What in God's Green Goodness Are We Up To In Afghanistan?

The Taliban resurgence is also the consequence of foreign interference so it's not like the departure of American troops is really going to change the paradigm of Afghans having complete self determination over their nation.

I think maybe there have been some gains in education, attitudes towards women, etc which will have lasting effects. Of course no one is going to cite this as a model intervention. Only looking for silver linings at this point, perhaps a mug's game.

Outside the diaspora I think the effects will be very short lived unfortunately.

I hope I'm wrong.

You may have stepped on a rake there.

Stepping on rakes and learning is the purpose of discussions.

General Mark Milley: "There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days." pic.twitter.com/z5gVBpBHnN

— The Hill (@thehill) August 18, 2021

Starting to think maybe Trump DOES know more than the generals

Well, one thing seems clear: assets are being frozen, foreign aid is suspended, military payroll has ended, and it's probably going to be a miserable winter for most Afghan civilians; high food prices, scarcity of goods, etc. Hopefully the Taliban don't try to immediately replace all the qualified civil servants with fighters from the ranks.

xp I can see why Trump wouldn’t have wanted to do a coup with that guy.

pic.twitter.com/oJMo5lsL2H

— the thicc husband & father (@lukeisamazing) August 18, 2021

A gajillion hours of debate and acres of print; the smartest people in politics applying their full intellect to the weightiest issues at the pinnacle of global politics, and every one of them would’ve been absolutely trounced by a parrot trained to squawk “No”.

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) August 19, 2021

That sounds like vapid stop the war politics to me, better to let the grownups keep knocking it out of the park

CNN is just saying

a lot of interesting things in this article

Afghanistan has rare earth minerals and, perhaps most importantly, what could be one of the world's biggest deposits of lithium — an essential but scarce component in rechargeable batteries and other technologies vital to tackling the climate crisis. https://t.co/HYBTEVne4u

— CNN (@CNN) August 18, 2021

Surely these minerals must be protected for democracy

in general the apparent lack of consensus* from media, political, military establishments in recent days has been very interesting to see, I’m not sure how it breaks down between/within those groups, what kinds of internal struggles it reflects, how far back this goes, or how much longer it will last, but there’s a hell of a lot of mixed messaging atm

*on things like how or if to deal with the taliban, on normalising relations, on further military action, on sanctions etc. for the most part there’s still an assumption that “we” are fundamentally righteous and well-meaning, an acknowledgment that we made mistakes, but not much agreement on what the specific mistakes are, who should be blamed, what should be done about it, etc

Plenty of that on this thread ffs

No one has justified the intervention in this thread, at least since early august. 'Plenty of that' is hyperbolic.

👀 pic.twitter.com/DYvAEtWY5d

— Mukhtar (@Mukhtar_iam) August 19, 2021

Just rinsing this cunt.

You used to be more effective at spinning, Alastair. https://t.co/EldM0BZiZW pic.twitter.com/UOwebZ9QBj

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) August 19, 2021

Oh the whole thing is epic.

"look, women will be able to be nurses what more do you want"

Lol

British news is insane atm, channel 4 is interviewing children of dead soldiers asking them if their dad died in vain

— Lockheed Norman (@bigplurp) August 18, 2021

couldn't invent something more british than this pic.twitter.com/I7axN9mXiS

— Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) August 20, 2021

don't worry Amelia is on the case and she's married to a connected gentleman

Just horrifying.

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/20/european-leaders-exploiting-fears-afghan-refugee-crisis-eu-afghanistan?

they should call it "the racism crisis" or "the border crisis" or at this point maybe "the genocide crisis"

how much of a monster do you have to be to describe people fleeing for their lives as "sizeable flows of irregular migration". i know being europeans are generally monsters who find this language normal but still. whole article has a weird tone that almost reads like relief that the violence of the border regime will be effective enough to avoid stirring up local "populists" this time, which of course it won't however effective it is at making sure more people die

The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS02aWM7zWACPr2t9ALLZL6J2b2vLra8qhwjg&usqp=CAU

Good article from the FT this weekend, on the atmosphere among the new generation of young people in Kabul in the weeks before the fall:

The last days of the 'New Afghanistan'

https://www.ft.com/content/4a276093-cf85-4da7-9093-6af6443bb53a

Boris Johnson personally overruled Ben Wallace to allow Pen Farthing's animals to leave Kabul on a charter plane, friends say

Friend of Farthing Dominic Dyer told Mail Plus: "Mr Johnson's wife Carrie 'most certainly had something to do with the change'"https://t.co/14wwGzSfMg

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) August 25, 2021

Nothing more English than favouring a good dog over a funny-looking human.

I've never heard of any of those people except for Boris Johnson.

i think Pen Farthing is a good friend of Raleigh Grifter

lol POLITICO:

https://i.imgur.com/VM4pUSE.jpg

ISIS may not have the biggest army, but sure seems to have the most media savvy.

How terrifying to be a kid evacuated from war-torn Afghanistan to South Korea to be met my people in full covid gear:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Farc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost%252Es3%252Eamazonaws%252Ecom%2Fpublic%2FWYDDSRQGK4I6ZM6EYRRLD3OPZA%252Ejpg&w=992&h=662

by people

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E93JEF0XoAESiEB?format=jpg&name=large

"I'm relieved for me and feel happy for the animals"

nation of animal lovers in all its glory

i feel so many things, but one of them is deep hatred toward The Sun

who would read the sun

yes, i know, velvet underground, who loves the sun, not everyone

if there ever any posh Brits with names Pen Farthing or Tuppence Middleton they are almost guaranteed to be evil tory scumbags, but with impeccable animal rights credentials.

are you fucking kidding me? they evacuated dogs and cats over people?

i love dogs and cats but it's obscene.

Cats are probably okay under the Taliban? The Prophet himself was a cat lover. (Story goes he cut off a sleeve of his robe when he needed to leave instead of disturbing the cat sleeping on it.)

"The sharpest of Zakaria’s criticism of white feminism is reserved for white female journalists. “There’s a certain arc that the editors want,” she says, that these journalists deliver. “In the case of Afghanistan, there was very much an idea that this was America taking feminism to Afghan women,” and “liberating them from the Taliban. There are colonial precedents to sending female reporters out there. These white women are sent in as emblems – our women are brave and they are out taking pictures and writing stories and getting your story out to the world. But the assumption is that there isn’t anyone in Afghanistan who can write in English and tell the stories of Afghanistan to the world.”"

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/28/rafia-zakaria-a-lot-of-white-female-professors-told-me-to-quit?

“There’s a certain arc that the editors want,” she says, that these journalists deliver.

Then the female journalists are just doing the job they are paid to do. Don't jump on them; jump on their editors for wanting to steer the news in a predetermined arc without regard for the truth.

who’s doing what now