Posted on 04/18/2021 5:05:25 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Driving to Taliban-controlled territory doesn't take long. Around 30 minutes from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, passing large craters left by roadside bombs, we meet our host: Haji Hekmat, the Taliban's shadow mayor in Balkh district.
Perfumed and in a black turban, he's a veteran member of the group, having first joined the militants in the 1990s when they ruled over the majority of the country.
The Taliban have arranged a display of force for us. Lined up on either side of the street are heavily armed men, one carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher, another an M4 assault rifle captured from US forces. Balkh was once one of the more stable parts of the country; now it's become one of the most violent.
Baryalai, a local military commander with a ferocious reputation, points down the road, "the government forces are just there by the main market, but they can't leave their bases. This territory belongs to the mujahideen".
It's a similar picture across much of Afghanistan: the government controls the cities and bigger towns, but the Taliban are encircling them, with a presence in large parts of the countryside.
The militants assert their authority through sporadic checkpoints along key roads. As Taliban members stop and question passing cars, Aamir Sahib Ajmal, the local head of the Taliban's intelligence service, tells us they're searching for people linked to the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
US Criticized For Withdrawing Troops From Afghanistan While Just 50 Years From Victory
April 15th, 2021 - Babylon Bee
U.S.—The U.S. has been criticized for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan when the country is so close to victory, being just another 50 years away from declaring victory in the region.
Commentators, pundits, Democrats, and Republicans alike criticized the proposal to pull troops out in a few months, when if we just stay there for another few decades, victory is all but assured.
“Why are we leaving when victory is on the horizon, just a few decades away?” asked John Bolton. “We’re so close. You can’t give up right when you’re on the finish line, with a utopia in the Middle East being within our reach if we just stay there for another half-century.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense to leave now.”
At publishing time, the nation’s warmongers were relieved as they realized there’s basically zero chance we’re actually leaving Afghanistan this fall.
Afghan saying:
“You have the watch, we have the time.”
They’re right.
Their society, culture, and economy are pretty much the same as 20 years ago.
Look at ours.
The democrat party is much like the taliban. Their paramilitary troops called blm and antifa do some of the same things.
It was in a Dark Age, now it is descending deeper into it.
Let’s suppose the US “won.” What would that victory look like? The Soviets had Westernized Afghanistan such that women were being educated and could wear boots and miniskirts in public. It was probably only the United States attempting to make Afghanistan the Soviet Viet Nam that destabilized the region and turned Afghanistan into the ninth century hell it is today. Although, in truth, the Westernization of Afghanistan would probably have reversed shortly after the Soviet Union fell. The Afghan modernization was only due to the continued and oppressive presence of troops willing and able to kill anyone who wasn’t towing the line.
Given the region’s black-hole nature of cultural gravity I don’t see the US as ever “winning” the culture war. No culture war win and it doesn’t matter how much ground you control. How much blood and treasure is it worth to the American tax payer so that young Afghan women can wear miniskirts and black boots in public? While I feel sorry for anyone unlucky enough to be born in Afghanistan I don’t feel so sorry that I’d spend even a dollar to do something for them. That’s because, as a Marine friend who spent several tours there says, (approximately) “Helping them is a total waste of time and money. They lay down the weapons we gave them at the feet of the Jihadists and perform a full prostration bow. I’ve seen it and it’s disgusting. We should leave.”
The Bee is so spot on, on so many things, it is just incredible.
We could bomb them back to the Stone Age but they’re already there. Some say we were just protecting CCP “Belt and Road” projects.
Like a land version of Diego Garcia we share with the Brits.
In before, "we really won like we did in Vietnam/Iraq, then the Demonrats threw it away, vote Republican" people show up.
We didn't just lose - we got our asses kicked, the trail from 9/11/2001 to 4/18/21 is a trail of unmitigated failure and defeat, we are weaker, we are less secure, and we will become more so in the decade ahead.
It was worse than a crime, it was all a mistake.
And don't point out all the brave and well-executed battles that were won on the trail to disaster. There were many of those won by Germans in Russia before their cities were ground to dust, their women were raped, and a large segment of their Y-DNA erased from history before it could be passed along. None of those titanic textbook German victories on the Eastern Front added up to anything except defeat.
Why? So the men guarding the bases - or worse, God help us, the women - could be picked off in Comanche raids, by ones and twos, until the end of time?
They’ve won the right to remain a two-bit poor ignorant hellhole - AND they’re bragging about it?
OMG
That’s so pathetic...
Go for it losers.
We insisted on staying.
There will be a large slaughter of anyone who helped the US. On the plus side, let’s see if the taliban will still be getting rid of the poppy fields or use them to make money and hurt the West.
Kill em ALL and let ALLAH sort em out.
It would have been nice if Bush had defined what victory would look like. Instead, we just got dragged into another war with no real goal.
If I was in the same headspace then, as I am now, I would have never pulled the lever for George W. Bush; twice. As it is, the lesser of two evils is still evil. As of the Nov 2020 election, I've decided that if that is the choice, I'll leave that selection blank. While I won't vote for any Socialist/Globalist, I'd rather the devil that is open about who they are win than the one that pretends to be on my side. At least then, there is no ambiguity about things.
But at least W gave us John Roberts.
/s>
Graveyard of Empires.
Land of Bones.
History speaks for itself.
America needs to heed that long, long history.
GTFO is long overdue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.