Taliban offensive of 2021 and potential collapse of Afghan government. -

[Patriarchy]

There is a video of a US Captatin telling the afagain police to stop abusing 10-12 year old boys.

The taliban (pakistan) will stop young girls from going to school and abuse young boys....this is what is going to happen when we leave...

Afghan 'Dancing Boys' Tell Of Rape, Abuse

In Afghanistan, impoverished boys are being forced into a life of abuse as a result of bacha bazi – dancing boys – an old practice that sees wealthy or power...

www.youtube.com

you've got it the other way around, the taliban are the ones who put an end to bacha bazi before the US came in to enforce drag queen story hour

 

[The Curmudgeon]

The sooner we're out, the better. We wasted 20 years trying to socially engineer a country at gunpoint. Some people tried to rationalize this nation building by comparing it to Japan, but Afghanistan's situation was always very different from Japan's. 20 years occupying the shithole country amounted to nothing. Anothter 20 or more years would also amount to nothing. We CAN'T fix Afghanistan nor should we have ever tried to. Are the Taliban awful? Of course they are, but that doesn't justify staying in Afghanistan indefinitely to enforce an artificial peace that wasn't meant to be. The only real solution is to leave and let the various peoples of Afghanistan and their neighbors figure things out. We may not like it, but that's irrelevant. Most of the people backing the war for misguided reasons were never affected by what happens in Afghanistan in the first place. It was alway just a fantasy sport to the chickenhawks and ideologues.

I'm not sorry for how I feel. I used to support this war a long time ago, but over time realized it's a stupid quagmire. The best thing the United States, and its allies, can do is leave.

 

[SuzukiToyota]

Fall of Saigon 2.0 but this time there won't be news reports about it.

 

[Hellbound Hellhound]

The US effort in Afghanistan was doomed to fail for the simple reason that the tribal mentality of the people there makes functional statecraft impossible. Another big problem is that the US military has to hold itself to rules of engagement that the insurgents they're fighting have no interest in observing, and when civilians inevitably do get caught in the crossfire, the Americans (being the invaders) receive most of the blame, regardless of culpability.

I can understand the logic of wanting to prevent the country from once again falling to theocratic nihilists and becoming a breeding ground for international terrorism, but as far as nation building goes, Afghanistan seems to be a lost cause. We're not talking about a salvageable civilization like Germany or Japan here; we're talking a society which is still firmly stuck in the Dark Ages.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

The other problem is that Afghanistan is very multinational and various allegiances

Imagine if the world warped back to the 90s.

How far? 1990 where there was still Soviet Union or 1995 when Grunge ended? If it’s 1990 will the Soviets have one last shot this time?

 

[Prester John]

Background: In 2020 the Taliban came to an agreement with US President Donald Trump to halt attacks while the American military withdrew from the country, the deadline being May 1st 2021. The Biden administration found itself unable or unwilling to complete the withdraw in this timeframe and set a later date of September 11th, the twenty year anniversary of the attacks on NYC and D.C. The Taliban rebuked the American government and has begun an offensive starting on May 2nd 2021 with a declaration that the American government broke the terms of the treaty. The attacks have only intensified since and the Taliban have begun to rout Afghan National Army forces whom have begun surrendering en masse in a similar fashion witnessed during the ISIS expansion of 2015.

In the past 72 hours the Taliban offensive has captured over 50 districts -- nearly 20% of the country and has closed off the major border crossing to Tajikistan.

Control Map:
Red: US Backed Afghanistan government
White: Taliban Controlled regions
Green: Pakistan -- patron of Taliban financially and materially
View attachment 2288055

If only Biden had withdrawn American forces on May Day as promised, the Taliban wouldn't be conquering the country.

 

[Random Internet Person]

The sooner we're out, the better. We wasted 20 years trying to socially engineer a country at gunpoint. Some people tried to rationalize this nation building by comparing it to Japan, but Afghanistan's situation was always very different from Japan's. 20 years occupying the shithole country amounted to nothing. Anothter 20 or more years would also amount to nothing. We CAN'T fix Afghanistan nor should we have ever tried to. Are the Taliban awful? Of course they are, but that doesn't justify staying in Afghanistan indefinitely to enforce an artificial peace that wasn't meant to be. The only real solution is to leave and let the various peoples of Afghanistan and their neighbors figure things out. We may not like it, but that's irrelevant. Most of the people backing the war for misguided reasons were never affected by what happens in Afghanistan in the first place. It was alway just a fantasy sport to the chickenhawks and ideologues.

I'm not sorry for how I feel. I used to support this war a long time ago, but over time realized it's a stupid quagmire. The best thing the United States, and its allies, can do is leave.

The US effort in Afghanistan was doomed to fail for the simple reason that the tribal mentality of the people there makes functional statecraft impossible. Another big problem is that the US military has to hold itself to rules of engagement that the insurgents they're fighting have no interest in observing, and when civilians inevitably do get caught in the crossfire, the Americans (being the invaders) receive most of the blame, regardless of culpability.

I can understand the logic of wanting to prevent the country from once again falling to theocratic nihilists and becoming a breeding ground for international terrorism, but as far as nation building goes, Afghanistan seems to be a lost cause. We're not talking about a salvageable civilization like Germany or Japan here; we're talking a society which is still firmly stuck in the Dark Ages.

Honestly, I can see Washington justifying keeping troops there because they don’t want the place to fall to Russia because they’re stuck in the Cold War. Meanwhile, China’s right there for their initiatives, and when you have people like The Taliban running the show, it’s not a matter of if they’ll make an attack on the US, but when.

 

[fat old sun]

Opium? Really?

The country has a wide range of minerals, from rare-earth elements to abundant iron ore and copper deposits, lithium, gold, and more — prized possessions in any modern-day economy.

On October 5, the government awarded two major copper and gold exploration contracts to Centar Ltd, a company founded by Ian Hannam, a former chairman at JP Morgan. The firm claims investors from several nations, including the United States. The British company will be digging for gold in Badakhshan and copper in Sar-i-Pul, both provinces located in northern Afghanistan. The signing ceremony at the Afghan embassy in Washington, D.C. was attended by the ministers of finance and mining and petroleum.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/11/afghan-mineral-wealth-a-double-edged-sword/

 

[The Curmudgeon]

Honestly, I can see Washington justifying keeping troops there because they don’t want the place to fall to Russia because they’re stuck in the Cold War. Meanwhile, China’s right there for their initiatives, and when you have people like The Taliban running the show, it’s not a matter of if they’ll make an attack on the US, but when.

What makes you think the Taliban are an existential threat to the United States?

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

A few days late but

 

[Random Internet Person]

What makes you think the Taliban are an existential threat to the United States?

How about the fact that they see the US as invaders and infidelity that their religion instructs them to destroy, upon which you’ll e rewarded with 72 virgins in Heaven? Just pray that they don’t be rumored to have nuclear capabilities like Iran.

 

[The Curmudgeon]

How about the fact that they see the US as invaders and infidelity that their religion instructs them to destroy, upon which you’ll e rewarded with 72 virgins in Heaven? Just pray that they don’t be rumored to have nuclear capabilities like Iran.

They're fanatics, but they're also not evil masterminds bent on conquering the world. You're overthinking it. The Taliban only care about their own backwater shithole that is Afghanistan. You're never going to see legions of Taliban invading the United States or anywhere else. In the 20 years the United States occupied Afghanistan, they were only able to reconquer the country after the United States stood down. They're hardly strong enough to launch invasions on anywhere beyond their own borders. Also, they don't have the resources to even obtain nuclear weapons.

If you're this concerned about them, then how you come never enlisted to go fight them?