August 17, 20213 yr I dislike the idea of setting up camp next door. It overburdens countries who lack the infrax to deal with it. Same reason why I dislike that because of how the EU functions that we leave Malta Greece and Italy to just deal with it. Β Ok there will need to be some form of temporary reception centre but letβs staff it with gov officials from the west, have the us army fashion a runway outta Jack shit And then process And evac from there.
August 17, 20213 yr I must say I am not an expert on the matter, but my view is the US should have stayed in Afghanistan. I think once they decided to stay after initially entering after 9/11 (which I totally get) and continue to stay there for 20 years.. where do you draw the line? It was always obvious that this was going to happen and it seems like a disasterous foreign policy which is likely to be reversed within the next 20 years. I'm not sure who was funding the Taliban, but I really do feel for the people of Afghanistan and fingers crossed there will be as little fighting as possible during the transition.Β It does seem like a colossal screw up from all the World Leaders - everyone seems absolutely dumbstruck at how fast the Taliban regained the capital, so either the Special Forces who have had 20 years of training were not good enough or there was widespread corruption within the Army/Police. No way the intelligence gets things so badly wrong. And I also totally agree this is a Western problem and we quite simply have to accept refugees.
August 17, 20213 yr It does seem like a colossal screw up from all the World Leaders - everyone seems absolutely dumbstruck at how fast the Taliban regained the capital, so either the Special Forces who have had 20 years of training were not good enough or there was widespread corruption within the Army/Police. No way the intelligence gets things so badly wrong. And I also totally agree this is a Western problem and we quite simply have to accept refugees.Β They wrongly assumed that the Afghan army would bother putting up a fight rather than just immediately surrendering and/or defecting. No amount of years of training the army could convince them to even try to fight to protect a government that was widely viewed as corrupt and enforced on them by foreign powers, I'm not sure how they didn't see it coming. It's very sad that the consequence of this is the Taliban immediately returning stronger than ever but it is what it is, as you said it was inevitable this would happen unless the US just stayed in the country forever...Β This has been really devastating news to read about the last couple of days, my heart goes out to all the women in Afghanistan who are about to have their lives plunged into complete hell.
August 17, 20213 yr It's so sad to see. Even though the western occupation wasn't perfect, many Afghan lives were vastly improved, particualrly women. I hope the Taliban won't be as bad as they were when they were previously in power, but I won't get my hopes up... Β Β
August 17, 20213 yr They wrongly assumed that the Afghan army would bother putting up a fight rather than just immediately surrendering and/or defecting. No amount of years of training the army could convince them to even try to fight to protect a government that was widely viewed as corrupt and enforced on them by foreign powers, I'm not sure how they didn't see it coming. It's very sad that the consequence of this is the Taliban immediately returning stronger than ever but it is what it is, as you said it was inevitable this would happen unless the US just stayed in the country forever...Β This has been really devastating news to read about the last couple of days, my heart goes out to all the women in Afghanistan who are about to have their lives plunged into complete hell.Β I think it is more complex than that, but I think there is also a question around just how much people outside of the cities actually wanted change and to move to a more Western society. It's a colossal error of judgement from the US and all their Allies. Even if they had wind that the army would not bother putting up a fight, you would have expected they would last long enough to evacuate safely and begin an asylum process for refugees. I guess time will tell whether the long term impact of the US invasion pays dividends to the West, but it's really sad to see and I thought Biden's speech yesterday was very poor, I know it was not his foreign policy to leave the country, but the evacuation has been nothing short of a disaster and cannot believe he didn't have a contingency plan.
August 18, 20213 yr Honestly, what's happening in Afghanistan is tragic. What's even more tragic is that the people of the UK are so against taking in 20,000 Afghan refugees in the long term. It's literally the only comments you seen on any post or news about Afghanistan. What happened to the welcoming country we used to be.
August 18, 20213 yr Daily Mail and related media the likes of Farage exposed that myth. The election of 2019 exposed in particular that we were a cruel, prejudiced country.
August 18, 20213 yr I donβt think it is considering the immigration since WW2 but as you say the media and brexit has damaged a lot over the past 20 years!
August 18, 20213 yr Author sounds like Johnson is getting a house united against him - Starmer and May going into him and Raab on 'being on holiday', not that either are perfect themselves and I suspect that had either been in charge they'd have called for withdrawal the same as Biden had, but I also feel they'd have handled an international crisis like this with a bit more presence from this criticism, the British response has happened almost in spite of there being a government.
August 18, 20213 yr sounds like Johnson is getting a house united against him - Starmer and May going into him and Raab on 'being on holiday', not that either are perfect themselves and I suspect that had either been in charge they'd have called for withdrawal the same as Biden had, but I also feel they'd have handled an international crisis like this with a bit more presence from this criticism, the British response has happened almost in spite of there being a government. Once the US decided to pull out, the UK had little choice. However, Trump announced the withdrawal in February 2020. It was originally scheduled for May, but Biden delayed it to August. In that eighteen months, Trump, Biden and Johnson appear to have spent precisely zero seconds on drawing up some sort of plan.
August 18, 20213 yr Once the US decided to pull out, the UK had little choice. However, Trump announced the withdrawal in February 2020. It was originally scheduled for May, but Biden delayed it to August. In that eighteen months, Trump, Biden and Johnson appear to have spent precisely zero seconds on drawing up some sort of plan.Β Agreed, you cannot blame the UK Government and other Western Allies for leaving Afghanistan once the US withdrew. What you can lay blame to is the absolutely terrible execution of any form of a contingency plan incase the intelligence they had was wrong. Here's a thought to Biden - why would people decide to start a civil war which nobody had any hope for? Seems mad that Western forces thought the Afghan army would put up a fight, have a load of casualties in the process, just so everyone else could evacuate.Β Just seems mad that this is going to inevitably end up in civil war once the dust settles and the likes of the US, China and Russia have decided which side they want to back to suit their own agendas and the power grab inside the Taliban happens.
August 26, 20213 yr There has now been an attack at both the airport and near a hotel, multiple civilian and US casualties from the sounds of it.
August 26, 20213 yr Latest numbers are 12 US Military, inc a medic, and at least 60 Afghani. Completely heartbreaking and completely unnecessary. The hasty US withdrawal has caused this. Time and care should have been taken to ensure a steady stream of Afghans in danger could be evacuated
August 26, 20213 yr You would think itβs quite easy for a headline to be βat least 60 afghani dead in an attackβ and mention US casualties in an article too but everyone knows that one American is worth at least 100 people from the Middle East according to the latest exchange rate
August 27, 20213 yr Author Dreadful. Β Not passing a comment on what should be done but on the Daesh jihadist side (who have now claimed responsibility) they don't want the US to leave, it benefits the recruitment to their death cult to have an enemy to fight against. It's unlikely but the Taliban, if left alone, could build a functioning if incredibly repressive society - probably comparable to Saudi Arabia really. ISIL are something else. Different shades of awful and goddamn evil.
August 29, 20213 yr You would think itβs quite easy for a headline to be βat least 60 afghani dead in an attackβ and mention US casualties in an article too but everyone knows that one American is worth at least 100 people from the Middle East according to the latest exchange rateΒ This!
December 10, 20213 yr no one is saying much about china. zizek just said in an interview that he has heard from china that taiwan could be under threat soon.
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