Same shit in Vietnam... you put a puppet leader with access to U.S. funds and force people to fight in an army when they really dont want to be there and you ge a corrupt leader and a military that cannot fight for shit going up against people willing to die for a cause. U.S. keeps trying this model around the world and failing and Russia showed us how to fail in Afghanistan long ago but we stupid I guess. After 9/11 and Bin Laden getting caught we should have left rather than give the Taliban a 20 year crusade to fight agaisnt the u.s. Same in Iraq.
Blood on his hands’: Republicans savage Biden after Taliban seizes Kabul By Matthew Knott August 16, 2021 Washington: Senior Republicans have savaged US President Joe Biden’s handling of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the Taliban’s stunningly speedy capture of the capital Kabul will be a permanent stain on his presidency. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken conceded that the Taliban were able to take control of the country far more quickly than the White House had predicted, as he sought to shift blame to the Trump administration for the chaotic US withdrawal...... https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-...ter-taliban-seizes-kabul-20210816-p58izt.html No matter what or how US responded, they were never going to win. If US kept the war going, GOP would have condemed Biden. US has more pressing problems, how to deal with China, Biden dumped Afghan to concentrate on more important issues.
I trust Biden on this. He was clear https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ne...an-resurfaces-just-that-happens-1619517?amp=1 The Taliban is not the south—the North Vietnamese army. They're not—they're not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable," Biden insisted during a July 8 press conference. And the USA military have been actively pushing LBGT rights etc, so they obviously have excellent priorities.
Chaotic Scenes Grip Kabul’s Airport, With Reports of Deaths 16 August 2021 By Eltaf Najafizada https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...port-with-reports-of-deaths?srnd=premium-asia Panicked citizens crowd the airport in desperate bid to exit Taliban declare victory, prepare to announce new government Afghans crowd the tarmac of the Kabul airport, on Aug. 16. Source: -/AFP/Getty Images Desperate scenes played out at Kabul’s international airport on Monday as thousands rushed to exit Afghanistan after Taliban fighters took control of the capital, with Reuters reporting at least five people were killed as people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the country. Citing witnesses, Reuters said it wasn’t clear whether the victims died of gunshots or in a stampede at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Earlier it reported that U.S. forces fired in the air to prevent thousands of citizens from running onto the tarmac, the last remaining area under American control. Afghanistan’s aviation authority suspended flights out of the country and asked people not to rush to the airport. The U.S. had announced late Sunday in Washington it was taking steps to secure the airport as it looked to evacuate thousands of American citizens, as well as locally employed staff and their families. The move came a day after American-backed President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the Taliban said it would soon declare a new “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” after seizing the presidential palace. A passenger inside a Turkish Airlines Istanbul-bound plane on Monday said his flight had been sitting on the tarmac for nearly four hours, unable to take off as huge crowds rushed inside the airport. “Thousands of Afghan civilians are trying to enter the military section” of the airport “and troops are trying to prevent that,” Emir Sayit said in a telephone interview Monday. “They just used a cargo plane to clear the runway and it was barely able to fly above the crowds.” Apache choppers were also flying low atop the crowds to deter them, Sayit said. Fire trucks had arrived on the scene, likely to be used as water cannons to disperse the crowds, he added. Several airlines, including British Airways and Air France-KLM, are avoiding Afghan airspace. CNBC reported that United Airlines has started rerouting its India flights, while Flydubai and Emirates have also suspended flights to Kabul. Cathay Pacific said it hasn’t been flying over Afghanistan for some time but is closely monitoring the situation. A spokesman for Air India said scheduled flights to Kabul cannot fly because Afghanistan is declared closed. With all the land border crossing now under the control of the rebel group, the airport is the last remaining exit point out of the country. But as panicked visuals from the airport show, there are fears that option may also close soon. Videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of people swarming the tarmac in an attempt to get on planes. Top Taliban leaders, meanwhile, declared victory. The group has sought to portray a moderate stance, with a spokesman telling the Associated Press the group wants to form an “open, inclusive Islamic government.” “We have never expected to reach such a victory -- we should show humbleness in front of Allah,” the Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said in a video message congratulating his fighters and the nation on Twitter Monday. “Now is the time when we will be tested on how we serve and secure our people, and ensure their good life and future to the best of our ability.” A Taliban official also texted reporters Monday to say the group intends to maintain law and order in Kabul and has even set up helpline numbers for citizens facing any threat. The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse shocked NATO allies and prompted condemnation from both sides of the U.S. political divide over how President Joe Biden’s administration appeared to be blindsided by the Taliban’s easy advance. Dozens of countries issued a joint statement Monday calling “those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan” to allow Afghans and foreigners to depart safely if they wish, to keep borders open and maintain calm. The Taliban swept through Afghanistan in a matter of weeks, taking advantage of a vacuum left by departing U.S. and NATO forces working against Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to end America’s longest war. U.S. officials said they’re working for an orderly departure. In a joint statement Sunday, the Pentagon and State Department said the U.S. will expand its presence over the next 48 hours at Kabul’s international airport to nearly 6,000 troops to evacuate thousands of American citizens, as well as locally employed staff and their families. All Kabul embassy personnel have been safely evacuated to the airport and the U.S. military has secured its perimeter, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement late Sunday. “We’re relocating the men and women of our embassy to a location at the airport,” Blinken said on ABC. “That’s why the president sent in a number of forces to make sure that, as we continue to draw down our diplomatic presence, we do it in a safe and orderly fashion.” — With assistance by Jason Scott, Max Zimmerman, Jennifer Jacobs, Nick Wadhams, Tony Czuczka, Daniel Flatley, Katrina Nicholas, Anurag Kotoky, and Taylan Bilgic
Analysis https://www.afr.com/world/asia/china-seizes-on-taliban-victory-to-portray-us-decline-20210816-p58j3c China seizes on Taliban victory to portray US decline State media attacked the United States’ effectiveness as an international peacekeeper, while talking up China’s role in Afghanistan’s post-war reconstruction efforts. Michael Smith China correspondent Aug 16, 2021 The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan is a mixed blessing for China, which has indicated it will move quickly to take advantage of the power vacuum as the Taliban takes full control of its unstable neighbour. China’s state media on Monday seized on the Taliban’s full control of Afghanistan to attack the United States’ effectiveness as an international peacekeeper, while talking up its role in the country’s post-war reconstruction efforts. Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar, left, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin, China. AP “China’s approach, in contrast, will be completely different. There will be no military involvement. The [People’s Liberation Army] will have no role,” an opinion piece published by the Global Times said. “China, in the longer term, will attach the greatest importance to how it can assist in the economic development of the country.” China raised eyebrows last month when it welcomed a delegation of Taliban leaders for two days of talks in the coastal city of Tianjin. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, was pictured with Taliban officials and declared the movement was an “important military and political force in Afghanistan”. The fact that the Taliban, an organisation from which most of the world’s governments would want to distance themselves, could win an audience with one of China’s top ministers says a lot about Beijing’s concerns and hopes for the country. Scott Morrison or his ministers have not been granted the same level of courtesy by Beijing. State media coverage of the Taliban’s control of Kabul was dominated on Monday by comments critical of the US withdrawal, while highlighting the Taliban’s promise to create a peaceful environment for Afghanistan. “Hopefully they will honour the promise. The people of Afghanistan have suffered enough from the devastation of war. They deserve peace,” the China Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. By indirectly supporting the Taliban, the Chinese government is pitching itself as a development partner for Afghanistan while attempting to brandish its non-interference credentials. China has signalled it wants to deepen co-operation on infrastructure projects between Afghanistan and Pakistan linked to President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. This includes work on a motorway connecting the two countries. Afghanistan also has untapped resources China would like to get its hands on, including rare earth elements, copper and oil. More direct implications for Australia from the Taliban’s swift victory is that China will use international criticism of Washington’s actions to strengthen its message that the US is in decline. Some social media commentators in China said the US withdrawal was a wake-up call for Taiwan because it indicated the Biden administration would not stick around to protect the island state if Beijing invaded. However, analysts disagreed, given the situations in Afghanistan and Taiwan were extremely diverse. “It’s a long bow to be drawn to really draw out any implications for Taiwan,” one Australian academic observed. “One would assume Beijing is more concerned about an Islamist extremist state on their border and a US now fully concentrated on Asia.” China’s relationship with the Taliban is complicated by its treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. It is also concerned that an unstable Afghanistan poses a terrorist threat right on its border. “There is a perception that China may be salivating at the prospect for access to minerals there and some great chance for political influence, but that is misplaced,” says Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund’s Asia Program. “What we are dealing with now is a shift in the nature of the precedents of the threats it sees in Afghanistan.”
RNC deletes campaign page touting Trump’s ‘historic peace agreement’ after Afghanistan implodes According to a report from the Washington Post's Dave Weigle, the Republican National Committee has memory-holed a page on their website that touted Donald Trump's 'historic peace agreement" with Afghanistan. As Kabul fell on Sunday afternoon and the fingerpointing began over who is to blame -- President Joe Biden for pulling the military out or Donald Trump for negotiating the release of Taliban soldiers who have taken part in the assault on the Afghanistan capitol -- Weigle noticed a change at the website. "How quickly can the politics around Afghanistan change? Here's a section on the RNC's website in June; click it now and you get a 404 error.," he wrote with an accompanying screenshot of the page when it still existed. As he notes, clicking on the URL takes a curious reader to a 404 error page that features President Joe Biden and states, "4040 error -- It looks like you are as lost as Biden is." Weigel's claim was supported by the Guardian's Hugo Lowell, who wrote, "New: Republican Party has removed a page from their website bragging about Trump's deal with the Taliban that committed Biden to withdraw 5,000 US troops from Afghanistan — and led to the fall of Kabul today."
US conservatives claim China 'licking chops' at Taiwan after fall of Kabul Pundits say US withdrawal from Afghanistan will embolden Chinese takeover of Taiwan By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer 2021/08/16 Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace on Aug. 15, 2021. (AP photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Conservative commentators in the U.S. are suggesting that the fall of the Afghan government following a precipitous retreat of U.S. forces from the country will embolden China to move forward with its plans to conquer Taiwan. Even before the unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan ordered by President Joe Biden is complete, every major city across the country has fallen like dominoes to Taliban guerillas. By Sunday evening (Aug. 15), they were in control of the presidential palace. The New York Times on Friday (Aug. 13) cited French defense analyst François Heisbourg as asserting that the U.S. abandonment of its ally will have long-term consequences: “the notion that you cannot count on the Americans will strike deeper roots because of Afghanistan.’’ The newspaper said U.S. hesitation toward long-term military commitments "will now be felt all the more strongly among countries in play in the world, like Taiwan, Ukraine, the Philippines and Indonesia, which, can only please China and Russia." ......more @ https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4270762
U.S. was in Afghan for 20 years with troops and did all the heavy lifting. We trained their troops and supplied them for like 300,000 local troops. Taliban comes in and the troops surrender, the President flees and people are panicking to flee with the Americans. What the fuck.... Afghani people did not want to fight themselves for their protection and freedoms and just figured U.S. would do all the work and give lives for their cause. When shit hit the fan, Afghanis fled and buckled. If they don't want to fight then why the fuck should we put our men in harm's way for people that don't want to do it (same as Vietnam). Just because the few wealthy are now running to the airports to get taken with the Americans to freedon does not change anything. America did not abandon its allies... America got tired of supporting a free loader with no desire to lend a hand or take responsibility so we said FUCK IT..... this shit show is all yours and your fault alone. Case closed.
Australian war crimes in Afghanistan did not help at all https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54996581