WAR US to leave troops in Afghanistan beyond May, 9/11 new goal

[jward]

hmm...the death o' yet another forlorn hope..

Extremism Watch
Taliban Impose New Restrictions on Women, Media In Afghanistan’s North
By Gul Rahim Niazman, Roshan Noorzai

July 09, 2021 01:03 PM






FILE - Afghan women attend an event to mark International Women's Day in Kabul, Afghanistan.


WASHINGTON / BALKH, AFGHANISTAN - Many Afghans who hoped the Taliban would reform their extreme views amid ongoing talks with the Afghan government and the U.S. troop withdrawal have been disappointed by the new severe restrictions imposed on the local population in some of the districts that they have recently captured.
Several residents of Balkh, a district in northern Balkh province that is located 20 kilometers north of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, confirmed to VOA that the Taliban have distributed leaflets, ordering locals to follow strict rules that are similar to those they imposed on Afghans when they last governed the country from 1996 to 2001.
“They want to impose the restrictions that were imposed on women under their rule,” said Nahida, a 34-year-old resident of Balkh district, adding that the restrictions targeting women include “not leaving our houses without a male companion and wearing hijab.”







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Before their ouster by the United States in 2001, the Taliban mandated Afghans follow a strict interpretation of Sharia law, forcing women to cover themselves from head to foot and preventing them from leaving their houses without a male companion.


That changed after 2001 when the new Afghan government, supported by U.S.-led forces, introduced laws to encourage more girls to attend school and to have more women participate in the workforce.


Nahida, who requested to be identified by her pseudonym due to safety concerns, said the group’s new restrictions will be difficult for women to follow “since many of them are the breadwinners of their families and they have to work outside.”


According to the Afghan government, about 30% of the civil servants are now women who were not allowed to work outside their homes during the Taliban’s rule.


Last year, following its peace agreement with the United States, the Taliban leadership initially appeared to recognize this new reality and hinted at an openness to changing policies. In interviews with news agencies and in published essays, the group’s leaders hinted at an openness to changing policies.


But in this year’s spring offensive, the Taliban’s actions have indicated otherwise.


Since May, when the United States and NATO began withdrawing their remaining troops, the Taliban captured about 100 of Afghanistan’s more than 400 districts from government-allied forces. Afghan officials have since vowed to retake the lost districts.







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Another resident of Balkh, who requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation by the militants, said “salons were ordered not to shave or trim beards” when the Taliban controlled the district last month.


“It is possible that they impose more restrictions. In some of the mosques, during the Friday sermons, Mullahs say that the Sharia law should be implemented,” another Balkh resident told VOA.


In several districts of Takhar, Badakhshan, and Kunduz province that came under the Taliban control recently, local reports claim the Taliban issued similar restrictions on women and forced men to grow beards.


Violations


The acting U.S. ambassador in Kabul, Ross Wilson, in a tweet on Wednesday, warned that the Taliban’s growing violence violated human rights and triggered fears that “a system this country’s citizens do not support will be imposed.”


While no progress has been reported in the intra-Afghan peace talks that started in Doha, Qatar last September, Wilson called on the Taliban to negotiate “in good faith and a genuine will.”


In a sign of breaking the long stalemate, a Taliban delegation and a group of Afghan politicians met Wednesday in Tehran. In a joint statement, both sides agreed that “a peaceful solution should be sought.”


Meanwhile, the Afghan forces have vowed to continue their counterattacks to recapture the districts lost to the Taliban.


In a press conference on Tuesday, Afghanistan’s national security advisor, Hamdullah Mohib said that the security forces had recaptured 14 districts, adding that the government forces “will recapture the districts’ buildings,” that have fallen to the Taliban in recent weeks.


Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement Wednesday accused the Taliban of forcibly displacing residents and burning their homes in an apparent retaliation for cooperating with Afghan forces.


‘Not Surprising’


Heather Barr, a HRW senior researcher for women’s rights in Asia, said that reports about the Taliban recent crackdown on women and media were “not very surprising” since her organization’s investigation has found that “the Taliban’s policies are not that different from what they were in 2001.”


It is “very concerning indeed for human rights,” Barr told VOA, adding that “some of these abusive attitudes are actually intensifying as they are feeling triumphant in gaining control of more and more territory.”


The watchdog group in a report last year said although the Taliban, at least at the leadership level, have portrayed themselves as having reformed their hardline views, they have continued to impose extreme restrictions enforced by the militants.


This skepticism was also shared by Sher Jan Ahmadzai, the director of Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska.


“There is no evidence to substantiate their claims that they have changed their tactics of dealing with the local populace in the areas of their control,” said Ahmadzai.


He added that local reports from the areas under the Taliban show the militants have forced residents to feed them and forced the women not to venture out of their houses without their partners or relatives from their families.


“It is difficult to confirm such posts by independent organizations because they are not allowed to report from areas under the Taliban openly,” Ahmadzai said.


Press Restrictions


Nawbahar, the only FM radio station in Balkh district, was forced to broadcast Taliban’s Tarani (chants) and anti-government messages instead of music when the militants entered the district last month, according to local journalists.


“It is against the freedom of expression,” lamented Abdul Aziz Danishjo, a journalist in Mazar-e Sharif, who said the Taliban had forced Nawbahar editor and other staff to go to the radio station and start broadcasting “what the Taliban want.”


Nai, a local media watchdog, has reported that nearly 20 radio stations have ceased broadcasting in Afghanistan’s northern provinces due to the Taliban’s restrictions and ongoing fighting.


Some local journalists view the Taliban crackdown as a major blow to journalism in Afghanistan, a country ranked by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) at 122nd out of 180 nations for violations against journalists.


Mohammad Yaqoob, a local journalist in Balkh province, said the growing violence and Taliban restrictions mean many parts of Afghanistan will be cut off from the rest of the world, making it harder to monitor the human rights violations.


“As a journalist, I would say that the Taliban and the government should follow the media laws,” Yaqoob said.


Yaqoob added that the warring parties should not impose their views on the local radio stations in the areas that come under their control.


The RSF charges that violence against journalists and media outlets has increased “significantly” despite of peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

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Posted for fair use

Taliban Impose New Restrictions on Women, Media In Afghanistan’s North

Taliban militants in Afghan areas under their control have ordered women to wear hijab and forced local radio stations to broadcast their propaganda amid US troop pullout

www.voanews.com

 

[Housecarl]

Note that this is on Yahoo News and from NBC News......

Posted for fair use.....

Biden put America first in exiting Afghanistan. He just can't say it.

Analysis: It's unlikely that any outcome will make Americans believe it is worth going back — or that it was wrong to leave — in the foreseeable future.

news.yahoo.com

Biden put America first in exiting Afghanistan. He just can't say it.
Jonathan Allen
Sat, July 10, 2021, 12:07 PM·4 min read

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden can't speak the obvious truths about his decision to rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan: There was no good way to leave, America lost more than it gained in a 20-year war and the Taliban is almost certain to take over now.

To say any of those quiet parts out loud, Biden would undercut the political value of being the president who pulled the U.S. out of its longest war. And his decision has all the makings of a political victory.

The public is with him: Polls show a strong majority of Americans support withdrawing troops. He is executing on a policy first announced by former President Donald Trump, which means he has some degree of political cover if the sentiments of the electorate shift over time. The withdrawal is unifying for Democrats — who overwhelmingly back it — while Republicans are more divided over it.

The main risks for Biden are failing to walk a fine line on his messaging and, of course, the ever-present possibility that public opinion will shift over time. But it seems unlikely that any outcome in Afghanistan will make Americans believe it is worth going back — or that it was wrong to leave — in the foreseeable future.

So the real political challenge is in what he says, and doesn't say, about the situation.

For example, Biden refused this week to acknowledge the likelihood that the Afghan military will fold, a concession that would surely further weaken the government's forces as it tries to fend off a rapidly advancing Taliban.

"It is not inevitable," Biden said this week of a possible Taliban takeover. "I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war."

But Biden also noted the Taliban "is at its strongest militarily" at exactly the moment the U.S. is walking away. He also took issue with Republicans, and at least a handful of Democrats, who have criticized him for not sticking it out a little longer and with those who compare the retreat to the searing image of Americans lining up to take the last chopper out of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

"There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan," Biden said. "It is not at all comparable."

Yet his rationale for departing was strikingly similar to the question his good friend John Kerry asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 while testifying as an anti-war veteran.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Kerry asked.

This is what Biden said about leaving Afghanistan: "So let me ask those who wanted us to stay: How many more — how many thousands more of America’s daughters and sons are you willing to risk? How long would you have them stay?"

Of course, Biden insisted the U.S. had met its goals in Afghanistan, framing them narrowly around killing Osama bin Laden and ensuring the country is not a safe haven for terrorists. Bin Laden has been dead for more than a decade, and Al Qaeda's capacity to launch attacks on the U.S. from Afghanistan had been taken away long before that. In other words, Biden's implication is that the last decade of U.S. engagement was superfluous to the mission.

Former President Barack Obama, for whom Biden served as vice president, defined success as stabilizing Afghanistan in 2009. The withdrawal promises to further destabilize a nation that has seldom resembled a stable state in the last half-century.

Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, a senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, called the rapid redeployment of U.S. forces "more of a surrender than a withdrawal."

It's not that Turner opposes winding down U.S. operations in Afghanistan; he backed Trump's decision to set a May 2021 deadline for withdrawal. But he believes Biden irresponsibly abandoned Afghan forces without warning.

"He's not leaving a plan for them to execute," Turner said, arguing it will hurt U.S. foreign policy because it "lowers everyone's confidence" in Biden's decision-making.

There's no doubt Republicans will hammer Biden if the Taliban defeats the Afghan forces, and they will point to this moment in time as pivotal. But there's plenty of evidence to suggest the public is more concerned with ending U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan than it is with preventing the Taliban from taking over.

Biden has demonstrated that he, too, prioritizes getting out over what's left behind. That's a tough message for U.S. allies to hear — that the U.S. will act in its own perceived interests, regardless of the consequences for everyone else — so Biden left it unspoken.

He put America first. He just didn't say it.

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

Special Report-Afghan pilots assassinated by Taliban as U.S. withdraws

Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan's sprawling capital. Instead of being greeted by a prospective buyer at his realtor's office earlier this...

news.yahoo.com

Special Report-Afghan pilots assassinated by Taliban as U.S. withdraws

Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Hamid Shalizi
Fri, July 9, 2021, 4:04 AM

KABUL, (Reuters) - Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan's sprawling capital.

Instead of being greeted by a prospective buyer at his realtor's office earlier this year, the 41-year-old pilot was confronted by a gunman who walked inside and, without a word, fatally shot the real estate agent in the mouth.

Zamaray reached for his sidearm but the gunman shot him in the head. The father of seven collapsed dead on his 14-year-old son, who had tagged along. The boy was spared, but barely speaks anymore, his family says.

Zamaray “only went there because he personally knew the realtor and thought it was safe," Samiullah Darman, his brother-in-law, told Reuters. "We didn’t know that he would never come back."

At least seven Afghan pilots, including Zamaray, have been assassinated off base in recent months, according to two senior Afghan government officials. This series of targeted killings, which haven't been previously reported, illustrate what U.S. and Afghan officials believe is a deliberate Taliban effort to destroy one of Afghanistan's most valuable military assets: its corps of U.S.- and NATO-trained military pilots.

In so doing, the Taliban -- who have no air force -- are looking to level the playing field as they press major ground offensives. The militants are quickly seizing territory once controlled by the U.S.-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, raising fears they could eventually try to topple Kabul.

Reuters confirmed the identities of two of the slain pilots through family members. It could not independently verify the names of the other five who were allegedly targeted.

In response to questions from Reuters, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the group had killed Zamaray, and that it had started a program that will see Afghan Air Force pilots “targeted and eliminated because all of them do bombardment against their people."

A U.N. report documented 229 civilian deaths caused by the Taliban in Afghanistan in the first three months of 2021, and 41 civilian deaths caused by the Afghan Air Force over the same period.

Afghanistan's government has not publicly disclosed the number of pilots assassinated in targeted killings. The nation's Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon said it was aware of the deaths of several Afghan pilots in killings claimed by the Taliban, but declined comment on U.S. intelligence and investigations.

Afghan military pilots are particularly attractive assassination targets, current and former U.S. and Afghan officials say. They can strike Taliban forces massing for major attacks, shuttle commandos to missions and provide life-saving air cover for Afghan ground troops. Pilots take years to train and are hard to replace, representing an outsized blow to the country's defenses with every loss.

Shoot-downs and accidents are ever-present risks. Yet these pilots often are most vulnerable in the streets of their own neighborhoods, where attackers can come from anywhere, said retired U.S. Brigadier General David Hicks, who commanded the training effort for the Afghan Air Force from 2016 to 2017.

"Their lives were at much greater risk during that time (off base) than they were while they were flying combat missions," Hicks said.

Although Taliban assassinations of pilots have happened in years past, the recent killings take on greater significance as the Afghan Air Force is tested like never before.

Just last week, U.S. forces left America’s main military bastion in Afghanistan, Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, as they complete their withdrawal from the country 20 years after ousting the Taliban following the Al Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Pilots are on top of the Taliban's hit list," the senior Afghan government official said.

That Afghan official and two others, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they're working to protect pilots and their families, moving some to on-base housing and relocating others to safer civilian neighborhoods.

A White House National Security Council spokesperson strongly condemned “all targeted assassinations in Afghanistan” and stressed U.S. commitments to continue providing security assistance to the Afghan military.

The Afghan Air Force is heavily dependent on U.S. training, equipment and maintenance as well as logistics to ensure a reliable pipeline of munitions and spare parts. The Pentagon has yet to fully detail how it will keep Afghan aviators flying after the U.S.-led mission formally ends in coming weeks, as ordered by President Joe Biden.

The Pentagon told Reuters it would seek to provide Afghanistan with extra aircraft to ease the strain of combat losses and maintenance downtime.

David Petraeus, a former CIA director and former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, warned that failure of the United States to provide enough support for the Afghan military could be disastrous.

"We are potentially consigning Afghanistan and the Afghan people to a civil war," Petraeus said in an interview.

Washington is moving to evacuate interpreters who worked for the U.S. military, but it’s unclear if the Biden administration would risk doing the same for Afghan forces, like pilots. Some officials believe offering an exit strategy for elite Afghan troops could accelerate a feared collapse following the U.S. withdrawal.

U.S. intelligence assessments have warned that the Afghan government could fall in as little as six months, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

"No one wants to have the (Afghan forces) preemptively throw in the towel," another U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

PRECIOUS, OVER-STRETCHED
Two Afghan Air Force pilots were killed on June 7 while trying to evacuate troops wounded during a surge of fighting against the Taliban insurgency.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down their Russian-made, U.S.-financed Mi-17 helicopter. Local media identified the deceased pilots as Milad Massoud and Abdul Alim Shahrayari. The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that the aircraft crashed, but it did not say why, nor would it identify the pilots. An Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the chopper was shot down.

Both the crew and the aircraft were precious.

The Afghan fleet contained just 13 Mi-17 helicopters and 65 qualified aircrews of pilots and co-pilots to fly them, according to U.S. military data from April 2021 and November 2020, respectively.

Those data show the entire Afghan Air Force comprises 339 qualified aircrews and 160 aircraft -- less than a quarter of the fleet size of U.S. commercial carrier Southwest Airlines. The "usable" fleet is even smaller - around 140 aircraft - after accounting for aircraft undergoing maintenance, according to the same April data.

Built in America's image, the Afghan Air Force is equipped with UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and lumbering C-130H transport aircraft, neither of which Afghans know how to maintain, according to a Pentagon report released in April. Those aircraft are serviced by U.S.-funded contractors, which also handle most maintenance for the rest of the fleet, including A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft, AC-208 Eliminator planes and MD-530 helicopters, according to that report.

A separate 2020 report by the Pentagon's Lead Inspector General warned that Afghanistan's fleet would stop being "combat effective" within a few months if the Afghan Air Force were to lose contractor support. The Pentagon has not said how many contractors will remain in Afghanistan.

Reuters contacted two large U.S. defense contractors that support the Afghan Air Force: Leidos Holdings Inc and DynCorp International, now part of Amentum Services Inc. Spokespeople for those companies declined to say how many contractors, if any, were still in Afghanistan.

In comments to Reuters, the Pentagon acknowledged the withdrawal of contractors could impact routine maintenance, something it was working to address. Spokesman Major Rob Lodewick said it had already become common practice to send aircraft abroad for heavy maintenance.

Petraeus said that’s not only costly, but it’s "impractical" in a wartime setting to fly aircraft out of Afghanistan for repairs. Remote instruction and meetings via video-conference also have natural limitations.

Along with Afghanistan's Special Forces, the Afghan Air Force is a pillar of the nation's strategy for preventing a Taliban takeover of cities. In addition to providing air cover and performing bombing raids, pilots conduct medical evacuations, ferry supplies and transport troops for the country's over-stretched army.

Since Biden’s April withdrawal announcement, Taliban militants have more than doubled the number of districts under their control in Afghanistan to 203, which is nearly half the country’s 407 districts, according to the Long War Journal, an online publication associated with the conservative think-tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. Reuters could not independently verify the data.

Western security officials said insurgent forces have captured more than 100 districts, but the Taliban say they have control of more than 200 districts in 34 provinces comprising over half the Central Asian country.

The U.S. military has stopped releasing its tally of Taliban-controlled districts and says that information is now classified. But on Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged the Taliban had taken "dozens" of district centers.

Swift gains by the Taliban are putting more strain on Afghan Air Force crews and aircraft to repel the advances, four U.S. officials said.

Even before the latest wave of Taliban offensives, the Afghan Air Force was flying missions at a faster pace than anticipated, piling up maintenance checks that took more planes out of circulation, according to a May report by the Pentagon's Inspector General.

General Austin Miller, the commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, warned on June 29 that he was concerned about "overuse" of the Afghan Air Force.

"If you overuse the organizations, it's difficult for them to ... reconstitute," Miller told reporters.

In remarks from the White House on Thursday, Biden said aid to Afghanistan’s military would continue after the U.S. military mission ends on Aug 31. But Biden was hardly optimistic about Afghanistan’s future, casting doubt on the two-decade-old project to preserve a unified, centralized state. Still, he said a Taliban victory was not inevitable.

"I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, which is better trained, better equipped and more competent” than the Taliban, he told reporters.

STAY AND FIGHT?
It wasn't just Taliban death threats against him and his family that drove decorated Afghan helicopter pilot Major Naiem Asadi out of Afghanistan. Asadi said the Afghan Air Force had failed to do enough to protect pilots vulnerable to off-base assassinations.

"They spend a lot of money on (the training) of these pilots, but they can't spend any money on the pilots for their security," Asadi told Reuters in an interview, after arriving in New Jersey in June to start his bid for asylum.

Asadi complained that not all Afghan pilots got paid the same or even regularly. As a member of the ethnic Hazara minority, Asadi believed he was also passed up for promotion.

"They are not taking care of every pilot equally," he said.

The Afghan military did not respond to requests for comment on Asadi’s case. Asadi did not show Reuters documentation to support his discrimination claims.

Experts say the morale of Afghan forces could prove critical in preventing collapse, given the momentum of the Taliban and the perceived weakness of the Afghan central government in key parts of the country.

On Sunday, more than 1,000 Afghan security personnel fled across the border into Tajikistan following Taliban advances in northern Afghanistan. Almost 300 flew back to Afghanistan on Wednesday, and officials in Kabul continue to express confidence in the Afghan security forces.

A review by a U.S. government watchdog found nearly half of all foreign military trainees who went Absent Without Leave (AWOL) while training in the United States since 2005 were from Afghanistan. The Pentagon eventually halted training of Afghan pilots inside the United States.

Niloofar Rahmani, the first female fixed-wing pilot in the Afghan Air Force, won asylum in the United States in 2018 after receiving death threats from the Taliban and others in Afghan society who condemned her for working alongside the U.S. military.

Rahmani, who is now training in Florida to become a flight instructor, said the Afghan government didn't take those threats seriously enough and that even some of her fellow pilots didn't think women should fly. She said she wasn't paid for a year.

Still, the decision to leave Afghanistan wasn’t an easy one.

"It honestly broke my heart, I was depressed for two years just thinking about it," Rahmani said, explaining she felt like she had abandoned her family and what once seemed like a promising military career. She said she feared many pilots would drop out of the force "because of lack of support, because of the threat."

The Afghan military did not respond to a request for comment on Rahmani’s case.

An active-duty Afghan pilot, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity from Afghanistan, said he, too, was trying to figure out a way to flee the country in the face of deteriorating security.

Some are finding the U.S. door shut. Mohd Hamayoun Zarin, a former A-29 pilot, expressed shock that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul rejected his visa request in March.

As an Afghan Air Force veteran who spent years training in America, Zarin is convinced the Taliban will make good on their many threats to kill him and his family now that U.S. troops are leaving.
It would be payback, he says.

"I wasn't dropping flowers on them. These were bombs," Zarin said in an interview, detailing his case publicly for the first time in the hopes that the United States might reconsider.

In its letter to Zarin, viewed by Reuters, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said he was ineligible for the same visas set aside for interpreters because he did not work directly for the United States, but rather for the Afghan government.

Zarin said that distinction makes little difference on the ground in Afghanistan, where he was known as an English-speaking pilot who spent years training in the United States.

The State Department declined comment on Zarin’s case, saying visa applications are confidential.

TRAINED KILLERS
Masood Atal, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, was driving on his day off on Dec. 30 to buy fruit for his mother when two motorcycles flanked his gray Toyota Corolla on a Kandahar city highway, one on each side of the car.

Gunmen on the back of both bikes opened fire on Atal, shooting him 11 times, once in the face, six times in his right arm and hand, the rest in his chest, his family said.

Atal had confided to his family that he had received Taliban death threats, the latest in an expletive-laced phone call just two days before he was killed.

"We're killing you," they told him, recounted Bashir Ahmad, one of Atal's brothers.

Atal had asked for bodyguards and a bullet-proof car but the Afghan military turned him down, Ahmad said, accusing it of being "very weak on these things."

An Afghan military spokesman, Sadeq Esa, confirmed Atal had been killed by the Taliban but did not provide further comment about his case.

The Taliban confirmed it killed Atal and said it would do the same to other pilots.

“Targeting those who bombard civilians, who drop blind bombs on civilian houses, is an obligation for us and we will do this,” Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, told Reuters.

For Atal's parents, it was their fifth child killed in the many decades of fighting in Afghanistan. In 1984, during the Soviet occupation, a rocket fired by an anti-Soviet mujahideen landed in front of their children's school in Kandahar, killing another son and three daughters, the family said.

Such crossfire has killed untold numbers of Afghan civilians. But there was nothing indiscriminate about Atal's killing, his family said. The Taliban "are absolutely focusing on the pilots first ... to make the Afghan government vulnerable enough so they can be beaten," said another brother, Waheed.

Catching the killers of Afghan pilots has proven difficult.

A few weeks after the January shooting of Zamaray, the airman shot dead in his realtor's office, Kabul police told the family they had made an arrest. They asked Zamaray's 14-year-old son to identify the suspect.

Glimpsing the detainee at the police station, the teen informed police they had the wrong man. Police tried to convince the boy that the suspect might now look different because he had a broken nose, the family said.
"The police were pushing (Zamaray's) son to identify and implicate the wrong
person just to hide their weakness and show an achievement," Darman, Zamaray's brother-in-law, said.

Afghan authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Editing by Mary Milliken and Marla Dickerson)

 

[jward]

Biden is betting big on Afghanistan's air force. But their problems continue to grow.
The service is facing personnel shortages, a shrinking bank of on-site expertise and an emboldened Taliban.

Afghan army officers stand near A-29 Super Tucanos at the military airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. | Rahmat Gul/AP Photo
By PAUL MCLEARY
07/10/2021 07:00 AM EDT


If you think beating back a resurgent Taliban is hard, try doing it while fixing a broken helicopter over Zoom.
In addition to pulling out all but a handful of troops from Afghanistan, the Pentagon has also flown thousands of contractors out of the country in recent weeks, leaving a skeleton force of several hundred behind to do everything the Afghans can't — including fixing their own airplanes and helicopters and handling logistics.
As the withdrawal continues, more of that wrench turning will be done by Afghan crews, with U.S. contractors looking over their shoulders via Zoom or coaching them over the phone, defense officials say.




It's not clear how that will work in practice, but the drawdown from over 16,000 contractors to hundreds could have a bigger effect on the security situation than sending home the last 2,500 U.S. troops, as the Afghan air force strains to keep its planes and helicopters in the sky, hunting Taliban fighters.
“It's incumbent on the Biden administration to do all it can to continue to provide that support to the air force,” said Lisa Curtis, a former National Security Council director for South and Central Asia, and now director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “It would be like pulling the rug out from under the Afghans, not only are we withdrawing our troops, but we withdraw their ability to maintain the capabilities that we have provided.”

Kabul's small but active air force of 162 airplanes and helicopters is being given the monumental task of supporting tens of thousands of Afghan troops in the field through airstrikes, resupplying far-flung outposts, and evacuating the wounded without American help or on-site repair expertise. Yet billions in U.S. cash and dozens of replacement helicopters will continue to flow into the country.

Those planes and helicopters are the best hope Kabul has of beating back the Taliban as government forces continue to lose territory in the countryside.
“They've got capacity. They've got capability. They have an air force — an air force, by the way, that we're continuing to fund and support,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Friday on CNN. “They've got modern weaponry. They've had training and the ability to be in the field with American forces much over the last 20 years. ... Now it's time to have that will."


Over the past decade, the U.S. has built an Afghan air force modeled on its own strengths and preferences, spending $8 billion to deploy strike aircraft such as the A-29 Super Tucano and AC-208 Combat Caravan, both of which are propeller-driven planes that can fire laser-guided munitions at ground targets. The U.S. has also sent new Black Hawk helicopters.
The Black Hawk decision came after the U.S. declared it would stop supplying Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters to Kabul in 2014 as part of sanctions levied against Russia. The Mi-17 is a version of the old Soviet helos Afghan airmen have decades of experience flying and maintaining, but the Pentagon decided to replace them with 53 U.S.-made UH-60 Black Hawks, which are harder to maintain and lack the high-altitude capability of the older Russian helicopters.

The Black Hawks also come with long logistic tails and complex maintenance requirements that Afghan crews can’t handle themselves. It’s here where the loss of contractor support will hit the Afghan military the hardest.
Having more helicopters will allow commanders to put fewer hours on their existing platforms, however, which would likely save on some routine maintenance and allow back-to-back missions.
“The Afghan Air Force has a bad habit of blowing past these maintenance schedules, though, in order to deliver more hours of air support to the army and police,” said Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at CNA.
But having those extra airframes “should enable them to do the maintenance stand-downs as required while still delivering maximum support to the army and police,” he added, something that will be critical as the army fights off multiple Taliban offensives across the country.

The shortage of personnel is already an issue. An inspector general report in April found that “most AAF airframes had nowhere near the number of qualified personnel (instructor pilots, copilots, mission system operators, etc.) needed to man the aircrew positions each airframe requires.”

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With the departure of the contractors, U.S. defense planners are now pinning their hopes on remote-work technology, adding local maintainers through phone calls or video chats. Aircraft that require heavy repair will now be shipped to facilities outside Afghanistan.
“The impact on readiness of the Afghan fleet will mainly result from the increased reliance on Afghan military maintainers to perform routine flight-line maintenance and receive on-the-job training,” according to Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Rob Lodewick. But it remains unclear how quickly that impact will be felt.
To help make up for the loss of broken or destroyed helicopters, the U.S. is sending 37 more UH-60 Black Hawks to the country over the coming months to be kept in storage until needed. They will likely be cannibalized for spare parts if fresh shipments can't be sent in soon enough.

More potential problems are continuing to stack up. In January, NATO’s Train Advise Assist Command - Air in Kabul told a Pentagon inspector general that without continued contractor support, none of the air force's airframes "can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months."
The A-29 and AC-208 will be key components to any success the Afghan air force might have in hitting the Taliban from the air, but as with the rest of the service, the pilot and ground crew options are limited and unlikely to grow. The American program to train A-29 pilots in the U.S. wrapped up in November 2020, with only about 30 pilots trained between 2015 and 2020.
Adding to the mounting problems is what appears to be a coordinated Taliban assassination campaign targeting these pilots. Reuters reported Friday that at least seven pilots have been assassinated off base in recent weeks, adding pressure on an already small pool of qualified officers.
As of April, more than 16,000 DoD contractors were working in Afghanistan, including more than 6,100 U.S. citizens, according to an inspector general report. A Pentagon official confirmed that number is now in the "hundreds." POLITICO reached out to two of the largest U.S.-based contractors working in Afghanistan, Leidos Holdings and DynCorp International, now part of Amentum Services Inc., for comment. Leidos directed questions to the Pentagon, and Amentum did not reply.


In May, the heads of three trade groups representing the government contracting industry sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power, asking for clarity on where and how their members will continue their work for the Afghan military and government. None of the government officials have answered the letter according to officials at the Professional Services Council.
It’s not clear what role the U.S. military will play in the coming months, but President Joe Biden has pledged to keep pumping money into the Afghan military, and the Pentagon suggested Thursday that it might still provide some intelligence and surveillance support.
"I think you can expect that we plan to use a range of [intelligence and surveillance] capabilities at our disposal,” Kirby said Thursday. “We also intend to leverage the strong relationship we have with the Afghan forces who will still be on the ground and who will still have information they can provide us," suggesting that the U.S. might make use of airstrikes to help out Afghan troops on the ground.
The Biden administration requested $3.3 billion to support the Afghan military in its fiscal 2022 budget, a price that Washington will have to continue to bear as long as the government in Kabul is fighting to stay alive.
But as the years go on, that support might be hard to maintain not only due to competing priorities at home, but as the rampant and well-documented corruption in the Afghan government siphons some of that money away.
“The biggest challenge will be Congress' demand for accountability and monitoring that funding,” CNAS’ Curtis said. “As we pull back our presence and we have fewer resources on the ground, it's going to be harder and harder to get Congress to approve that funding because of the corruption” in Kabul.

Biden is betting big on Afghanistan's air force. But their problems continue to grow.

The service is facing personnel shortages, a shrinking bank of on-site expertise and an emboldened Taliban.

www.politico.com

 

[jward]

The HbK
@The5HbK
56s

#Breaking: #Taliban on China's #Uyghurs: - “We care about the oppression of Muslims, be it in Palestine, in Myanmar, or in China, and we care about the oppression of non-Muslims anywhere in the world. But what we are not going to do is interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

 

[Housecarl]

Odds are that the author is speaking too soon......

Posted for fair use.....

With Afghan pullout, US ditches 'forever wars' - France 24

With Afghan pullout, US ditches 'forever wars'

www.france24.com

With Afghan pullout, US ditches 'forever wars'
Issued on: 11/07/2021 - 03:44

No longer Washington's security priority: members of an anti-Taliban militia fighting with Taliban insurgents in Helmand province WAKIL KOHSAR AFP
4 min


Washington (AFP)
Joe Biden's pullout from Afghanistan has stunned with its speed, but Washington already decided four years ago that it was fed up with “forever wars” and turned its attention to traditional great power competition with China and Russia.

Fighting stateless terror groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State consumed the US security establishment, and trillions of dollars, since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Biden predecessor Donald Trump came to office in 2017 promising to quit Afghanistan, calling the war there a "mess" and a "waste."

The conflicts there and in Iraq had come to be characterized by unending troop deployments, persistent levels of violence, and no ability to conclusively defeat the enemy.

By 2020 Trump had overcome resistance and laid the ground for pullouts, leaving only 2,500 troops in each country by the time he stepped down in January. Biden accepted that trajectory, announcing Thursday that US military involvement in Afghanistan would conclude by August 31.

"We are ending America's longest war," he said. "The United States cannot afford to remain tethered to policies created to respond to a world as it was 20 years ago."

- Challenge from Putin and Xi -
The 9/11 attacks blindsided the US security establishment, forcing a whole-of-government refocus and the launching of the "War on Terror."

The US and NATO allies invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban government, which had protected Al-Qaeda.

And then-president George W. Bush took advantage to also invade Iraq to overthrow strongman Saddam Hussein, hoping to remake the Middle East and snuff out a broader threat.

The initial assaults largely succeeded quickly, with Al-Qaeda fractured and on the run in Afghanistan, and Saddam deposed and captured in Iraq.

But in both cases the United States and allies remained on the ground, hoping to rebuild each country, and unable to pull out without risking a return to the pre-9/11 situation.

Then, starting in 2013, US security leaders rebooted their views when new Chinese President Xi Jinping began aggressively expanding his country's military.

Seeking to counter and surpass US military strength, China began building armed bases on disputed islets in the South China Sea, added a base in Djibouti and planned other bases around Asia and the Middle East.

Meanwhile in 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin sent forces to seize Ukraine's Crimea and supported an insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Two years later Moscow mustered an aggressive campaign to influence the US presidential elections.

During the same period, young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un embarked on an ambitious plan to develop nuclear weapons with missiles that could threaten the United States.

Trump's 2017 National Security Strategy confirmed the pivot.

"China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity," it said.

"They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence."

- New flashpoints: Ukraine and Taiwan -
Reminiscent of the Cold War, the reorientation meant a Pentagon push to expand its navy, build stronger long-range bomber and submarine strike forces, and update its nuclear weapons.

It has also meant countering the Chinese and Russian challenge in new domains, with the Pentagon establishing both Space Command and Cyber Command.

The new priorities took root under Trump, and Biden confirmed them in March in his own national security policy.
"The distribution of power across the world is changing, creating new threats. China, in particular, has rapidly become more assertive," it said.

"Both Beijing and Moscow have invested heavily in efforts meant to check US strengths and prevent us from defending our interests and allies around the world."

Instead of Afghanistan and Iraq-Syria, Ukraine and Taiwan are the new flashpoints.

Both have recently received more and more advanced US weaponry to deter, respectively, Russia and China.

The Pentagon created a new office focused on China. US naval vessels regularly sail the waters around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, implicitly challenging China's territorial claims.

As for Russia, Biden has sought to strengthen bonds with NATO allies.

Over the past week, too, US vessels took part in exercises in the Black Sea where Russian forces were conducting their own manuevers.

Counter-terrorism doesn't end with the Afghanistan pullout, the Pentagon stresses.

But it is turning more remote-directed -- using air and missile strikes from remote bases and vessels to act in Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda still operates.

"We are repositioning our resources and adapting our counterterrorism posture to meet the threats where they are now," Biden said.

© 2021 AFP

 

[jward]

Wes Andrews
@Wes_Andrews
2h

Replying to
@LTGHRMcMaster
Taliban deal was never going to broker a lasting peace. Until external Gulf State & narco financing is eliminated, and the Taliban’s leadership & R+R safe-havens are shutdown in Pakistan, we’ll have to indefinitely sustain AFG security forces’ efforts.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1414332315547828226

View: https://twitter.com/Wes_Andrews/status/1414332315547828226?s=20

 

[jward]

H.R. McMaster
@LTGHRMcMaster

Prospects of collapse in Afghanistan are increasing. The Taliban offensive in the north is to prevent a new anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. Many ANDSF forces are demoralized. SF and Commandos are becoming exhausted.
Soon the Taliban will attempt to put Kabul and other cities under siege. They are using assassination and intimidation to take over key districts surrounding provincial capitals.
This was all predicted. Results are already worse than the cost of maintaining the small multinational effort prior to the capitulation agreement with the Taliban to “end the endless war.” Wars don’t end when one party leaves.
10:01 AM · Jul 11, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

 

[jward]

Ab Qadir Sediqi
@qadir_sediqi
5h

#AFG. Air defense system, installed in #Kabul, tested by #ANDSF. I hope it helps the security situation in Kabul. Footage: By myself

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1414298277592371201

View: https://twitter.com/qadir_sediqi/status/1414298277592371201?s=20

 

[jward]

FJ
@Natsecjeff
6m

Iran-Taliban ties are no secret and go a long way back. Iran also sees the present version of Taliban as a lot more pragmatic than the previous one from 2000. But doesn't mean Iran won't maintain its proxy groups like Fatemiyoun Brigade. Would be interesting how TB copes with it.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1414542445237391360

View: https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1414542445237391360?s=20

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

The Top U.S. Commander In Afghanistan Has Relinquished His Post

The move takes the United States a step closer to ending its 20-year war. It came as Taliban insurgents continue to gain territory across the country.

www.npr.org

National Security

The Top U.S. Commander In Afghanistan Has Relinquished His Post

• 
  
• 
  

July 12, 202110:39 AM ET

The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan relinquished his position at a ceremony in the capital Kabul on Monday, taking the United States a step closer to ending its 20-year war. The move came as Taliban insurgents continue to gain territory across the country.


Another four-star general will assume authority from his U.S.-based post to conduct possible airstrikes in defense of Afghan government forces, at least until the U.S. withdrawal concludes by Aug. 31.


Gen. Scott Miller has served as America's top commander in Afghanistan since 2018. He handed over command of what has become known as America's "forever war" in its waning days to Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command. McKenzie will operate from Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.


The handover took place in the heavily fortified Resolute Support headquarters in the heart of Kabul at a time of rapid territorial gains by Taliban insurgents across Afghanistan.

In a flag-passing ceremony, Miller remembered the U.S. and NATO troops killed in the nearly 20-year war as well as the thousands of Afghans who lost their lives.


Investigations
What Might Happen To Guantánamo Now That U.S. Troops Are Leaving Afghanistan


He warned that relentless violence across Afghanistan is making a political settlement increasingly difficult. The outgoing commander said he has told Taliban officials "it's important that the military sides set the conditions for a peaceful and political settlement in Afghanistan. ... But we know that with that violence, it would be very difficult to achieve a political settlement."


The Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces, mostly funded by the United States and NATO, have put up resistance in some parts of the country, but overwhelmingly Afghan government troops appear to have abandoned the fight.


In recent weeks, the Taliban have gained several strategic districts, particularly along the borders with Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.


Afghanistan's National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib, who attended the handover, said the U.S. and NATO withdrawal has left a vacuum that resulted in Afghanistan's national security forces stranded on the battlefield without resupplies, sometimes running out of food and ammunition.


In comments after the ceremony, Mohib said the greatest impact of the withdrawal is a lack of aircraft to resupply troops. Currently, the government is regrouping to retake strategic areas and defend its cities against Taliban advances.


The Taliban control more than one-third of Afghanistan's 421 districts and district centers. A Taliban claim that they control 85% of the districts is widely seen as exaggerated.



National Security
With The U.S. Military Gone, The CIA Faces Tough Challenges In Afghanistan

After Miller's departure, a two-star admiral based at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul will oversee the U.S. military's role in securing the American diplomatic presence in Kabul, including defending the Kabul airport.


Miller's departure does not reduce the scope of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, since McKenzie will assume the authorities now held by Miller to conduct airstrikes in defense of Afghan government forces under certain circumstances. The conditions under which such strikes might be used are not clear, nor is it known for how long McKenzie will keep the strike authority.


A deal the U.S. struck with the Taliban in February 2020 included a promise from the insurgent movement not to attack U.S. and NATO troops, a commitment it appears they have largely kept.


While Washington is not saying how many troops remain in Afghanistan, a CENTCOM statement more than a week ago said the withdrawal was 90 percent complete.


President Joe Biden has reiterated that the U.S. will remain engaged in Afghanistan with humanitarian assistance. The U.S. also is committed to spending $4.4 billion annually to fund Afghanistan's security forces until 2024.

 

[Housecarl]

Hummm......

Posted for fair use.....

Opinion: Afghanistan: After the fall

"Afghanistan wasn’t a 'major terrorist base' in the past, and it probably won’t become one in the future. And if it does, so what? At least then you’ll know where they are," writes Gwynne Dyer.

bangordailynews.com

Afghanistan: After the fall

by Contributed 37 mins ago

The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose commentary is published in 45 countries.

Five times in the past two weeks, government soldiers in Badakhshan and Takhar provinces in northern Afghanistan have fled across the border into Tajikistan after clashes with Taliban militants. They didn’t lose the firefights, and they’re not cowards; 1,600 trained soldiers – over 100 a day – just fled abroad to avoid further combat. Nobody wants to be the last man to die in a lost war.

Everybody in the Afghan national army already knows that the war is lost. So the U.S. intelligence reports predicting that Ashraf Ghani’s puppet government (the term is not too harsh) could fall within six to 12 months of a U.S. troop withdrawal are too optimistic.

The last German, Italian and British troops left Afghanistan last week, and the last U.S. troops are leaving right now, apart from some 650 soldiers to guard the American embassy and the airport. (Always hold the airport, because people lined up on the embassy roof waiting for the last helicopter out is a bad look.)

But Kabul may fall in a lot less than six months. The Taliban already hold at least half the country and they are currently taking new districts literally every day, including ones only an hour’s drive north and south of the capital. The army is just melting away, and the air force will be grounded within weeks once the foreign technical support goes home.

The mujahideen group that became the Taliban spent 10 years fighting the Russian occupation, then seven years fighting the local regime and rival mujahideen groups; then five years in power; and then another 20 years fighting the U.S. occupation. Unsurprisingly, they have learned a few things in that time.

Most importantly, they have expanded their membership and influence among the non-Pashtun groups: the northern provinces that are now falling to them so fast are the areas they never controlled during their last time in power. They will not just win quickly this time. They will win completely.

Then there will be a period of vengeance-taking in which “traitors” who worked for the Americans or other NATO countries will be hunted down and killed.

Women will be driven out of the workforce, girls’ schools will be closed, music will be banned and men will be beaten for not wearing beards. The wicked foreign behaviors that were introduced by the Russian occupation and brought back by the U.S. occupation will be expunged, and the Taliban’s extreme version of Islam will reign unchallenged.

It is a tragedy for Afghanistan, but it won’t really matter much for the world. The Taliban have never had any interest in the rest of the world. Their agenda was and still is entirely domestic and religious: make Afghanistan a properly God-fearing place, and all the other good things will follow automatically.

The notion that Afghanistan will become a major terrorist base again once the Taliban regain power is based on the foolish belief that it was an important base for terrorist activity the first time around. Terrorists don’t actually need “bases”; the essence of the enterprise is to be invisible until you strike, and the weapons you need are neither large nor hard to obtain.

Most of the 9/11 hijackers got some “training” in Osama bin Laden’s camp, but they were Arabs, not Afghans, and how much training do you need to hijack an airplane? Well, OK, four of them needed flight training, but they did that in the U.S.
Bin Laden was only in Afghanistan because American pressure got him expelled from his previous “base” in Sudan. The Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, let him set up in Kandahar because the two men had become close friends when working in the 1980s in the American-backed jihad against the Russians in Afghanistan.

But did bin Laden tell Omar about his plan to kill thousands of Americans by hijacking commercial aircraft? The first principle of all secret work is “need to know,” and Omar didn’t need to know. Indeed, he might have objected if he did know, because he would have realized that Afghanistan would get invaded if the 9/11 attack went ahead.

Afghanistan wasn’t a “major terrorist base” in the past, and it probably won’t become one in the future. And if it does, so what? At least then you’ll know where they are.

 

[jward]

I 'really' need a bigger chalk board for all this ...

Babak Taghvaee - Μπάπακ Τακβαίε - بابک تقوایی
@BabakTaghvaee

#BREAKING: #Taliban terrorists just seized 10,000 tons of fuel on its way from #Iran to #Kabul, the capital of #Afghanistan. #Iran has given an ultimatum to #Taliban terrorists to release the fuel shipment & if they don't, the #IranArmy & #IRGC will send troops to #Herat.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1414650207577460738

View: https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee/status/1414650207577460738?s=20

 

[jward]

Jeff Seldin
@jseldin

NEW: #Afghanistan-@CENTCOMCommander Gen Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, now leading US drawdown. has authority to call for airstrikes to defend Afghan forces "throughout the remainder of the summer...end of August" per
@PentagonPresSec

 

[jward]

: ( (



Jeff Stein
@SpyTalker

This scene of the Taliban’s slaughter of surrendering Afghan commandos is deeply disturbing, if not surprising. Prepare to see more such horrendous scenes in coming weeks. h/t
@NatashaBertrand

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1414714858352922626

View: https://twitter.com/SpyTalker/status/1414714858352922626?s=20

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

Taliban advances as U.S. completes withdrawal | FDD's Long War Journal

The Taliban and al Qaeda advanced throughout Afghanistan after President Biden announced the withdrawal of American and NATO forces on Apr. 14.

www.longwarjournal.org

Taliban advances as U.S. completes withdrawal
BY BILL ROGGIO | July 12, 2021 | admin@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio

https://www.longwarjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Afghansitan_timelapse.mp4

The Taliban has made dramatic gains since President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. The time lapse map, which is dated from April 13 to today and was created by FDD’s Long War Journal, shows the jihadists’ swift advance since Biden made his announcement.

The current Taliban and al Qaeda offensive was planned far in advance. The jihadists laid the groundwork for seizing large parts of the country years ago by directly challenging the Afghan government and military in rural districts. The insurgents seized more rural ground after the NATO handed over primary security responsibilities to the Afghan government in 2014. The Taliban’s strategy was downplayed and dismissed by U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan, who touted population control over territorial control. But the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies slowly but methodically took control of remote districts, using them as bases of operations to project power in neighboring districts as well as recruit, train, and indoctrinate future fighters.

The jihadists’ military strategy is complemented by its political strategy. The Taliban’s ultimate objective is to regain control of country and restore its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In order to achieve this, the Taliban needs the U.S. to leave the country. In 2018, the Trump administration entered into talks with the Taliban. On Feb. 29, 2020, the Trump administration signed the Doha agreement, in which the U.S. agreed to leave the country by May 1, 2021 in exchange for nebulous and unenforceable counterterrorism assurances from the Taliban. Although the accord was widely trumpeted as a peace agreement, the negotiations were really designed to get the U.S to withdraw its forces and undermine the Afghan government, which was excluded from the talks.

President Biden adhered to the agreement with the Taliban, even though he described it as a “bad deal,” and announced on Apr. 14, 2021 that U.S forces would leave the country by Sept. 11, 2021 — the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The U.S. withdrawal is now ahead of schedule and expected to be completed by late August.

Importantly, the Taliban waited for the U.S to announce its exit before executing its plan, which was obviously formulated well in advance.

By May 1, the Taliban offensive was in full swing. The U.S., NATO and the Afghan government was caught off guard. The Taliban planned, organized and executed its offensive without detection. With the exception of Commandos and Special Forces, Afghan security forces remained on the defensive for years, giving the Taliban the time and space it needed.

Districts began falling under Taliban and al Qaeda control at a rapid pace as Afghan security forces surrendered and even abandoned multiple district centers, military bases, border crossings and other key facilities. The Taliban and its allies have taken control of 139 districts in the span of less than two months, nearly tripling the territory under its rule. Multiple provincial capitals are now under direct Taliban threat, and it has launched incursions in cities such as Ghazni, Kunduz, Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, Maidan Shahr, Mihtarlam, Taloqan, Sheberghan, and Qala-i-Naw. Afghan security forces, meanwhile, have largely been on the defensive and have only managed to regain control of a handful of districts.

The Taliban’s northern offensive is especially clever. It is designed to undercut the Afghan government’s traditional base of power. If the north is lost, the Afghan government loses its base of traditional support and is at risk of collapse.

The Taliban has not planned and executed this operation without help. Pakistan remains the Taliban’s primary backer and primary safe haven. Iran has helped the Taliban to a lesser extent. Al Qaeda, which was never defeated in Afghanistan, has also played a key role in the Taliban’s success.

Al Qaeda has fought alongside the Taliban both before and during the current offensive. But more importantly, it provided the Taliban with military and political advice (including strategy sessions on talks with the U.S.), and helped the Taliban integrate regional jihadist groups to fight under its banner. In the north, Al Qaeda helped the Taliban organize groups such as the now-defunct Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jamaat Ansarullah, Kataib Imam Bukhari, and the Turkistan Islamic Party to fight in the Taliban’s ranks. In the east and south, groups like the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harakat-ul-Mujahideen have aided the Taliban’s offensive.

The Afghan government is at a critical moment. It must halt the Taliban advance and reverse its gains in the north and the provinces surrounding Kabul. To do so, it must consolidate its forces, stop attempting to defend indefensible terrain, and abandon regions of the country, including in the south and east. It must also take the risky move of fully mobilizing the militias of pro-government (or at least anti-Taliban) warlords. If the Afghan government does not do this, and soon, it is at risk of losing to the Taliban and al Qaeda on the battlefield.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

 

[jward]

Hmm..

BILAL SARWARY
@bsarwary
· 12m

#AFG “A US air strike targeted Taliban in Dand district on doorsteps of Kandahar city. US Air Force show of support flights in support of ANDSF in Kandahar, Laghman and Kabul provinces.” Multiple Counter- Terrorism officers tells me

 

[northern watch]

Russia against US troops in Central Asia near Afghanistan
Russia has strongly warned the United States against deploying its troops in the former Soviet Central Asian nations following their withdrawal from Afghanistan

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press
13 July 2021, 11:30

The Associated Press
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reacts during a joint news conference with Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar following their talks in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 9, 2021. (Shamil Zhumatov/Pool photo via AP)
MOSCOW -- Russia has strongly warned the United States against deploying its troops in the former Soviet Central Asian nations following their withdrawal from Afghanistan, a senior diplomat said in remarks published on Tuesday.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow conveyed the message to Washington during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva last month.

The warning comes as the U.S. military said last week that 90% of the withdrawal of U.S. troops and equipment from Afghanistan is complete. Biden said the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on Aug. 31.

“I would emphasize that the redeployment of the American permanent military presence to the countries neighboring Afghanistan is unacceptable,” Ryabkov said. “We told the Americans in a direct and straightforward way that it would change a lot of things not only in our perceptions of what’s going on in that important region, but also in our relations with the United States.”

He added that Russia has also issued the warning to Central Asian nations.

“We cautioned them against such steps, and we also have had a frank talk on the subject with our Central Asian allies, neighbors and friends and also other countries in the region that would be directly affected,” Ryabkov said in an interview published in the Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn magazine.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are all members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and any presence of foreign troops on their territories must be endorsed by the security pact. He added that none of those countries have raised the issue.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan both host Russian military bases. Kyrgyzstan, which hosted a U.S. military base that supported operations in Afghanistan, closed it in 2014.

Uzbekistan, which also hosted a U.S. base, ordered it shut in 2005 amid tensions with Washington. Uzbekistan's Defense Ministry reaffirmed in May that the country's constitution and its military doctrine rule out the presence of any foreign troops on its territory.

“I don’t think that the emergence of new American military facilities in Central Asia would promote security in the region,” Lavrov said.

The Biden administration has reportedly considered Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that border Afghanistan, as well as Kazakhstan, as possible staging areas for monitoring and quickly responding to possible security problems that may follow the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“I don’t think that anyone is interested in becoming a hostage to such US policy and intentions, and in inviting retaliation,” Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister questioned what results would be achieved with a small U.S. presence outside Afghanistan when a 100,000-strong NATO force inside the country “failed to do anything."

"Most probably, they simply want to ensure their military presence in Central Asia and be able to influence the situation in this region.”

As the American and NATO troops were swiftly pulling out, the Taliban have made quick gains across the country. They claimed on Friday that they now control 85% of Afghanistan’s territory.

Russian officials have expressed concern that the Taliban surge could destabilize Central Asia.

Taliban advances already have forced hundreds of Afghan soldiers to flee across the border into Tajikistan which called up 20,000 military reservists to strengthen its southern border with Afghanistan.

Last week, a senior Taliban delegation visited Moscow to offer assurances that the insurgents’ advances in Afghanistan do not threaten Russia or its allies in Central Asia.

Russia against US troops in Central Asia near Afghanistan - ABC News (go.com)

 

[Housecarl]

Hmm..

BILAL SARWARY
@bsarwary
· 12m

#AFG “A US air strike targeted Taliban in Dand district on doorsteps of Kandahar city. US Air Force show of support flights in support of ANDSF in Kandahar, Laghman and Kabul provinces.” Multiple Counter- Terrorism officers tells me

Way too little and too late to make an impact on the overall situation IMHO....

 

[jward]

Bill Roggio
@billroggio

@LongWarJournal's time lapse map of the Taliban's gains in Afghanistan by district, by year, beginning in 2017. See map page: https://longwarjournal.org/mapping-taliba

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1415099649820659713

View: https://twitter.com/billroggio/status/1415099649820659713?s=20

 

[jward]

-
@LongWarJournal
's time lapse map of the Taliban's gains in Afghanistan by district, from April 13 (the day before President Biden announced the withdrawal), and July 13. Dramatic gains in just 2 months, Taliban have nearly tripled district it controls, most in the north & west.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1415135034210758656

View: https://twitter.com/billroggio/status/1415135034210758656?s=20

 

[jward]

Taliban claim control of strategic Afghan town on border with Pakistan





Issued on: 14/07/2021 - 16:41

People wave a Taliban flag as they drive through the Pakistani border town of Chaman on July 14, 2021. © Asghar Achakzi, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES


4 min

The Taliban captured the strategic border crossing of Spin Boldak on the frontier with Pakistan Wednesday, continuing sweeping gains made since foreign forces stepped up their withdrawal from Afghanistan.




Afghanistan's interior ministry denied the insurgents had taken the area even as social media was flooded with pictures of Taliban fighters relaxing in the frontier town.
Residents also told AFP it was in the Taliban's hands.
Spin Boldak is the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the Taliban in recent weeks, with the insurgents looking to choke off much-needed revenue from the government in Kabul while also filling their own coffers.
As Kabul's grip over the country appeared to further loosen, former US president George W. Bush slammed current White House incumbent Joe Biden's decision to withdraw all troops.

"I'm afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm... They are going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people and it breaks my heart," he told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Asked whether he thought the withdrawal was a mistake, Bush replied: "Yes, I think it is."
It was his administration that launched the US invasion into Afghanistan in 2001 that toppled the Taliban government following the September 11 attacks on US soil by Al-Qaeda militants.
Along with his key security advisers, Bush was later blamed for a series of miscalculations in Afghanistan that led to a costly 20-year occupation and the revival of the Taliban movement.

Key crossing
The seizure of the border crossing follows days of heavy fighting across Kandahar province, where the government was forced to deploy commando fighters to prevent the fall of the provincial capital even as the insurgents inched closer to taking the frontier.
In a statement, insurgent spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid assured traders and residents there that their "security is guaranteed".
But Afghan officials insisted they were still in control.
"The terrorist Taliban had some movements near the border area... The security forces have repelled the attack," interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told AFP.
Residents disputed the government's claims, however.
"I went to my shop this morning and saw that the Taliban are everywhere. They are in the bazaar, in police HQ and custom areas. I can also hear the sound of fighting nearby," said Raz Mohammad, a shopkeeper who works near the border.
The border crossing is one of the most strategically valuable for the Taliban.

It provides direct access to Pakistan's Balochistan province -- where the insurgents' top leadership has been based for decades -- along with an unknown number of reserve fighters who regularly enter Afghanistan to help bolster their ranks.
Hours after the crossing fell, an AFP reporter on the Pakistani side saw around 150 Taliban fighters riding on motorcycles, waving insurgent flags, as they demanded to be allowed to cross into Afghanistan.
Balochistan is a favoured destination for fighters regularly heading for medical treatment and hosts many of their families.
A major highway leading from the border connects to Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi and its sprawling port on the Arabian Sea, which is considered a linchpin for Afghanistan's billion-dollar heroin trade that has provided a crucial source of revenue for the Taliban's war chest over the years.

'What it is'
With the United States just weeks away from pulling out its last troops, the Taliban has swept through much of the country, and the government now holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be resupplied by air.
The sheer speed and scale of the insurgents' multi-pronged offensives have stirred fears that Afghan security forces are being overwhelmed.
The yawning catastrophe has also sparked a diplomatic free-for-all with countries trading blame and throwing jabs over the numerous policy blunders made in Afghanistan over the years.

"Russia for several years already talked about a situation like this developing. To call a spade a spade, we foresaw this much earlier," said the Kremlin's envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, in an interview with Russian news agency RIA.
In another sign Western governments were rapidly reassessing their Afghanistan policies, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the United Kingdom was prepared to work with the Taliban if it enters into a power-sharing government.

"Whatever the government of the day is, provided it adheres to certain international norms, the UK Government will engage with it," he told the Daily Telegraph.
"All peace processes require you to come to terms with the enemy. Sometimes, that's what it is."

Taliban claim control of strategic Afghan town on border with Pakistan

The Taliban captured the strategic border crossing of Spin Boldak on the frontier with Pakistan Wednesday, continuing sweeping gains made since foreign forces stepped up their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

www.france24.com

 

[jward]

US to evacuate under-threat Afghan interpreters as Taliban gains ground





Issued on: 15/07/2021 - 00:57

FILE PHOTO: An Afghan security forces member keeps watch as he sits in an army vehicle in Bagram U.S. air base, after American troops vacated it, in Parwan province, Afghanistan July 5, 2021. © REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail


Thousands of interpreters who aided US and NATO forces in Afghanistan will be evacuated beginning in late July, Washington announced Wednesday, as Taliban insurgents captured a strategic crossing on the Pakistan border from government forces.


In what the White House dubbed Operation Allies Refuge, the interpreters and their families are likely to be taken first to US overseas military bases or possibly third countries before resettlement in the United States or elsewhere.
Many fear retaliation by the Taliban, who are seeking to regain control of the government in Kabul after the departure of US troops before the end of August.

There are an estimated 18,000 people -- interpreters, translators, and others who worked with US forces -- who would qualify for evacuation. With their families, it could potentially take the total number of evacuees to 80,000 or more.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the goal is to get those already being processed under the State Department's Special Immigrant Visas program, only a portion of the 18,000, out by the August 31 deadline for the US withdrawal.

"These are courageous individuals. We want to make sure we recognise the value of the role they played," she said.
At the Pentagon, spokesman John Kirby said they were working intensely on where the translators would be sent, but he would not identify any possibilities.
"We're looking at all options," he said.

Fighters on motorcycles
The news came as the US military pushed forward with the final tasks of withdrawing from the country, and as the Islamist insurgents captured Spin Boldak, the border crossing on the main highway between Kandahar and Quetta, Pakistan, and continuing onward to Karachi.
Afghanistan's interior ministry denied the insurgents had taken the area.
"The terrorist Taliban had some movements near the border area... The security forces have repelled the attack," interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told AFP.
But social media was flooded with pictures of Taliban fighters relaxing in the frontier town, and residents told AFP it was in the Taliban's hands.

"I went to my shop this morning and saw that the Taliban are everywhere. They are in the bazaar, in police HQ and custom areas. I can also hear the sound of fighting nearby," said Raz Mohammad, a shopkeeper who works near the border.
The border crossing provides direct access to Pakistan's Balochistan province -- where the insurgents' top leadership has been based for decades -- along with an unknown number of reserve fighters who regularly enter Afghanistan to help bolster their ranks.
Hours after the crossing fell, an AFP reporter on the Pakistani side saw around 150 Taliban fighters riding on motorcycles, waving insurgent flags and demanding to be allowed to cross into Afghanistan.

Bush blasts US withdrawal
Spin Boldak was the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the insurgents in recent weeks as they look to choke off revenues much-needed by Kabul while also filling their own coffers.
In another sign Western governments were rapidly reassessing the situation, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the United Kingdom was prepared to work with the Taliban if it enters into a power-sharing government.
"Whatever the government of the day is, provided it adheres to certain international norms, the UK government will engage with it," he told the Daily Telegraph.
"All peace processes require you to come to terms with the enemy. Sometimes, that's what it is."
On Tuesday the Pentagon pressed the leaders in Kabul to step up their fight against the Taliban.
"They know what they need to do," Kirby told reporters. "Whatever the outcomes are, good or bad, it's going to come down to how leadership was exuded, how leadership was demonstrated," he said.

"That's really going to be the test here in the coming weeks and months."
As the government's grip over the country appeared to further loosen, former US president George W. Bush -- who launched the US invasion 20 years ago after the September 11 attacks -- slammed Biden's decision to withdraw all troops.

"I'm afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm... They are going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people and it breaks my heart," he told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Asked whether he thought the withdrawal was a mistake, Bush replied: "Yes, I think it is."
Meanwhile nearly 350 Afghans fled into Tajikistan Wednesday from northern Afghanistan to escape attacks by the Taliban, the Tajik news agency Khova reported.

It said the refugees, a majority of them girls, had "fled from the Taliban to save their lives," adding that two babies died during the border crossing.

US to evacuate at-risk Afghan interpreters as Taliban gains ground

Thousands of interpreters who aided US and NATO forces in Afghanistan will be evacuated beginning in late July, Washington announced Wednesday, as Taliban insurgents captured a strategic crossing on…

www.france24.com

 

[raven]

US to evacuate under-threat Afghan interpreters as Taliban gains ground





Issued on: 15/07/2021 - 00:57

FILE PHOTO: An Afghan security forces member keeps watch as he sits in an army vehicle in Bagram U.S. air base, after American troops vacated it, in Parwan province, Afghanistan July 5, 2021. © REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail


Thousands of interpreters who aided US and NATO forces in Afghanistan will be evacuated beginning in late July, Washington announced Wednesday, as Taliban insurgents captured a strategic crossing on the Pakistan border from government forces.


In what the White House dubbed Operation Allies Refuge, the interpreters and their families are likely to be taken first to US overseas military bases or possibly third countries before resettlement in the United States or elsewhere.
Many fear retaliation by the Taliban, who are seeking to regain control of the government in Kabul after the departure of US troops before the end of August.

There are an estimated 18,000 people -- interpreters, translators, and others who worked with US forces -- who would qualify for evacuation. With their families, it could potentially take the total number of evacuees to 80,000 or more.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the goal is to get those already being processed under the State Department's Special Immigrant Visas program, only a portion of the 18,000, out by the August 31 deadline for the US withdrawal.

"These are courageous individuals. We want to make sure we recognise the value of the role they played," she said.
At the Pentagon, spokesman John Kirby said they were working intensely on where the translators would be sent, but he would not identify any possibilities.
"We're looking at all options," he said.

Fighters on motorcycles
The news came as the US military pushed forward with the final tasks of withdrawing from the country, and as the Islamist insurgents captured Spin Boldak, the border crossing on the main highway between Kandahar and Quetta, Pakistan, and continuing onward to Karachi.
Afghanistan's interior ministry denied the insurgents had taken the area.
"The terrorist Taliban had some movements near the border area... The security forces have repelled the attack," interior ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told AFP.
But social media was flooded with pictures of Taliban fighters relaxing in the frontier town, and residents told AFP it was in the Taliban's hands.

"I went to my shop this morning and saw that the Taliban are everywhere. They are in the bazaar, in police HQ and custom areas. I can also hear the sound of fighting nearby," said Raz Mohammad, a shopkeeper who works near the border.
The border crossing provides direct access to Pakistan's Balochistan province -- where the insurgents' top leadership has been based for decades -- along with an unknown number of reserve fighters who regularly enter Afghanistan to help bolster their ranks.
Hours after the crossing fell, an AFP reporter on the Pakistani side saw around 150 Taliban fighters riding on motorcycles, waving insurgent flags and demanding to be allowed to cross into Afghanistan.

Bush blasts US withdrawal
Spin Boldak was the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the insurgents in recent weeks as they look to choke off revenues much-needed by Kabul while also filling their own coffers.
In another sign Western governments were rapidly reassessing the situation, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the United Kingdom was prepared to work with the Taliban if it enters into a power-sharing government.
"Whatever the government of the day is, provided it adheres to certain international norms, the UK government will engage with it," he told the Daily Telegraph.
"All peace processes require you to come to terms with the enemy. Sometimes, that's what it is."
On Tuesday the Pentagon pressed the leaders in Kabul to step up their fight against the Taliban.
"They know what they need to do," Kirby told reporters. "Whatever the outcomes are, good or bad, it's going to come down to how leadership was exuded, how leadership was demonstrated," he said.

"That's really going to be the test here in the coming weeks and months."
As the government's grip over the country appeared to further loosen, former US president George W. Bush -- who launched the US invasion 20 years ago after the September 11 attacks -- slammed Biden's decision to withdraw all troops.

"I'm afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm... They are going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people and it breaks my heart," he told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Asked whether he thought the withdrawal was a mistake, Bush replied: "Yes, I think it is."
Meanwhile nearly 350 Afghans fled into Tajikistan Wednesday from northern Afghanistan to escape attacks by the Taliban, the Tajik news agency Khova reported.

It said the refugees, a majority of them girls, had "fled from the Taliban to save their lives," adding that two babies died during the border crossing.

US to evacuate at-risk Afghan interpreters as Taliban gains ground

Thousands of interpreters who aided US and NATO forces in Afghanistan will be evacuated beginning in late July, Washington announced Wednesday, as Taliban insurgents captured a strategic crossing on…

www.france24.com

Interpreters will leave when the Us Forces they support no longer need them . . . because they are gone.
beginning in late July . . . which in common parlance July 16 . . . LOL

 

[jward]

Assuming they live long enough to leave.

 

[mzkitty]

 

[Housecarl]

View attachment 277323

Yeah, that's definitely not good news for those women......So where are the Women's Rights Campaigners in the West?...."Crickets chirping"........

 

[mzkitty]

Yeah, that's definitely not good news for those women......So where are the Women's Rights Campaigners in the West?...."Crickets chirping"........

The Taliban has taken over with no problems whatsoever. What do you think anyone can do now, let alone "women" ??

 

[jward]

Walid Phares
@WalidPhares
4m

Statements made by various levels & departments of the #Biden Adm confirming that the Afghan Gov "will fall to the Taliban" in specific periods of time cannot be read by the Jihadists as anything but a green light for them to take over the country. Is it part of the #DohaDeal?

 

[mzkitty]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1415368003252899843

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1415368003252899843

 

[jward]

Leela Jacinto
@leelajacinto
3h

Exactly 5 yrs after failed #Turkey coup, #Erdogan is trying to make good w/ US. But is his #Kabulairport security offer a bit more than he can chew? Thanx
@Metin4020@ali_adili for insights https://f24.my/7q3P.T

 

[Housecarl]

The Taliban has taken over with no problems whatsoever. What do you think anyone can do now, let alone "women" ??

View attachment 277328

I was thinking in terms of the lost opportunities of the last twenty years....

 

[jward]

FJ
@Natsecjeff
5m

These are the same two demands of Taliban that they have been communicating to international community for some time now.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1415630984054194177

View: https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1415630984054194177?s=20

 

[Housecarl]

Leela Jacinto
@leelajacinto
3h

Exactly 5 yrs after failed #Turkey coup, #Erdogan is trying to make good w/ US. But is his #Kabulairport security offer a bit more than he can chew? Thanx
@Metin4020@ali_adili for insights https://f24.my/7q3P.T

That's a very good question. At this point it would require a huge "buy in" on the part of Erdogan and cooperation with the other ethnic Turk countries bordering Afghanistan to allow the logistical footprint needed to even have half a shot at pulling it off. With Turkish "adventurism" closer to home you have to wonder how much capacity they actually have to be able to pull something like what would be needed off....

 

[mzkitty]

I was thinking in terms of the lost opportunities of the last twenty years....

What "lost opportunities," HC? Our own country is being dismantled too. Our presence in Afghanistan did give their women more than they had. Now we're leaving. Who's fault is that? Not "women's."

Men control the games. Now a worse oppressor has reappeared.

 

[Housecarl]

What "lost opportunities," HC? Our own country is being dismantled too. Our presence in Afghanistan did give their women more than they had. Now we're leaving. Who's fault is that? Not "women's."

Men control the games. Now a worse oppressor has reappeared.

View attachment 277337

From the beginning, the various US administrations forward to today were "managing" the situation on the ground in Afghanistan (as well as in Iraq) while not choosing to solve the problem. Since they had decided to use half measures kinetically (ROE, resources, choosing and not managing "partners" in our stood up satrap regime) and soft pedaled corrective measures diplomatically with the Pakistani regime we are where we are now. With the likely Taliban victory in Aghanistan the likelihood of the like minded setting their sights next on Pakistan and thus their nukes means a mess that makes the self imposed quagmire of the last twenty years all the more the waste of blood and treasure it has been.

ETA: Col. David Hackworth's warnings about Afghanistan and how the US would do without changing what he saw is about to come true and likely will be worse than he warned.

 

[mzkitty]

From the beginning, the various US administrations forward to today were "managing" the situation on the ground in Afghanistan (as well as in Iraq) while not choosing to solve the problem. Since they had decided to use half measures kinetically (ROE, resources, choosing and not managing "partners" in our stood up satrap regime) and soft pedaled corrective measures diplomatically with the Pakistani regime we are where we are now. With the likely Taliban victory in Aghanistan the likelihood of the like minded setting their sights next on Pakistan and thus their nukes means a mess that makes the self imposed quagmire of the last twenty years all the more the waste of blood and treasure it has been.

The usual game play, eh. That's how they make their money. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[jward]

Reuters India
@ReutersIndia

Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, an Afghan commander said https://reut.rs/3BbICPK

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1415957829639356418

View: https://twitter.com/ReutersIndia/status/1415957829639356418?s=20

 

[jed turtle]

Another dead country walking.
China is on the way to fill the vacuum.
more organs for them to harvest, AND former CIA managed poppy fields for Derivative product export to the US.
(I wonder if the cia gets a kickback from China?)
another 80,000 interpreters [ MUSLIMS] shortly on their way to the USA.
what could possibly go wrong?

oh wait, I forgot, Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires..
guess our time is up,

and with half our population now infected with the Frankenstein “shot”,
it should be a cakewalk for the invasion forces of legal and illegal aliens now being moved into place by our military.

I need to regroup and re-read Psalm 91. The end is nigh.

 

[jward]

Kate Clark
@KateClark66

Some numbers for today: Taleban have gained almost 200 district centres in #Afghanistansince 1 May - seen in new
@AANAfgh
map... 1/2 https://afghanistan-analysts.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/The-Map-of-Fallen-Districts-since-1-May-1.pdf
https://twitter.com/KateClark66/status/1416016861058281478?s=20