Afghan war news and discussion

[weatheriscool]

Looking at our record of the past 40 years we better never get into a war with China. China would fucking destroy the united states and land on our shores and take it over. Our military is a joke.

[caltrek]

How is the Taliban Gaining So Fast in Afghanistan?
by Jen Kirby Interviewing Andrew Watkins
August 11, 2021

https://www.vox.com/22618215/afghanista ... an-advance

Extract:

(Vox) To understand the pace of the Taliban’s advance and what it means for Afghanistan’s future, I spoke to Andrew Watkins, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Afghanistan. He explained how the Taliban took these provincial capitals, and what missteps by both the US and Afghan governments did — and didn’t — contribute to the Taliban’s advance.
…
Andrew Watkins: For the longest time, the Afghan government has pointed to this district center map as a means of demonstrating their authority, when in reality, their only presence or assertion of authority might be a district center where they have a couple buildings that are protected by a small military or police force, or sometimes just a militia that’s outfitted and paid by the government. And that’s it. That is the only government that exists in that entire district, for miles around in any direction.

The Taliban has swept across the country through these districts. But it’s not accurate to say the Taliban now controls all of the districts they’ve captured, because in many places they haven’t set up a shadow government. They haven’t left a garrison of their fighters to control the area. In some places, they cause the Afghan troops or police to run away, to surrender, to retreat, to simply go home.
…
Finally, you have a lot of political division across Afghanistan among people who oppose the Taliban, but do not agree when it comes to the level of support for President Ashraf Ghani’s government. Especially since 2014, there’s been a history of political struggles and infighting among people who are on the side of the Afghan government, but can’t get along and cooperate with one another.

In every instance of infighting, you’ve seen the Taliban capitalize on the uncertainty and the confusion and the divisions that have cropped up. You see the Taliban moving into places where the central government in Kabul has a disagreement with people who sit in a provincial capital, or local communities who don’t want someone assigned to them as an official because they’re being sent from Kabul and they’re not local to the area.

[weatheriscool]

Taliban take 10th Afghan provincial capital, squeezing Kabul
Source: AP

By TAMEEM AKHGAR, RAHIM FAIEZ and JON GAMBRELL

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban captured a strategic provincial capital near Kabul on Thursday, the 10th the insurgents have taken in a weeklong sweep across Afghanistan just weeks before the end of the American military mission there.

Seizing Ghazni cuts off a crucial highway linking the Afghan capital with the country’s southern provinces, which similarly find themselves under assault as part of an insurgent push some 20 years after the foreign troops arrived to oust the Taliban government.

While Kabul itself isn’t directly under threat, the loss of Ghazni tightens the grip of a resurgent Taliban estimated to now hold some two-thirds of the nation, and thousands of people have fled their homes.

The latest U.S. military intelligence assessment suggests Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days and that, if current trends hold, the Taliban could gain full control of the country within a few months. The Afghan government may eventually be forced to pull back to defend the capital and just a few other cities.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/middle-east- ... cbc38f239a

[weatheriscool]

U.S. troops sent to evacuate personnel at Kabul embassy

As the Taliban move rapidly through the country, U.S. troops are being sent to the Kabul airport.

With security in Afghanistan deteriorating rapidly, U.S. troops were dispatched Thursday to evacuate personnel from the embassy in Kabul, according to a U.S. official.

U.S. troops are being sent to the Kabul airport where they will provide air and ground support to help process Americans hastily exiting the country.

The move comes alongside news that the Taliban have seized the country's third largest city of Heart, a strategic provincial capital near Kabul.

https://justthenews.com/world/middle-ea ... ul-embassy

[weatheriscool]

Jack Posobiec
@JackPosobiec
The Pentagon spent $88 billion dollars training the Afghan Army for 20 years

It collapsed in 1 month

[weatheriscool]

US sending 3K troops for partial Afghan embassy evacuation
Source: AP

By ROBERT BURNS, MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just weeks before the U.S. is scheduled to end its war in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is rushing 3,000 fresh troops to the Kabul airport to help with a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy. The move highlights the stunning speed of a Taliban takeover of much of the country, including their capture on Thursday of Kandahar, the second-largest city and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

The State Department said the embassy will continue functioning, but Thursday’s dramatic decision to bring in thousands of additional U.S. troops is a sign of waning confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to hold off the Taliban surge. The announcement came just hours after the Taliban captured the western city of Herat as well as Ghazni, a strategic provincial capital south of Kabul. The advance, and the partial U.S. Embassy evacuation, increasingly isolate the nation’s capital, home to millions of Afghans.

“This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not a wholesale withdrawal,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “What this is is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint.”

Price rejected the idea that Thursday’s moves sent encouraging signals to an already emboldened Taliban, or demoralizing ones to frightened Afghan civilians. “The message we are sending to the people of Afghanistan is one of enduring partnership,” Price insisted.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan- ... 9e99c3dabf

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

Looking at our record of the past 40 years we better never get into a war with China. China would fucking destroy the united states and land on our shores and take it over. Our military is a joke.

I doubt it. We've not committed to a proper war since arguably Korea, though to be fair China did hold us off there when they were a MUCH weaker nation.

We've only been fighting "police actions" for the past 50 years, stomping on far weaker nations and dealing with insurgencies that wear us down. Against a major power on roughly equal footing, if we can win within the first six months, we'd be effective. But China's the kind of nation that, if they hold out longer than six months, they'll likely increase productivity and industrialization enough to make the war completely unwinnable. As for landing on our shores? Maybe outlying territories, but nothing further than that. It's mushroom clouds if either we or they land on the other's mainland.

[wjfox]

Boris Johnson calls emergency Cobra meeting on Afghanistan

1 hour ago

Boris Johnson is to convene an emergency Cobra meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the situation in Afghanistan Downing Street has announced.

The Prime Minister’s decision to bring together a top-level Government meeting comes amid growing concern over the Taliban’s lightning offensive that is gradually encircling the capital Kabul only weeks before the full withdrawal of Allied armed forces.

Britain and the US have agreed to send in additional troops, with 600 UK personnel due to help with efforts to get citizens out of the country and support the relocation of former Afghan staff.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he feared multinational terror network al Qaida, the group behind atrocities such as the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, would “probably come back” as Afghanistan destabilises once again.

Taliban insurgents are now estimated to hold more than two-thirds of Afghanistan and continue to press their offensive, having taken the country’s second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, as part of a week-long blitz.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/afgh ... 50569.html

[wjfox]