Breaking News Thread

Yes, but said Mujahiddin were what became the Northern Alliance, was it not?

ok

Talk about a cheeky snake.

To your historical point things might go back to something like the status quo anti.

Al Qaida in Maghreb and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (this is the long name for Al Qaida in Mali and West Africa), with an official statement about the fall of Afghanistan.

as if the taliban wasn’t scary enough they have teamed up with Pirates it would seem

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Well, it is apparent that some in the US harbours perhaps very unrealistic ideas of this becoming the “Taliban’s Idlib”. From what I have been able to deduce, but I may and I stress may, be wrong here. But anyway, from what I have read, there are no hospitals in the Panshir valley. 2) The Taliban has succeeded in laying siege to it. 3) the valley is populated by Tajiks, and there are highly unconfirmed reports of Tajikistan Army airlifts with food and ammo. 4) I am not sure I believe that, since Russia says nothing. 5) Russia has a very good grasp on what is going on in Tajikistan. 6) If I am correct and there are no hospitals in the Panshir valley, well, that and food shortages will lead to a critical situation. 7) Mansour is not his father, he is very young, no warlord experience and his advisers are questionable people from the old regime. 8) If they can’t win it is criminal to start a war when you have lost for no gain but death and civilian suffering. 9) The situation is bad, fog of war of course, but the Talibs are reported to have struck back hard and reversed the “surprise gains”. 10) Mansour should have marched on Kabul before Taliban took it. He didn’t, now it is probably too late. 11) If he had actually marched on Kabul, his army would have swelled immensely and government forces would have surrendered en-masse to him. 12) He isn’t even truly legitimate now and there are now not that many forces left to recruit quickly. 13) Situation is FUBAR, China, Pakistan and Iran making deals with IEA, heralding partial international legitimacy. 15)

Taliban can bring artillery, the piece on this video is hardly the only artillery piece they have now. They have no fear of NATO air strikes, those are not coming. Artillery +siege + perhaps no hospital is very bad in my calculus.
16) Taliban has no scruples and when they go to war, they are not very concerned about civilian casualties. While Russia has bombed both hospitals and schools in Syria, they have still not actually targeted civilians en-masse with their air force. Russia could have “won” in Idleb by now if they had methodically targeted civilian gatherings, because that is effective, forces the population to flee, making guerilla warfare without sympathetic civilian population impossible. To be frank, I don’t think the Taliban cares that much if they cause mass starvation in the Panshir valley if reports are true and the panshiris ambushed a Taliban column.17) Taliban is reported to be enraged by what they apparently see as a betrayal, and many in their leadership wants to kill Mansour and make an example of him (but there is also negotiations going on I read). Looks very bad this to me tbh.

Unfortunately, the truth is, during the offensive, since before May, Taliban has not lied in their communications. If Zabihullah says the above, it is likely correct.

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Gate was kaffir:

Concerning the “Panshiri resistance”. IAE wants a negotiated solution, but only one where they can arrest and punish vice president Salah (who Taliban views as a traitor and etc.).
Military situation for the Panshiris is, goes without saying, extremely bad, so I expect a surrender eventually.

Also, Taliban Blood Band troops beating up people outside the air port while standing less than 10 meters from powerless US soldiers. Some bloody videos circulating. Also, US today told US citizens that they are to avoid the air port since the Afghan ISIS branch has come out with a threat they view as credible.
As most people know, Biden cowardly decided to not delay the withdrawal, to much chagrin of the UK, France and others. Obviously, this was because the US fears Taliban would start shooting and then then the nice little “Hashtag Responsible Withdrawal” could be endangered, so better to sacrifice some stuck US citizens and Afghans, as well as fuck over allies yet another time (it is becoming a bipartisan US tradition to fuck over allies with extreme self centered egoism) for the US admin I suppose, instead of having to threat the Taliban as a security threat (claimed to be over 10 000 left, which does seem to be a peculiarly high number, but that is a number the US is peddling itself).

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The barrels of rum were the only point of disagreement

but they knew already what to do with the drunken sailor

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Mmmm. Call my a cynic, but could this have been the US’s plan all along? Make a complete balls up of the exit, draw in a terror attack on US and allied citicens still caught in Afghanistan as an excuse to go back in?

No!

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So you don’t think the US would go in boots and all if any of their citicens were killed or injured in a terror attack near Kabul Airport?

Absolutely they would not. They would seek to deescalate and brush it politically under the carpet. There is not a snowflake’s chance in hell that the US would execute a complex and costly redeployment now that they have effectively surrendered to the Taliban and are paying a political minor cost for it, as well as incalculable damage to US reputation. You dont pull out and then go in again. That has an exorbitant cost and the US doesnt control any terrain anymore.
Rather, they will cooperate with the Taliban when it comes to intelligence regarding the Afgan ISIS group and they will leave Afghanistan when the Taliban demands it, and that is the 31st.
Any ISIS attack on the airport is also an attack on the Taliban, since they control all the checkpoints to the airport. The US, in the event of an ISIS suicide attack, will cooperate with the Taliban and then leave. This is unless ISIS detonates a nuke or something prepostriously unrealistic like a major chemical attack. In that event, the US would also likely leave asap.
There is no chance of the US breaking their agreement with the Taliban since they are afraid of the consequences of firing at them (I.e. get stuck there fighting, which is something the US really, really doesnt want to).

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Every US Citizen in Afghanistan has known the US would be out no later than Aug31st and received state department memos as early as April saying that they were recommending everyone make plans to leave with immediate effect as from May on they millitary could not guarantee support of their exit. Every US cilivian who is still there is there because they chose to be and chose to ignore a direct warning from the state department to leave. I understand the reasons many chose to stay, but those who made that personal decision cannot claim to be stranded or sacrificed and did so with full knowledge of the risks of the decision. And from what I can tell they are not, it is other people making arguments for them that they themselves would not make.

Confrontation with the taliban was not avoided for the sake of a Hashtag, but because to do so without getting annihilated would have required a significant troop surge. Prior to Doha there were 15,000 US troops there who were losing ground to the taliban. Biden inherited 2500 up against a strengthened taliban force.

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Complex and informed posts requires complex answers. I’ll get back to you, since I cannot fire away a nigh automated response.

And there we have the heralded attack I suppose.

Oh god. For something that doesn’t exist, it had a lot to answer for.