Update on this guy, he’s in the brig: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/mar...-scheller-brig/?amp&__twitter_impression=true
As discussed way back. see above quote. New York Times just getting around to it. I had said early on, that although it is an unintended consequence of the collapse of AFG, that it was not good news for Iran. Iran is shiite/shia and muslims love to kill muslims so having the Taliban not being tied up fighting the U.S. was not something that would play out well for Iran. We saw that come almost immediately, when just weeks after the U.S bailed out, the Taliban started- or allowed- the bombing of two shia mosques in AFG. Not a good sign for things to come. I also don't think it is all good news for China either. The Taliban will engage with them to make some bucks, and then use that ,money and resources to fight alongside the Ughyars in China's outback. Probably a lot of the former U.S. equipment is already there. All of these things would still be true if we had not had a disastrous cut and run and abandonment of U.S. citizens in AFG, so no tard should try to go down that road and present it as a silver lining of that. No. FAIL. most but not all of the article pasted below. Iran Wanted U.S. Out of Afghanistan. It May Be Sorry the Wish Came True. Iran is glad the Americans are gone, but the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan creates a host of problems for Tehran, with no easy solutions. For 20 years, Iranian officials have said they wanted the U.S. military out of Afghanistan. Iran supplied Afghan insurgents with weapons to use against American soldiers. It sheltered Al Qaeda’s top leaders in Tehran. It courted the Taliban with diplomatic visits, covertly and then publicly. But when the United States finally left Afghanistan in August, the swift Taliban takeover caught Iran off guard. Suddenly, Iran, a Shiite Muslim theocracy, had a militant Sunni theocracy on its border that is widely seen as anti-Shiite. The upheaval has also sent a flood of Afghan refugees into Iran, has led to fears that Afghanistan will again become an incubator for terrorism, and has trapped Iranian leaders in a diplomatic tangle in dealing with a Taliban government seen as both a potential enemy and partner. The episode has turned into a classic lesson in “be careful what you wish for.” “Iran has come to understand that the enemy’s enemy is not your friend, and the Taliban are a more complex problem than Americans,” said Mohammad Hossein Emadi, a former Iranian diplomat who advised Afghanistan’s government and worked in the country for the United Nations. “The consensus is to deal with the Taliban very carefully and pragmatically.” resurgence of the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, which has carried out large-scale attacks against Shiites in Afghanistan and could use Afghanistan as a base to launch terrorist attacks in Iran. The Taliban, despite their promises to provide security and stability, have so far proven unwilling or unable to prevent ISIS attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan. Iranian officials are also concerned about the fate of two minority ethnic groups, the Hazara, who are Shiite Muslim, and the Tajiks, who have close cultural ties to Iran. The Taliban eliminated the informal power-sharing arrangement that encouraged representation for those groups in the government, and they have been accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings and forced displacements of members of both groups. The Taliban have denied these accusations. Ahmad Massoud, who leads an anti-Taliban militia with historical ties to Iran in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, although they have not publicly endorsed his cause, and diplomats and analysts said they had seen no sign that Iran was supporting it financially or militarily. “We are in contact with all sides and advise them all to implement the idea of an inclusive government,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian said in an interview. “Afghanistan is facing many different challenges. The existence of ISIS in Afghanistan that has the experience of guerrilla warfare in Syria is a real threat.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/world/middleeast/iran-taliban-afghanistan.html
Pentagon confirms nearly 450 Americans trapped in Afghanistan The number is higher than what the State Department had said last week Standard pattern.....Down talk the numbers until the media stops covering it then release the actual number
They have a couple thousand green card holder's there too. Suddenly they treat them as persona non grata - while elevating the attention paid to total and complete non-u.s. connected illegals at the border.
An interesting and lengthy article... What my 20 years in Afghanistan taught me about the Taliban – and how the west consistently underestimates them https://theconversation.com/what-my...-west-consistently-underestimates-them-167927
White House announces $308M in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan By Morgan Chalfant - 01/11/22 08:14 AM EST The Biden administration on Tuesday announced plans to send an additional $308 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan as the country nears economic collapse five months after the Taliban takeover. “The new humanitarian assistance by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will directly flow through independent humanitarian organizations and help provide lifesaving protection and shelter, essential health care, winterization assistance, emergency food aid, water, sanitation, and hygiene services in response to the growing humanitarian needs exacerbated by COVID-19 and healthcare shortages, drought, malnutrition, and the winter season,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement announcing the assistance. “The United States is committed to supporting the Afghan people and we continue to consider all options available to us. We stand with the people of Afghanistan,” Horne added. The additional assistance announced by the White House on Tuesday brings the total of U.S. humanitarian aid provided to Afghanistan and refugees in the region since October to almost $782.