Bored As gently caress posted:

Plus, commanders of the ANA and ANP acrosd Afghanistan for years have had either non aggression pacts or local deals. We'd have COPs getting hit with rockets or mortars near ANP or ANA compounds, buy mysteriously they wouldn't get hit.

Milo and POTUS posted:

what's cops since you mention the ANP in the very same sentence so I assume they're not the same

Milo and POTUS posted:

what's cops since you mention the ANP in the very same sentence so I assume they're not the same

pantslesswithwolves posted:

There’s actually some material out there by former officials where they’re very sanguine about who to blame for Afghanistan. This is one of my favorites.

pantslesswithwolves posted:

There’s actually some material out there by former officials where they’re very sanguine about who to blame for Afghanistan. This is one of my favorites.

Suicide Watch posted:

Will be interesting to see China's relations with the Taliban as they share a border. If big Red cozies up with the Taliban how will it affect their handling of Xinjiang? Seems like the next big islamist target will be China and they'll eventually poke the wasp's nest in the next 20 years

pantslesswithwolves posted:

There’s actually some material out there by former officials where they’re very sanguine about who to blame for Afghanistan. This is one of my favorites.

Grip it and rip it posted:

The way media coverage and social media posts shift during events like these really highlights how little attention the average American pays to international events and policy. People in this country feel 0 ownership for the actions taken in their names and moan when things arent subsequently done right.

quote:

A few days after the assassination of Iran’s top general Qasem Soleimani, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of undermining the Afghan peace process by using militant groups in the country, and cautioned the Taliban to disengage themselves from the Islamic republic. He emphasized that “the Taliban’s entanglement in Iran’s dirty work will only harm the Afghan peace process.” Pompeo, however, provided no details to support his charge.

A week later, while the U.S. Afghanistan peace envoy and the Taliban leadership were engaging in a fresh round of talks in Doha, the leader of the Hizb-i-Islami party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, said that Washington has asked the insurgent group to abandon its links with Iran. Although Iran and the Taliban remained in a sectarian rivalry during the 1990s, the post-9/11 scenario in the region, especially a shared animosity toward the U.S. along with many other internal and external developments indicate that it would be disadvantageous for the insurgent group to cut their ties with the Islamic republic.

The misunderstandings leading to mistrust which prompted sectarian hatred between Iran and the Taliban have been evaporating, paving the way for a stable long-term alignment glued by and centered on political Islam. During their reign in the 1990s, the Taliban received patronage from Iran’s rival, Saudi Arabia. However, it was difficult for the Kingdom to take the side of its client (the Taliban) at the expense of its patron (the U.S.) in the post-9/11 world. Saudi Arabia’s harsh measures against Qatar, where the Taliban have their political office, and Doha’s improved ties with Tehran, helped clear the clouds of mistrust and misunderstanding between Iran and the Taliban. With Iran showing strong tendencies of an Islamic theocratic state, the Afghan insurgent group would find it unfavorable to degrade its relations with Tehran, especially when the group has been struggling to establish a government based on Islamic values in Afghanistan.

Lake of Methane posted:

February 2020

Bored As gently caress posted:

Between this and the Kurds, no indigenous force should ever trust us ever again, and tell us to gently caress off. How we will ever get any actually loyal local partners anywhere again?

BIG HEADLINE posted:

People like money. They'll just backstab us even more readily and frequently than usual.

not caring here posted:

All this poo poo reminds me of this group meeting thing at the TBI clinic just before I got out, and there was the saltiest one legged 1LT you've ever seen get into a raging argument with a bunch of NCOs over the talk of getting out of Iraq.

LT didn't give two tenths of a single, solitary gently caress and was in a huge shouting match with them all. I don't remember much of it, but LT concluded it all by yelling at them that went something like "what, you got FAMILY in Iraq? You all got PEN PALS over there? I will shut the gently caress up and not say another loving word if any of you can tell me the country code you need to dial up anyone in this country you all give so much of a gently caress about".

Anyway, there was a lot of silence after that and he left and I never saw him again but he became my personal military hero. Group got cancelled that day.


Fin

Fallom posted:

I don't get it, those are obviously just normal NYT columns

bulletsponge13 posted:

The AFG collapse is a feature, not Bug out US policy. It's our freaking SOP at this point.

facialimpediment posted:

quote:

“The pods can be prefabricated in Lyttelton – there is place here that can do this – and lifted onto the island by helicopter. They can be snaplocked onto timber foundations using the mechanism that secures containers onto a ship.”

Stravag posted:

I did not realize that Afghanistan was divided into that many smaller regions. I knew it had to have some but not nearly that many

facialimpediment posted:

Cenen posted:

I’m just grateful for how this sub forum is handling all of this going on. One dude in D&D is just straight up jerking off to afghan death wishing the taliban moves in harder and faster while a few others are doing victory laps. I stopped reading when the idea of starting a betting pool on the fall of Kabul was met with overwhelming zeal.

sharknado slashfic posted:

Well I had a nice 8 month break from the thread but here I am quoting this

sharknado slashfic posted:

Well I had a nice 8 month break from the thread but here I am quoting this

Milo and POTUS posted:

Think you're too good for us huh? Well we all jeb down here

Milo and POTUS posted:

Think you're too good for us huh? Well we all jeb down here

Cenen posted:

I’m just grateful for how this sub forum is handling all of this going on. One dude in D&D is just straight up jerking off to afghan death wishing the taliban moves in harder and faster while a few others are doing victory laps. I stopped reading when the idea of starting a betting pool on the fall of Kabul was met with overwhelming zeal.

Nick Soapdish posted:

Big news on Gilbert's no-hitter on first career start

Hyrax Attack! posted:

Oh 100%, I popped in over there hoping for some insights and yup D&D is still D&D.