shakahislop
Well-known member
i hadn't thought of that before, but it does make a lot of sense
Rolling Afghanistan Thread
- Thread starter padraig (u.s.)
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- #squadgoals allahu ackbarz barry chateau battle rhymes bit of a pickle come mr taliban tally me banana designer fundamentalism do not face allah alone when astral projecting every possible contingency is biden's fault follow the white high-tops islamic magic jihaute just do it lord miles moon demon popping down to afghanistan roadman mask servis cheetahs that spring we lived on bowls of risotto the hexing of an oppressive regime the taliban's secretive one-eyed spiritual leader the whitest most out of touch witchcraft tl;dr
shakahislop
Well-known member
A tweet by a reliable source (Mujeb Mashall):
"I've watched this on repeat. It's more than a bunch of grown-up Taliban in swings at a children's park. This war denied a generation of men, in large stretches of this country, the simple pleasures of childhood. The Talib who's filming: "I am scared - I can't do it, I will fall""
craner
Beast of Burden
I think the decision to take on Helmand was directly related to the Brirish desire to get out of Southern Iraq while also saving face. In the event it coincided with the US Surge which just made the Brits look even more foolish and the South even more of a disaster. In one way it's sort of funny, considering how arrogant the British army was when they started off in Basra.
Yeah, I mean I don't know enough about it to have a strong opinion either way and it seems farfetched that that would be the basis for the entire war. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me it was a factor, or at least a lucrative byproduct, for someone on the US side, mind you.
Cheers for the tip. I'll give that a read later.
Here's the article, if anyone else wants it.
James Meek · Worse than a Defeat: Shamed in Afghanistan · LRB 18 December 2014
How bad was it? In a way it was worse than a defeat, because to be defeated, an army and its masters must understand the...
www.lrb.co.uk
shakahislop
Well-known member
it's actually where the literature on the afghanistan opium (and now a lot of meth, surprisingly) stuff ends, which is something I hadn't thought of before. there's a few people who dig very deep into what's gone on with opium production and how to stop it. the biggest name is probably David Mansfield, who I really rate. they tend though to talk about what's going on within the borders of afghanistan and not talk at all about what the networks of drug production and movement outside of afghanistan look like.
obviously some people in the US are making a load of money off of heroin and so on, but i doubt they have anything to do with the state. although i know other people think that the US state is involved in drug distribution in some way or another.
thanks for sharing that link. it's a great article that from what i remember, a really amazing entry point for the 'oh.....ok so this is a more complicated war that i expected' realization.
There are a fair few theories about the CIA pursuing their own agenda or being given enough slack that they've either ended up actively involved in drug trafficking or have at least turned a blind eye to it when it's been useful to them, e.g. Iran/Contra.
A Mexican official publicly accused them of trying to control the drug trade a few years back, but a lot of people pushed back against it.
Mexican official: CIA ‘manages’ drug trade
Spokesman for Chihuahua state says US agencies don’t want to end drug trade, a claim denied by other Mexican officials.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces’ collapse
More than 1,000 have fled across the border, and hundreds more have handed over weapons to the Taliban
www.theguardian.com
sufi
lala
(I havent read it all yet, but) this seems like a good picture of how things are for Afghan women at present, largely based on their own accounts
www.afghanistan-analysts.org
New special report: ‘Between Hope and Fear. Rural Afghan women talk about peace and war’ - Afghanistan Analysts Network - English
As the United States pushes ahead with the rapid and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, an unrelenting Taleban offensive has driven the Afghan government out of scores of districts across the country. Many Afghans are seeing their fears about the fallout from the...
www.afghanistan-analysts.org
shakahislop
Well-known member
I haven't got round to this either, but basically everything AAN puts out is outrageously good. Truly the gold-standard for first-hand research, analysis done by people who really know what they're talking about, and for wanting to present the nuances of the truth. I'm always kind of surprised that this kind of thing doesn't exist in other places. I think AAN were able to exist because there was so much aid money sloshing about in Afghanistan for so long, more or less everything was getting funded. I'd love something like this even for the UK, to be honest, to get me out of my guardian-mediated reality.(I havent read it all yet, but) this seems like a good picture of how things are for Afghan women at present, largely based on their own accounts
New special report: ‘Between Hope and Fear. Rural Afghan women talk about peace and war’ - Afghanistan Analysts Network - English
As the United States pushes ahead with the rapid and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, an unrelenting Taleban offensive has driven the Afghan government out of scores of districts across the country. Many Afghans are seeing their fears about the fallout from the...
shakahislop
Well-known member
it's been interesting to me that it took the papers about a week to catch up with what is going on.View attachment 7554
Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces’ collapse
More than 1,000 have fled across the border, and hundreds more have handed over weapons to the Taliban
the first few days of this week have been quite a lot slower. the pace of the Taliban advance has slowed down a lot. I think they took a district in Bamiyan and have been fighting on the outskirts of Kandahar City, but they have been the only significant developments. Maybe they've just banged through all the easy places and are having a rest before the hard ones, like me doing my homework.
shakahislop
Well-known member
does this video embed? more footage of the taliban enjoying themselves in (presumably) newly taken territory. and making dem gainz. (it's not some gore thing, nothing to worry about)
shakahislop
Well-known member
it sounds like there's a lot of fighting tonight in Spin Boldak, which is a small-ish but important town in Kandahar in the south. it's the home of the network that runs Kandahar City, and is also the main border crossing in the south between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I don't think the Taliban have made a push to take the border crossing before, and it would be a surprise to me if they do take it so soon - but I am surprised every day at the moment.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/4V5AR2TJSNPZRCU635BOYNZ6T4.jpg)
Afghan Taliban seize border crossing with Pakistan in major advance
Taliban fighters in Afghanistan seized control of a major border crossing with Pakistan on Wednesday, one of the most important objectives they have achieved so far during a rapid advance across the country as U.S. forces pull out.
