Afghanistan news and discussions

[caltrek]

Taliban Militants Enter Kabul's Outskirts; U.S. Embassy Evacuated
by Allen Cone
August 15, 2021

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 629033017/

Introduction:

Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Taliban militants have taking control of most Afghanistan, including reaching the outskirts of Kabul, as the United States has authorized 5,000 troops to help evacuate U.S. personnel, including from its embassy in the capital.

The Taliban says fighters had been ordered to remain on the edges of the capital with negotiations taking place to ensure a peaceful transition of power. "We assure the people in Afghanistan -- there will be no revenge on anyone," a Taliban spokesman told the BBC.

Earlier Sunday, militants took without a fight control of Jalalabad, a key eastern city, which means roads are secured the roads connecting the country with Pakistan.

The Taliban has regained Bagram airfield and prison, which is about 25 miles north of the city center.

The complex, which was once the largest U.S. military facility in Afghanistan, was evacuated by the U.S. military on July 2.

caltrek's comment: I am a little surprised that even Kabul seems ready to fall. I expected the Taliban to re-exert control over much of rural Afghanistan, but I thought that maybe Kabul would hold out.

I think our policy in Afghanistan was wrong headed from the start. We should have focused just on degrading Al Qaeda and treated the Taliban versus the rest of the country as an internal matter. Once Al Qaeda was more or less neutralized, then we should have left, perhaps taking along a relatively small number who helped with translation, intelligence gathering, etc.

I know it is hard to follow that policy when one hears of human rights abuse, especially against women. Yet, if that were the criteria for intervention, we would be involved in invading half the countries on the planet. There was a time on this forum where it seemed like everybody complained about U.S. neo-imperialism. I guess now the thought is that neo-imperialism is not such a bad thing. At least, now the complaint and the shock is how we could let this catastrophe happen. Unfortunately, we cannot control the world. Hell, we can't even put our own house in order.
So to me, it is a matter of priorities. Things like global climate change are the more important issues upon which we should focus our energy.

[caltrek]

Medea Benjamin goes even one step further.

After 20 Years of Lies and War, U.S. Retreat Underway as Taliban Retake Control of Afghanistan
by Jon Queally
August 15, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... fghanistan

Extract:

(Common Dreams) In recent days, anti-war voices who opposed the initial invasion in 2001 and have railed against the U.S. occupation ever since have pointed out the inevitability of what is now unfolding, the rapid return of Taliban rule despite twenty years—during which trillions of dollars were spent and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives were lost—of U.S. military leaders claiming that some kind of victory was possible.

"The tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan are yet further proof of the utter failure of our country’s endless wars and the mindset that enables them," said Stephen Miles, executive director of the U.S.-based group Win Without War, on Friday. "Nearly two decades of military intervention and occupation did not build lasting peace. No number of bombs dropped, no length of time occupied, would have."

On Sunday, veteran peace activist Medea Benjamin was among those wondering who—any one in the U.S. military or foreign policy establishment—would ever be held accountable for the deceit or failures in Afghanistan.

"Who is going to be fired for 20 years of horrific failure in Afghanistan?" Benjamin asked on social media. "Who would you suggest?"

In a separate Sunday morning tweet, Benjamin said: "As the blame game for the Afghan crisis heats up, I want to add all who supported this disastrous invasion from the beginning, including those who bashed us at anti-war protests. We were right, you were wrong. We should have never invaded Afghanistan. Period."

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Taliban to declare Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.

The Taliban entered the capital earlier in the day, and an official with the militant group said it would soon announce the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace — a return rich in symbolism to the name of the country under the Taliban government ousted by U.S.-led forces after the 9/11 attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The insurgents pushed through a city gripped by panic, where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents, and the American flag was lowered. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.

Afghans fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor — who had left homes in the countryside for the presumed safety of the capital — remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city.

[Yuli Ban]

Afghan women fear 'dark' future, loss of rights as Taliban gains ground

Nasreen Sultani, the principal of the Sardar-e-Kabuli Girls High School in Kabul, has spent years fighting for the rights of Afghan girls, but said she now lives in constant fear for the safety of her students.

"I am very sad. When I see all these girls, I get really upset now," she told NBC News last week, her eyes welling up with tears.

"I tried, but we couldn't manage to make sure that women get out of this miserable situation," added Sultani, who has led the school for a decade after a major U.S. Agency for International Development restoration project allowed it to reopen.

Her despair will only have grown on Sunday after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, leaving the Taliban on the brink of taking power.

She said she had been threatened by the Taliban in the past. Members of the hard-line Islamic militant group had told her “about the color of the car they might blow up," she said. "'You all might die,' they told us."

[wjfox]

[raklian]

Jesus Christ. Look at the second video below.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]