McG
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Of course, that approach was also tried and Russia lost to the Taliban then too.
Taliban Change Tactics
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daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
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It's lining up to be another kind of graveyard, too....
Afghanistan in 2023: Taliban internal power struggles and militancy
Almost half of the Afghan population was projected to be acutely food insecure between November 2022 and March 2023, with 6 million on the brink of famine. More than a quarter of Afghanistan’s roughly 40 million people have been receiving food packets and cash stipends from the World Food Program.
Afghanistan in 2023: Taliban internal power struggles and militancy
Suffering from an acute humanitarian crisis, Afghanistan's future will be dictated by powerful rivalries within the Taliban's top leadership, and by whether the Taliban is able to stop militants based in Afghanistan from launching attacks outside its borders.
www.brookings.edu
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I kinda hate that tag line.
It's less the "graveyard of Empires", and more "the piece of land not worth spending too much time or effort on". It is entirely irrelevant in geopolitics, apart from when great empires decide to poke around at one another at the fringes.
The British went there to prevent the Russians from getting land on their Indian borders. Alexander went there because he was a narcissist who wanted to rule the entire world... His successor empires lasted for centuries after his Afghanistan adventures.
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It really is sad, there is much beauty in the country. The immediate family of my closest Afghan friend has settled in Canada after leaving (escaping from) their Bamyan region (many will recall the Taliban destroying the Buddhist temple [was a world heritage sight] in the 2001-2002 timeframe). I drove through many regions in Afghanistan and the Northern region was particularly beautiful…green, lush, friendly, innocent almost…a significant contrast from the Southern Kandahar/Herat/Nimruz/Farah and the Northern Bamyan/Balkh/Baghlan/Badakshan provinces. I had told my friend (now in Canada with all his family (though not without some grief from Canada’s less-than-stellar immigration policy/plan implementation)) when I left Afghanistan in the mid-2000s that I looked forward to the time that tourists would come to see the beauty of Afghanistan. Sadly, that wasn’t to/won’t be..
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Has been for years nay eons, no hope for immediate improvement.
daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
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Meanwhile, the old wheel goes round and round....
The revelations come from a Washington Post review of the documents illegally released in the trove of leaks uploaded to the online messaging platform Discord. Citing the information in these leaks, the Post notes the Pentagon’s awareness of at least 15 terrorist plots coordinated by “ISIS leaders in Afghanistan” targeting “embassies, churches, business centers, and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.” The leaked records expose plans to develop deployable chemical weapons, hijack sophisticated drone aircraft, and kidnap Iraqi diplomats to secure the release of the group’s prisoners in the Middle East. ISIS operatives are reportedly cultivating assets in theaters of conflict all over the world, from Syria to Ukraine, amid the organization’s “aspirational” plots against civilians in Europe and the United States.
The documents, the Post reports, detail the Islamic State’s “cost-effective model for external operations,” which rely on operatives embedded within populations in target countries and could “enable ISIS to overcome obstacles—such as competent security services—and reduce some plot timelines, minimizing disruption opportunities.”
This unnerving development is supposedly compounded by what the Post seems to view as an equally if not more pernicious menace: the risk that Republicans will “pounce” on this news and revive their criticisms of Joe Biden’s hopelessly botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Pouncing aside, it would be a real public service if congressional Republicans made the most of these pilfered documents to highlight this White House’s abuse of the public trust in the bleak summer of 2021.
“We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago,” President Joe Biden asserted less than a week after 13 American soldiers were killed supervising the improvisatory airlift out of Kabul’s civilian airport. The group that committed the 9/11 attacks had been “decimated,” the president added, and the only “vital interest” the U.S. maintained in Central Asia was the prevention of future attacks on the U.S. and its allies. Toward that end, America welcomed the support of its new partners in peace: the Taliban.
“The Taliban has committed to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the United States or our allies, including Al Qaeda and ISIS-K,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured skeptical lawmakers. The notion that the Taliban, which only weeks earlier was engaged in an all-out offensive against America’s partners in Afghanistan, had suddenly become a U.S. asset contradicted not only the evidence of our own eyes but other voices inside the Biden administration.
“We are already beginning to see some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaeda to Afghanistan,” said David Cohen, the CIA’s deputy director. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, agreed, adding that transnational terrorist organizations would reconstitute “some capability to at least threaten the homeland” within two years of America’s withdrawal.
Former intelligence officials who served Democratic administrations in the past were even less reserved in their assessment of the threat posed by the recapitulation of the Taliban’s regime. Al-Qaeda and other groups “will plan additional attacks on our country, as well as elsewhere,” warned former CIA director Leon Panetta. “The reconstruction of al-Qaida’s homeland attack capability will happen quickly,” his successor, Mike Morell, warned, “if the U.S. does not collect the intelligence and take the military action to prevent it.”
www.nationalreview.com
Afghanistan Comes Full Circle
Radical Islamist elements are making the most of the power vacuum in Central Asia and once again aim to use Afghanistan as a base to export terrorism abroad.The revelations come from a Washington Post review of the documents illegally released in the trove of leaks uploaded to the online messaging platform Discord. Citing the information in these leaks, the Post notes the Pentagon’s awareness of at least 15 terrorist plots coordinated by “ISIS leaders in Afghanistan” targeting “embassies, churches, business centers, and the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.” The leaked records expose plans to develop deployable chemical weapons, hijack sophisticated drone aircraft, and kidnap Iraqi diplomats to secure the release of the group’s prisoners in the Middle East. ISIS operatives are reportedly cultivating assets in theaters of conflict all over the world, from Syria to Ukraine, amid the organization’s “aspirational” plots against civilians in Europe and the United States.
The documents, the Post reports, detail the Islamic State’s “cost-effective model for external operations,” which rely on operatives embedded within populations in target countries and could “enable ISIS to overcome obstacles—such as competent security services—and reduce some plot timelines, minimizing disruption opportunities.”
This unnerving development is supposedly compounded by what the Post seems to view as an equally if not more pernicious menace: the risk that Republicans will “pounce” on this news and revive their criticisms of Joe Biden’s hopelessly botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Pouncing aside, it would be a real public service if congressional Republicans made the most of these pilfered documents to highlight this White House’s abuse of the public trust in the bleak summer of 2021.
“We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago,” President Joe Biden asserted less than a week after 13 American soldiers were killed supervising the improvisatory airlift out of Kabul’s civilian airport. The group that committed the 9/11 attacks had been “decimated,” the president added, and the only “vital interest” the U.S. maintained in Central Asia was the prevention of future attacks on the U.S. and its allies. Toward that end, America welcomed the support of its new partners in peace: the Taliban.
“The Taliban has committed to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the United States or our allies, including Al Qaeda and ISIS-K,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured skeptical lawmakers. The notion that the Taliban, which only weeks earlier was engaged in an all-out offensive against America’s partners in Afghanistan, had suddenly become a U.S. asset contradicted not only the evidence of our own eyes but other voices inside the Biden administration.
“We are already beginning to see some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaeda to Afghanistan,” said David Cohen, the CIA’s deputy director. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, agreed, adding that transnational terrorist organizations would reconstitute “some capability to at least threaten the homeland” within two years of America’s withdrawal.
Former intelligence officials who served Democratic administrations in the past were even less reserved in their assessment of the threat posed by the recapitulation of the Taliban’s regime. Al-Qaeda and other groups “will plan additional attacks on our country, as well as elsewhere,” warned former CIA director Leon Panetta. “The reconstruction of al-Qaida’s homeland attack capability will happen quickly,” his successor, Mike Morell, warned, “if the U.S. does not collect the intelligence and take the military action to prevent it.”
Afghanistan Comes Full Circle | National Review
In the wake of Biden’s botched withdrawal, documents reveal plans by radical Islamist elements to once again use the nation as a base to export terrorism.
www.nationalreview.com
GK .Dundas
Army.ca Veteran
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I see this all Joe Biden's fault and the previous three administration's have absolutely nothing to do with this hot steaming mess.
Actually I suspect if you asked any of the other participants I suspect that they've never even heard of Afghanistan.
Sigh Welcome to the wonderful world of politics.
Actually I suspect if you asked any of the other participants I suspect that they've never even heard of Afghanistan.
Sigh Welcome to the wonderful world of politics.
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Look, by invading Afghanistan, deposing the Taliban, failing to build a stable state, and leaving and permitting the Taliban to retake control, clearly we've prevented Saudi Arabia from pulling another 9/11.
That's just International Relations 101.
That's just International Relations 101.
OldSolduer
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Just a question from a guy that STILL loves red crayons : What makes people think you can change a culture that existed when Alex The Great invaded in less than 20 years. Good luck with that.
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Well... it was a vastly different culture back then, but it was still a backwater filled with ungovernable hillbillies.
FJAG
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Halifax Tar
Army.ca Fixture
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Have we switched the discussion to Florida?
I think he was talking about Cape Breton, wasn't he ?
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Cape Breton, Greenwood...
OldSolduer
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Manitoba enters the chat
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Explained: Why nearly 2 million Afghan nationals are being forced to flee Pakistan - Times of India
Pakistan News: Pakistan will begin cracking down on undocumented immigrants, including nearly 2 million Afghan nationals, starting Nov 1. The deportation will be car
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
things getting testy between the taliban and pakistan. Kicking millions of afghans out will be interesting
Colin Parkinson
Army.ca Myth
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We maybe the UN can start up a UN Afghan Refugee Administration and then condemn Pakistan.Explained: Why nearly 2 million Afghan nationals are being forced to flee Pakistan - Times of India
Pakistan News: Pakistan will begin cracking down on undocumented immigrants, including nearly 2 million Afghan nationals, starting Nov 1. The deportation will be car
things getting testy between the taliban and pakistan. Kicking millions of afghans out will be interesting
