Was you out there?
Current Affairs Afghanistan
- Thread starter Del-boy
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Was you out there?
This is a good documentary:
All warning signs are there and this is from 2010 I think. ANA look like they have no will, locals pissed off with Americans, small town security is fragile, civilians killed etc. Just a small scale insight to the big picture in my opinion.
All warning signs are there and this is from 2010 I think. ANA look like they have no will, locals pissed off with Americans, small town security is fragile, civilians killed etc. Just a small scale insight to the big picture in my opinion.
A commentator on Al-Jazeera yesterday pointed out that historically the Taliban have fought against local warlords who were seen by local populations as being corrupt, unjust and un-Islamic.
To paraphrase him: the allies re-instated those warlords after the Taliban's expulsion and it was inevitable that events would play out as they have.
He didn't strike me as a "wise after the event" type and it was interesting to hear this perspective.
It's awful. We (the West) have messed that country up forever and ever - it's a country that has been war torn for the last what, 100, 150 years?
But then this, stopping these complete lunatics getting in, should be exactly what we do go to war for. Not oil or money, but stopping the atrocities that these people want to commit, and how they want to rule with Sharia law. What they want is awful, it's 2021 and should not be tolerated. Unfortunately, as @PhilM points out, there's obviously different things at play here and we can't expect every culture to be the same. But basic human rights... well that's the least that can be expected.
But then this, stopping these complete lunatics getting in, should be exactly what we do go to war for. Not oil or money, but stopping the atrocities that these people want to commit, and how they want to rule with Sharia law. What they want is awful, it's 2021 and should not be tolerated. Unfortunately, as @PhilM points out, there's obviously different things at play here and we can't expect every culture to be the same. But basic human rights... well that's the least that can be expected.
FrenchDarrenBent
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All these pictures of Taliban warriors on slippers. Who wins a War wearing slippers? Let alone the blitzkrieg that unfolded last week...
Those videos are appalling - the sheer desperation to atempt to cling onto a plane taking off.
Taliban going door to door in Kabul looking for government officials and police. The coming bloodbath will be horrendous.
Taliban going door to door in Kabul looking for government officials and police. The coming bloodbath will be horrendous.
tsubaki
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One can only imagine what the coverage would be like if Corbyn had been in charge for this.
Martin Alvito
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There was a guy years ago that fell 11,000 feet or so out of an airplane without a parachute, impacted on land and walked away with cuts and bruises. The record for mere survival was a flight attendant from something like three times that height (10,000 meters) when her plane was literally bombed out from under her.
A slim chance beats none at all. I am disgusted that we let it come to that.
No, but I've previously worked in other countries in the Middle East including neighbouring countries. I've worked with a fair few Afghans too.
He's right. Local politics for the last ten years has been a status-quo of a ruling party and an opposition, including war-lords/local rulers, failing to compromise.
In that time, lots of money has been thrown at the government and the military, but the social underbelly hasn't developed to actually facilitate change.
The political and social landscape was rife with corruption and vested interests from local rulers or groups or with people who didn't understand the local context.
When you have a situation with the local Afghans feeling that the government neither understand or stands for them, the Taliban can easily exploit it.
Martin Alvito
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That's overly harsh. He inherited a mess, and mismanaged it. There's a ton of blame to go around on this one.
NorthernBlue
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Just watching this now. Really good. There’s a scene at 23 minute mark where the marines are pushing the Afghan army into a house to search it. Obviously just proper out of their depth.
longers
Parcheggia l'autobus
Getting mad at Biden instead of the people who sent them there in the first place is kinda dumb. Its a pretty weird logic to think you have to stay involved in a war forever because some of your soldiers died.
Its been a pointless war, the US had to pull out eventually. Why stay there ? Nothing has improved has it. If they had stayed for another year do you think the Afghan forces would have suddenly becoming a massive deterrent to the Taliban ? Better to get out and stay out, and learn from it. The learning bit won't happen though.
A good POV doc isn't it.
Either that or they don't have the will to fight with Americans.
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