Afghan War ending, foretold by The Onion 10 years Ago [DT thread ruined by politics]

[mchookem 16,327]

boy this thread got quiet lol

[Brothahorn 10,087]

Trump freed them all huh?

That's what the TV told him.

[workswithseed 2,102]

5 minutes ago, Brothahorn said:

1 hour ago, Longhornlove said:

Trump freed them all huh?

That's what the TV told him.

[Aqua Buddha 14,590]

25 minutes ago, brakeman said:

 

Don't want no shit, don't start no shit.

[brakeman 28,359]

[Francisco 2.0 32,389]

7 hours ago, Captainant said:

trump - your 2020 vote - freed thousands of taliban fighters and their top leader back in 2018. Big oof.

 

 

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,776]

4 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

If the Taliban are smart (they’re not), they’ll let everyone who wants go leave.  Fewer mouths to feed and malcontents.

What makes you think they’re not smart? Just because you disagree with their ideology, as I do, that doesn’t mean they’re not smart and rational beings. I believe they are going to let the foreign occupiers leave without incident because that’s the logical thing to do.

We have a long history of mistaking people who are different from us, who aren’t as technologically advanced as us and who we perceive as being culturally inferior to us as being intellectually inferior to us. That’s a mistake that has cost us a lot of lives over the decades. From seeing the Native Americans as savages to thinking the Vietnamese were animals to thinking the Taliban are stupid to thinking we could build a wall to keep those murderers and rapists and drug dealers from Mexico out of our country. People are people and Americans aren’t exceptional. We’re all the same. Our arrogance and conceit makes us vulnerable. 

[Hpara759 1,778]

to soon?

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

1 hour ago, mchookem said:

boy this thread got quiet lol

Gigantic pussies.

[InkaUtexas 25,907]

hearing from buddies and seeing on Twitter the Northern Alliance (REFORMED) has taking Charikar. This is the area where Bagram is. Might be an interesting development since it would be a good air field to run Evacs out for people stuck in the north. As noted by another poster, this is not far from Kabul, but it is a bitch of a road and east to defend. I think he said 7-9 min flight. We won't take Lashkar Gah or Khandahar, but this is a small positive in a shitty week. 

The Tajiks know if the Talibs take their land they are lost. They are gonna fight. I anticipate the same from the Hazara and from some Pashto tribes in the south. The Hazara's since they were massacred by the Talibs the first go around. The Pashto cuz they want to maintain their opium business. Add to this the Shia in Herat and the Taliban may have taken the country, but perhaps not the people. 

US focus now- Get good people out. US Focus in a few months, figure out a way to work with resistance groups and know who is doing what. BBC has an interesting article. Saw it on twitter but not their live site. Talks about how the Taliban win will change the region, including impacting India. Lets remember the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. These are the things my security friends are losing sleep over. 

 

[OneOfTheOutOfFocusGuys 2,072]

Last twenty years 

 

 

 

[Hpara759 1,778]

9 hours ago, phdhorn said:

(Posted for the OHMYGOD!!! pic, not for the commentary per se)

 

[Willfully Horn 8,008]

An excellent perspective.

The Taliban at Camp David, and without including anyone from the Afghan government?  

Edited August 18, 2021 by Willfully Horn
Camp David wtf

[washparkhorn 9,939]

32 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

impacting India

Taliban takeover is also affecting Pakistan, Russia, and China (who wants to grab Afghanistan's rare earth metals). 

Hell of a storm brewing over there. 

[Mole 4,330]

9 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

 

Y'all get ready for the whiplash you're going to feel when, no more than a month from now, American conservatives start talking about how they should ally with the Taliban.

I haven't seen the simulation glitching this much since Melania Rick Rolled us at the 2016 RNC.

[Brian Fantana 6,685]

Afghanistan Meant Nothing. A Veteran Reflects on 20 Wasted Years | by Laura Jedeed | Aug, 2021 | Medium

What a devastatingly stupid waste of money.

[DonkeyCigars 144]

Here is an interesting factoid for those criticizing Ghani for not having the stomach to fight for his country as he fled with money flying out of his briefcases-- he literally doesn't:"

Quote

Two decades ago, Ghani lost most of his stomach to cancer. He has to eat small portions of food, such as packets of dates, half a dozen times a day.

 

[InkaUtexas 25,907]

1 hour ago, Willfully Horn said:

An excellent perspective.

The Taliban at Camp David, and without including anyone from the Afghan government?  

Yeah that is rough. But we met with Arafat there before Oslo Accords were signed. We brokered the deal between Egypt and Israel there. Hell, we had Milosevic AND Tudjman at an Air Force base. In my eyes the only one who was not a war criminal was Sadat. 

Yeah, ANG should have been there, but at the time Ghani was new and not one of our boys is my take. We wanted to talk to the enemy without tribal BS. Glad it did not happen but there is a logic to it. better than in Doha with the Beach Talibs and their minders. It is important to understand the Talibs up until a week ago were not a united front. You had basically 4 elements. 1- Qatar/Gulf supported. This is who we were talking to. 2- ISI (Pakistan) supported. Been there all along. 3- Non-aligned Talibs, most in the SW who would take support from Iran. A lot of them grew up in refugee camps there. 4- Tribal groups who went the way of the wind. And they are still not unified. As I explained to my son today when he sent me reports of the NA taking Charikar Afghanistan is gonna Afghanistan. 

Afghanistan is not a simple place to understand. When I was teaching about it to the Marines I used to refer to Michner's chapter in Caravans about bridges. What works in the west does not work there. Best to focus on what does. 

[InkaUtexas 25,907]

1 hour ago, washparkhorn said:

Taliban takeover is also affecting Pakistan, Russia, and China (who wants to grab Afghanistan's rare earth metals). 

Hell of a storm brewing over there. 

Yeah, for shits and giggles I asked a GIS friend to come over tomorrow. Promised a bottle of scotch if he will let me mess with his computer and build some maps. Where do they go? Right now my guess is they lay quiet until the spring, in the meantime killing internal enemies. This will be done at the local level. Gonna suck to be Kashmir come next summer. They will make political moves into Pakistan at the same time. Gonna be a few suicide attacks. Once they can pin India they move north. They have announced a Caliphate, not an Islamic Republic. They want to be the big boys of the Jihadi movement. 

If anyone is bored and wants a fun read, Pressfield's The Afghan Campaign is great for a flight or a rainy day. 

[Bullneck 19,079]

 

 

[elfenix 34,230]

 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

 

Don’t let this distract you from the vegetable who sat on his hands and ignored intel while the Taliban mowed over the country unopposed.

[MaybeACoordinator 8,349]

33 minutes ago, elfenix said:

 

 

Duh. This has been known. He was born in Pakistan as Dawood Ibrahim Khan. 

[InkaUtexas 25,907]

Best quote I have seen. Comes from my Terp. 

And they want to be seen as a new, kinder, Hello Kitty Taliban 

We can move our people they say. So lets open up Bagram, Mazar, Herat, Bastion and Khandar airports. They were all US/NATO/UN run so the equipment is there. If they want to be moderate, great. 

I know this is not going to happen, but it would be so nice if we could get the SIV candidates AND/or their families out. We are talking 100K. I think this nation could absorb that. 

He just sent me this video. This is his house after a US Airstrike last week in Lash. He says B52, but he was a grunt. For the experts. Looks like an AC tore this up. Either way means nothing. Just trying to keep in non-political. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by InkaUtexas

[SwAss 105]

Afghanistan is not worth a single American life. It is an absolute shithole. US policy towards Muslim countries should be hands off. Don’t get involved in their messes over there and don’t bring their people here.

And don’t buy their oil


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[UDontKnow 10,444]

12 minutes ago, SwAss said:

And don’t buy their oil


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

America has been buying Middle Eastern oil since the 1928 signing of the Red Line agreement. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States–Middle_East_economic_relations)

If people truly believe in ending foreign dependence on fossil fuels, start wholeheartedly supporting renewable energy initiatives. Then there will be no reason for America to interact with hostile Islamic republics/emirates.

[UDontKnow 10,444]

5 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

hearing from buddies and seeing on Twitter the Northern Alliance (REFORMED) has taking Charikar. This is the area where Bagram is. Might be an interesting development since it would be a good air field to run Evacs out for people stuck in the north. As noted by another poster, this is not far from Kabul, but it is a bitch of a road and east to defend. I think he said 7-9 min flight. We won't take Lashkar Gah or Khandahar, but this is a small positive in a shitty week. 

The Tajiks know if the Talibs take their land they are lost. They are gonna fight. I anticipate the same from the Hazara and from some Pashto tribes in the south. The Hazara's since they were massacred by the Talibs the first go around. The Pashto cuz they want to maintain their opium business. Add to this the Shia in Herat and the Taliban may have taken the country, but perhaps not the people. 

US focus now- Get good people out. US Focus in a few months, figure out a way to work with resistance groups and know who is doing what. BBC has an interesting article. Saw it on twitter but not their live site. Talks about how the Taliban win will change the region, including impacting India. Lets remember the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. These are the things my security friends are losing sleep over. 

 

It remains to be seen how trustworthy the US will be in its commitment to the Quad (India, Australia, Japan, and US) which was formed in principle to combat against China. Considering that China's number one puppet in that region is Pakistan and Pakistan is arguably a top 2 or 3 nation in exporting terrorism, it would make an awful lot of sense for the US, the world's oldest democracy to strengthen its relationship with India, the world's largest democracy. To put it simply, India is the US's only reliable partner in the region and a bulwark against China.

[Shady Ray 1,633]

SIAP. Watched this last night and hooooooolllly fuck. I knew that much of the rank-and-file of the ANA were poorly disciplined, unmotivated and generally apathetic about defending territory from the Taliban, but I guess I never knew the extent to which a significant percentage of them appear to be quite literally functionally regarded.

 

 

 

It is from 2013, but it truly is prescient in light of current events.

 

Bill Steuber, the Marine who was responsible for checking in/liaising with local leadership in Helmand, should be sainted. I don't know how he kept his shit together dealing with such bullshittery day after day. If he wasn't dealing with ANA soldiers stealing fuel, kidnapping innocents for ransom or regularly being strung out on opium, it was local commanders shaking down citizens or sexually abusing chai boys and then murdering them. And this poor guy couldn't do shit about it because his hands were tied by his superiors who prioritized a particular narrative of ANA=good guys.

 

[Macklemore 2,876]

Child rape is an accepted part of the disgusting Afghan culture. A country where the army quit like cowards. Another of the multitude of reasons why Afghanistan is not worth a single American life. Oh now that thread is CR, fuck W and his gang of neocon warmongering assholes.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.amp.html

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Macklemore

[InkaUtexas 25,907]

4 hours ago, UDontKnow said:

It remains to be seen how trustworthy the US will be in its commitment to the Quad (India, Australia, Japan, and US) which was formed in principle to combat against China. Considering that China's number one puppet in that region is Pakistan and Pakistan is arguably a top 2 or 3 nation in exporting terrorism, it would make an awful lot of sense for the US, the world's oldest democracy to strengthen its relationship with India, the world's largest democracy. To put it simply, India is the US's only reliable partner in the region and a bulwark against China.

Yep. And they have the numbers to throw fodder into battles. A Nationalistic India is a force. 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

imagine being such a beta-cuck that you incessantly rail against a politician in your safe space, and the second the thread you've hijacked with politics is moved to the politics board (where you'll be asked to defend your assertions), you scurry off like a cockroach.

what's up with that @BabaYaga? why are you such a snowflake?

[DigglerontheHoof 21,186]

11 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

imagine being such a beta-cuck that you incessantly rail against a politician in your safe space, and the second the thread you've hijacked with politics is moved to the politics board (where you'll be asked to defend your assertions), you scurry off like a cockroach.

what's up with that @BabaYaga? why are you such a snowflake?

They're all pussies.  Every last one of them.  Little snowflake twat waffles. 

[Hmbre97 6,306]

8 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Don’t let this distract you from the vegetable who sat on his hands and ignored intel while the Taliban mowed over the country unopposed.

Very true. We should have started attacking the Taliban to drive them back. 

[Js1 85,311]

Watching the same DT safe spacers come to spew their talking points about Afghanistan is so cute.  I must have missed how much you cared from, the past 10 years.  Like the media you like to demonize, it's a boring story until you can spin it with your politics. 

[Bateshorn 9,927]

6 hours ago, UDontKnow said:

It remains to be seen how trustworthy the US will be in its commitment to the Quad (India, Australia, Japan, and US) which was formed in principle to combat against China. Considering that China's number one puppet in that region is Pakistan and Pakistan is arguably a top 2 or 3 nation in exporting terrorism, it would make an awful lot of sense for the US, the world's oldest democracy to strengthen its relationship with India, the world's largest democracy. To put it simply, India is the US's only reliable partner in the region and a bulwark against China.

Need to throw democracy in quotes when referring to India, Champ.

 

India, the world’s largest “democracy”

[Zeus 6,019]

Probably nothing to do with this being exactly 20 years. I wouldn't guess all the original contracts were written that way or anything.

None of the presidents do anything, it's pro wrasslin show to keep people occupied and pulling their hair out. 

The layers of corruption are so thick in the massive bureaucracy I guess it's easiest to skip over the thousands of responsible parties and just blame one party or the other.  

[Zeus 6,019]

2 hours ago, Macklemore said:

Child rape is an accepted part of the disgusting Afghan culture. A country where the army quit like cowards. Another of the multitude of reasons why Afghanistan is not worth a single American life. Oh now that thread is CR, fuck W and his gang of neocon warmongering assholes.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.amp.html

 

 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

3 minutes ago, Zeus said:

 

The phrase fucked up doesn't even begin to describe that situation. The only other one close to that is the tradition of temporary wives.  Get married to a girl for a day, week, month for the sole purpose of having sex.  

Say what you want about christianity, and the Catholic church is just as fucked up with the priests, and pedophelia, but the Muslim world seems to tolerate those things as part of their culture.

[UDontKnow 10,444]

2 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

Yep. And they have the numbers to throw fodder into battles. A Nationalistic India is a force. 

I wouldn't call their military "fodder" considering they surprised China in the Galwan Valley with their response last summer. What has held India's military back in the past was national politics, namely the widespread corruption from the Indian Congress Party. Under Modi, terrorist attacks have gone down significantly which is why India has been able to start developing Kashmir. You know it's the only part of India that for the longest time resembled...Pakistan. India's military operates better than China's military due to the simple fact that the Indian military is NOT conscripted. Where India needs to catch up is with military resources....planes, trains, automobiles...jokes aside, that's where India's military force is lacking.

[wildcat09 29,349]

On 8/16/2021 at 6:08 PM, BabaYaga said:

How far back are we going to go?  Bush?  Who handed to Obama, who handed to Trump?  Biden inherited a date.  A date he did NOTHING to prepare for.  He dissolved virtually every other Trump order BUT this one?  No.  This is on Corn Pop.  

Uh, yes?

Imagine thinking Bush doesn't share responsibility for how our shitshow in Afghanistan finally ended.

[UDontKnow 10,444]

19 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

Need to throw democracy in quotes when referring to India, Champ.

 

India, the world’s largest “democracy”

Bullshit. Modi was democratically elected twice and has significantly cleaned up corruption in India. India was a laughingstock on the international scene until Modi came to power and now they are chairing the UNSC (even if it is only for two years). Modi has significantly reduced the risk of terrorism by striking diplomatic deals with the likes of Saudi Arabia and Iran. Not only that India has been able to maintain healthy relations with the US and Russia simultaneously. 

If you want to run with that logic, America under Trump was no democracy either. Don't blindly believe what you read in western news outlets.

Talk to actual Indians before putting out your misinformed opinion. Champ. 

[DigglerontheHoof 21,186]

Corn Pop?  wtf is that?

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,976]

13 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

What makes you think they’re not smart? Just because you disagree with their ideology, as I do, that doesn’t mean they’re not smart and rational beings. I believe they are going to let the foreign occupiers leave without incident because that’s the logical thing to do.

We have a long history of mistaking people who are different from us, who aren’t as technologically advanced as us and who we perceive as being culturally inferior to us as being intellectually inferior to us. That’s a mistake that has cost us a lot of lives over the decades. From seeing the Native Americans as savages to thinking the Vietnamese were animals to thinking the Taliban are stupid to thinking we could build a wall to keep those murderers and rapists and drug dealers from Mexico out of our country. People are people and Americans aren’t exceptional. We’re all the same. Our arrogance and conceit makes us vulnerable. 

Yep. Similarly, I often have to remind myself when looking back through history that these people were just as intelligent as we are and maybe more so because survival of the fittest still meant something back then. We only have as much knowledge as we have because generations before us built upon the knowledge of generations before them and passed it down to us. We fill our brains with knowledge about physics and science that they didn't have from a young age and that sometimes makes us feel more intelligent. However, they filled their brains with Latin and classical literature and history to a much greater extent than we do today. 

[aggie08 21,497]

He's right though: the withdrawal is on "Corn Pop." He approved a really shitty plan. It's going to be messy for a couple of weeks.

But, as it's looking now, not a single American will be killed on their way out the door, and we'll be out of that godforsaken country that no one has wanted to be in--or cared about--for at least 10 years (during which time American soldiers were actually dying).

FOX News, Facebook, and his favorite alt right websites will try to keep BabaYaga's outrage going for a few more months, but it will eventually peter out, making room for the next big grievance. Probably what to do with all these damn Afghan immigrants that Biden had the audacity to bring into our country.

[BabaYaga 15,290]

1 hour ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

imagine being such a beta-cuck that you incessantly rail against a politician in your safe space, and the second the thread you've hijacked with politics is moved to the politics board (where you'll be asked to defend your assertions), you scurry off like a cockroach.

what's up with that @BabaYaga? why are you such a snowflake?

You mean before I had dinner at Capital Grille in Plano with friends last night?  Such a twat

[Js1 85,311]

17 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Uh, yes?

Imagine thinking Bush doesn't share responsibility for how our shitshow in Afghanistan finally ended.

Holy shit, did BabaYaga just try to absolve Bush of the whole mess? 

[Nueces River Rat 5,538]

17 hours ago, Nivek said:

I did not suggest she become Rambo or Audi Murphy. But simply rolling over is the issue.

The northern alliance has seemingly started to get going again, with a new branding. There are options but getting linked up is the hurdle now.

There are 85000 fighters in all the taliban all over the country. There are 4.5 million people in Kabul.
Even if the Taliban had 60% of their forces there, and killed 10 civilians for every taliban, The city loses 25% of its citizens and defeats them with 4 million folks not engaging and the Taliban becomes neutered. Assuming those numbers provided by Wiki are still valid (i am sure they are not, but it is all i have to go on).

How long have we heard a democracy movement was alive and growing stronger in Iran?   Maybe 25 years or so now?   The last time I checked, they are still the Islamic "Republic" of Iran.   It might be a large section of Iran's population hates the current and most recent regimes.   And a population who could very well win a civil war or uprising if they really tried and had international,  I mean the backing  of the USA.   But the fall of the Ayatollahs who run that ship is no where to be seen.       This is where the Islamic Emirate or Afghanistan is going.  

I can only think of a handful of countries in that part of the world who have thrived long term with some sort of democracy in a secular setting.  Turkey would be one, but they have been flirting with the Islamic Republic thing.   Egypt?    UAE?  Qatar?    As much as a devil Saddam was and before the Gulf War I, Iraq very much was a dictatorship, but it wasn't necessarily a cave for the batshit crazy Islamists.   He pretty much left the Christian population alone.   He  went that route as the political wind changed and he need the bat shit crazies to back him against the "Great Satan of the West."

The countries in the Middle East /Arab World  only have two options with rule and the west (mainly the USA) has two ways to either support it or wash it's hands of it.    You either let the "strong man" run the show through brutality  and things that make us cringe, but needless to say if you fly international and feel safe landing in Dubai and taking a tour of the city and admire it for it's western feel, then you can say it works for them.     Same goes for Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar to some extent.    Can't say that about where the Islamic Theocracy runs the show.  This is where we get our asses stuck in shit.   The Middle East will never be a home of multiple  Democratic or Republic forms of government in it's pure form.   The only country who has this in the Middle East is Israel.

[BabaYaga 15,290]

1 minute ago, Js1 said:

Holy shit, did BabaYaga just try to absolve Bush of the whole mess? 

It is cute how everyone tried to move the goalposts to encompass the entire Afghanistan theatre when the thread was and is clearly is about the utter and complete fuck up that is Biden's end game.  

[sidis 9,826]

not interestingly, baby yaga never responded to my post regarding the specifics of the conditions that trump and the taliban (and the taliban only, no afghani governmental representatives present) agreed to at camp david that he was so intent on using as the basis for breaking the agreement.  the same agreement in which trump freed 5,000 taliban fighter prisoners for 1,000 afghan prisoners.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

2 minutes ago, sidis said:

not interestingly, baby yaga never responded to my post regarding the specifics of the conditions that trump and the taliban (and the taliban only, no afghani governmental representatives present) agreed to at camp david that he was so intent on using as the basis for breaking the agreement.  the same agreement in which trump freed 5,000 taliban fighter prisoners for 1,000 afghan prisoners.

TRUMP HAD A PLAN MANNNNNNNN!!!!