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Tell me what's happening in Afganistan (no CR. Can't we all just get along?)


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NATO forces are coming back into Afghanistan to help with the evacuations, Germany are supplying smaller aircraft:

And Finland is sending in soldiers for their people:

https://www-hbl-fi.translate.goog/artikel/riksdagen-gav-gront-ljus-finland-skickar-bevapnad-militar-till-kabul/?_x_tr_sl=sv&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=ajax,nv,elem

The flight has departed - Finnish armed soldiers on their way to Kabul airport

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Also, this may explain why they asked the Germans for more lightweight aircraft and may explain what the plan is moving forward. Since we're inexplicably not going out to save our people and their families (which I strongly disagree with btw), maybe the plan is to do helo extractions and bring them to the airport that way?

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/helicopters-used-bring-americans-kabul-airport-nearby-hotel-official-2021-08-20/

Edited by MillerEP
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  On 8/21/2021 at 12:13 AM, MillerEP said:

Not sure If true, but if it is this is fucking disgusting: 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/us-general-tells-british-special-forces-stop-rescuing-people-in-kabul-youre-making-us-look-bad

US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad

by Tom Rogan, Commentary Writer |  | August 20, 2021 05:25 PM

 

More stories coming out of Taliban brutality:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/asia/afghanistan-women-taliban-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

The Taliban knocked on her door 3 times. The fourth time, they killed her
By Anna Coren, Sandi Sidhu, Abdul Basir Bina and Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Updated 10:19 AM ET, Wed August 18, 2021

 

Also, Qatar has stopped taking in new refugees, UAE will only take 5000 more, so the US will now be sending refugees to Ramstein Airbase in Germany. (Du hast?)

 

I'm in the Guard (since leaving the Corps) and I have to drill this weekend, so my reporting may be spotty this weekend if I respond at all.

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Neither place would take that many so surprised they took what they could. So let me ask, we need to pull out 100K between us and NATO allies. We can absorb them. There will be another 500K minimum who go into refugee status and I think Iran will be preferred over Pakistan. 

We can absorb the rest. Let me stop in San Angelo and get good Kebab. I am cool with that. 

Concerning retribution. Anyone who knows that country could forecast this was going to come. The Taliban may present a unified front, but their command and control is built on a tribal/platoon concept. Outside of their front in Doha (Qatar, really? And you got the World Cup), this documentary does a good job showing how the average Taliban/Muj element operates. Dated, but not a lot has really changed. 

@MillerEP Enjoy drill, I will keep watching. I bet there will be some interesting conversations. And not sure where you are but would love to have a beer one day. 

 

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Concerning Evacs outside the airport. There are only a few areas where Expats lived. Most of Kabul is rough. You could set up (with Talib acceptance) extraction points. Little birds watching, Chinooks to move them. Sadly we don't have that much heavy lift in country. 

Plus one fucktard from the hills who has been taught to hate us for everything might take some pot shots. 

At what point do we say, sorry, you knew this was coming, you stayed. 

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  On 8/21/2021 at 12:13 AM, MillerEP said:
Not sure If true, but if it is this is fucking disgusting: 
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/us-general-tells-british-special-forces-stop-rescuing-people-in-kabul-youre-making-us-look-bad
US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad
by Tom Rogan, Commentary Writer |  | August 20, 2021 05:25 PM
 
More stories coming out of Taliban brutality:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/asia/afghanistan-women-taliban-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
The Taliban knocked on her door 3 times. The fourth time, they killed her
By Anna Coren, Sandi Sidhu, Abdul Basir Bina and Hilary Whiteman, CNN
Updated 10:19 AM ET, Wed August 18, 2021
 
Also, Qatar has stopped taking in new refugees, UAE will only take 5000 more, so the US will now be sending refugees to Ramstein Airbase in Germany. (Du hast?)
 
I'm in the Guard (since leaving the Corps) and I have to drill this weekend, so my reporting may be spotty this weekend if I respond at all.
Sincerely thank you for your service.
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  On 8/21/2021 at 4:14 AM, Born to Run said:
  On 8/21/2021 at 12:13 AM, MillerEP said:
Not sure If true, but if it is this is fucking disgusting: 
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/us-general-tells-british-special-forces-stop-rescuing-people-in-kabul-youre-making-us-look-bad
US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad
by Tom Rogan, Commentary Writer |  | August 20, 2021 05:25 PM
 
More stories coming out of Taliban brutality:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/asia/afghanistan-women-taliban-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
The Taliban knocked on her door 3 times. The fourth time, they killed her
By Anna Coren, Sandi Sidhu, Abdul Basir Bina and Hilary Whiteman, CNN
Updated 10:19 AM ET, Wed August 18, 2021
 
Also, Qatar has stopped taking in new refugees, UAE will only take 5000 more, so the US will now be sending refugees to Ramstein Airbase in Germany. (Du hast?)
 
I'm in the Guard (since leaving the Corps) and I have to drill this weekend, so my reporting may be spotty this weekend if I respond at all.
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Sincerely thank you for your service.

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Read your post wrong. Was about to be a dick. But you are 100% correct. Thank you @MillerEP   It was a shitty place to fight. And I am glad you are here with us.  You have been a badass. Maybe if you let us know in advance about a drill weekend the wreath fund can send some bbq your way. Ya know, for the troops 

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  On 8/21/2021 at 1:12 PM, Muy Frio said:

The most high profile reporter got out. 

 

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It's amazing with all those people have been through, with tensions and emotions running so high...that they can remain so composed and not break out into a typical Spirit Airlines flight from Orlando.  

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  On 8/21/2021 at 4:55 PM, InkaUtexas said:

Well shit. US Embassy is telling people to leave the airport due to security concerns. ISIL gonna come and fuck shit up? 

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Yes, CNN just reported apparently they're trying to plan "alternate routes" to try and figure out where to pool evacuees but right now nothing has been determined.

Edited by phdhorn
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  On 8/21/2021 at 3:39 PM, phdhorn said:

In confiscated American gear, done earlier this week:

Taliban-Iwo-Jima.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

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Is that real?

 

ETA

It's real.  They got $28B of kickass American killing gear from us.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9914793/Taliban-soldiers-MOCK-iconic-World-War-II-image-American-Marines-raising-flag-Iwo-Jima.html

Edited by Parliament
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French AF is launching flares on take off. Reports of IS saying they gonna hit the airport. looks like we found a quick solution for my interpreter's family. They are going to make the run to Iran. Big ass fire in Kabul. 

US flights are back, and hearing that we are going to ask commercial carriers to go in as well. 

Shit, what a great week. Gonna go have a beer for me and @MillerEP since he is at drill. He can have one for me on Monday. 

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  On 8/20/2021 at 8:58 PM, InkaUtexas said:

Long War Journal (Interesting source) posted a map of who controls what. I wish it had a terrain overlay, but it is what it is. I might ask my GIS buddy to see if he could make a layered one. Anyways, what you would see is the Taliban control most cities and a shit ton of crappy land. Goes back to my point on an earlier post about where food is produced. If the NA can hold on, and even extend East and North they can hold on through the winter. 

This looks a lot like the maps from the Taliban offensive in 1991. 

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/08/anti-taliban-resistance-makes-modest-gains-outside-panjshir.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+(FDD's+Long+War+Journal+Update)

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If your buddy can’t, I’ll can see if I can find this data in shapefile form and I can put a little map together. Don’t hold me to that but it might be a fun exercise if I can find some time tomorrow. 

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  On 8/21/2021 at 8:54 PM, phdhorn said:

One of the main reasons Americans are trying to find alternate routes of escape besides the airport is that now ISIS is showing up there and is expected to carry out terrorist attacks soon:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/21/politics/kabul-airport-terror-warning/

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ISIS and the Taliban generally don't like each other.  I saw some pretty cool ISIS v. Taliban fire fights at night on NVGs.  If you were going into J-Bad, you could usually see their skirmishes to the south near the Pakistan border.

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  On 8/21/2021 at 8:47 PM, InkaUtexas said:

French AF is launching flares on take off. Reports of IS saying they gonna hit the airport. looks like we found a quick solution for my interpreter's family. They are going to make the run to Iran. Big ass fire in Kabul. 

US flights are back, and hearing that we are going to ask commercial carriers to go in as well. 

Shit, what a great week. Gonna go have a beer for me and @MillerEP since he is at drill. He can have one for me on Monday. 

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Great like…?

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  On 8/21/2021 at 9:48 PM, Assman said:

ISIS and the Taliban generally don't like each other.  I saw some pretty cool ISIS v. Taliban fire fights at night on NVGs.  If you were going into J-Bad, you could usually see their skirmishes to the south near the Pakistan border.

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Yeah, generally you're right. However what's alarming about this is that, the Taliban "head of security" (yeah, right) in Kabul, it's an AQ Ally and has a long history of ties to them.  From VOA:

  Quote

“The fact we have Khalil al-Rahman in charge of Kabul security is dismaying,” a British intelligence official told VOA on the condition of anonymity. “The Haqqani and al-Qaida have a long history together, you could argue they are intertwined, and it is highly unlikely they will cut ties.”

Retired senior British diplomat Ivor Roberts told VOA that assigning members of the Haqqani network to oversee the security of Kabul is akin to the “fox being put in charge of a chicken coop.”

Roberts, a senior adviser at the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit network that researches extremist groups, said he was surprised at the move. “I thought from the PR point of view, the Taliban was being a bit smarter than that,” he said.

“Instead, they’re putting forward the worst elements of their loose coalition, which sends a terrible signal to women, girls and civil society. And I think it increases the possibility of Afghanistan becoming a breeding ground for international terrorism again.”

He added, “I don’t think they will ever cut ties with al-Qaida. They’re deeply embedded with al-Qaida and always have been.

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Seems to leave open a good possibility that the Taliban will let ISIS loose on Americans and others in Kabul.

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Ok, I have some free time today, so here's the catchup on what's going on now:

EU and NATO countries are starting to have meetings to discuss what to do. Spain is offering to take some Afghans, while there are reports that the Taliban checkpoints are charging Afghans exorbitant amounts of money to allow people to get through some of their checkpoints towards the Airport.

The US is supposedly considering mobilizing the Civil Reserve Air fleet. The CRAF are civilian US airlines who are bound by contract to augment DoD flights.  

 

Here is the girl from the protest videos we posted the other day. Super brave to show her face, but I don't predict it will end well for her:

Despite the US telling everyone the airport is getting increasingly unsafe, people are still climbing the walls to get into the grounds:

 

Edited by MillerEP
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  On 8/22/2021 at 12:47 AM, Brisketexan said:


ISIS and AQ are not allies. Taliban and AQ are. Taliban, even if (especially if) friendly with AQ, are not going to be friendly with ISIS.

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Yes, but my point in the article is that al-Rahman, a hardliner, might be willing to look the other way even briefly while ISIS carries out attacks, which they've been doing anyway for years in Afghanistan, despite their opposition to the Taliban, and especially if they're not aimed at the Taliban,Which they wouldn't be.

In the 2015 ISI Taliban war, many fighting on the isis side were excaliban who didn't like their warlord. So allegiances are not exactly clear.

All bets are off in that hellhole right now.

Edited by phdhorn
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  On 8/22/2021 at 1:23 AM, phdhorn said:
Yes, but my point in the article is that al-Rahman, a hardliner, might be willing to look the other way even briefly while ISIS carries out attacks, which they've been doing anyway for years in Afghanistan, despite their opposition to the Taliban, and especially if they're not aimed at the Taliban,Which they wouldn't be.
All bets are off in that hellhole right now.

But that’s really not in the Taliban’s interest. They want us gone. Starting more shit with us….maybe causing us to change our mind and set up a new presence there…is the opposite of what they want. They’re not stupid.
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  On 8/22/2021 at 1:28 AM, Brisketexan said:


But that’s really not in the Taliban’s interest. They want us gone. Starting more shit with us….maybe causing us to change our mind and set up a new presence there…is the opposite of what they want. They’re not stupid.

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Exactly they're not stupid. Why would they mind a little mess being stirred up by a group they don't have to worry about.

Remember today number of isis are exaliban from the conflict of 2015.

And finally, if this were not a threat or the Taliban we're going to tramp it down, wire the threats credible enough that four nations have had to markedly alter their plans in the last 24 hours to get people out? Part of it is possibly because of Taliban has an established full control yet. But make no mistake about it, ISI is a current threat there.

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  On 8/22/2021 at 1:31 AM, phdhorn said:
Exactly they're not stupid. Why would they mind a little mess being stirred up by a group they don't have to worry about.
Remember today number of isis are exaliban from the conflict of 2015.
And finally, if this were not a threat or the Taliban we're going to tramp it down, wire the threats credible enough that four nations have had to markedly alter their plans in the last 24 hours to get people out? Part of it is possibly because of Taliban has an established full control yet. But make no mistake about it, ISI is a current threat there.

Oh, I don’t disagree - ISIS may well start some shit, but that’s more likely because of chaos and lack of cohesive Taliban control versus it happening with Taliban assistance and approval.
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