #3 from Pelosi and Adam Schiff would be chairing a committee to investigate whether or not Trump sold us out to Russia and China as a favor to Xi and Putin due to his sleeper agent status.

 

[Jaysen]

Funny enough me and bud was taking about this last night. Everyone of us that ever had boots on the ground there knew the second we left the Taliban was going to pop out of their holes and go crazy taking it back over as quick as possible. So if we knew, how the fuck didn't Biden and his advisors and even senior military leadership not foresee this lol

Or all the politicians prior to the current administration. They kept dumping trillions into a war they knew was destined to fail.

 

[SF Kosmo]

True and if they are principled and think about their Uighur Muslim brothers and sisters more than cash China/Xinjiang. You want to talk Muslim oppression yes we Bomb terrorists and accidentally kill civilians but that’s a straight up Muslim genocide right next door.



You know I didn’t vote for the guy so it’s coming from a place of disillusionment. What I meant was Trump listened to hawkish advisors who told him what he wanted to hear because he had a more aggressive knee jerk sense like with taking out Solemeni. The generals advising Biden and his Sec of Defense are way more dovelike. Of course I could be wrong and maybe he would have just said “fuck it we are leaving in May!” and it would have been just as bad of a train wreck. The reaction would have been way harsher for him we would be looking at impeachment #3 from Pelosi and Adam Schiff would be chairing a committee to investigate whether or not Trump sold us out to Russia and China as a favor to Xi and Putin due to his sleeper agent status.

Trump wasn't really a hawk or a dove in the traditional sense. He just viewed other countries as a waste of resources broadly. He also wanted to pull our troops out of South Korea, Germany, pretty much everywhere... Doesn't mean he wouldn't bomb Syria or Iran if they told him he should, though.