Was the Fall of Afghanistan Inevitable? We Asked 9 National Security Experts - "The original intervention in late 2001 was a justifiable response to 9-11 and the Taliban’s role in sheltering the Al Qaeda terrorists. However, the mission quickly expanded far beyond a limited punitive expedition that could have been completed in a year or 2. Instead, U.S. policymakers embraced an open-ended, nation-building effort designed to transform Afghanistan into a modern, secular, Western-style democracy. It was at that point that failure became inevitable. Arrogant U.S. officials and their cheerleaders in the news media mistakenly assumed that they could bring Afghanistan, an alien society in which loyalty to tribe and religion eclipsed any sense of national identity or democratic values, into the twenty-first century. With such lack of realism, only the timing of the ultimate debacle remained uncertain. Nevertheless, officials in three administrations plugged on doggedly for nearly two decades, despite the rising cost in blood and treasure. In the process, military and civilian officials repeatedly misled Congress and the public, insisting that progress on the political, economic, and security fronts was taking place. They gave assurances that Washington’s puppet government in Kabul enjoyed the allegiance of most Afghans, and that the Taliban’s bid to regain power would fail. The abrupt collapse of that government in the summer of 2021 showed otherwise."
"The fall of Afghanistan was in no way inevitable. It was precipitated by President Biden’s determination to execute a full withdrawal by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which was driven entirely by domestic political concerns, not by the facts on the ground. Recent statements by former CENTCOM Commander General Frank McKenzie, among others, that their best military advice was to leave a residual force of about 2,500 troops primarily at Bagram Airbase to retain intelligence and counterterrorism capabilities bear this out. The President compounded the problem by refusing to adjust course when the withdrawal began to go sideways, which only led to confusion, chaos, and sadly the loss of more heroic US servicemen and women."
"In the months following the successful invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, elements of the Taliban reached out to the United States and to the interim Afghan government seeking reconciliation with and integration into the new regime. Co-optation of defeated opponents is a time-honored governance strategy in many places and was regarded as a tradition in Afghanistan. The United States rejected these overtures, maintaining an antagonistic posture that prevented the development of a durable peace. This failure was compounded by the US decision to invade Iraq. The invasion of Iraq drew US attention away from Afghanistan at a critical time during the formation of Afghan state institutions. Resources allocated to reconstruction were diverted to the newer, shinier war. Perhaps more importantly, the war in Iraq undercut US legitimacy around the world, making it easier for the Taliban to find shelter in Pakistan and to build up strength for a counter-offensive."
"President Joe Biden chose defeat in Afghanistan. He chose the collapse of a country in which the United States had invested hundreds of billions of dollars. He confused strawman arguments about escalation and the rhetoric of ending “forever wars” with a basic understanding about traditional deterrence. Sure, the nation-building escapade in Afghanistan may have been unwise, but that had largely ended a decade ago. Instead, the U.S. mission in Afghanistan had morphed into something similar to what the United States carried out in Germany and Japan after World War II, and in Korea to the present day. Indeed, when Biden pulled out, the U.S. annual investment in Afghanistan was akin to that which the Pentagon spent annually in its Japan and Korea missions. With a relatively small number of troops and without great risk of casualty, those deployments managed to hold off much larger adversaries, be they the People’s Republic of China or North Korea. Biden wanted to end the war, but how wars end matters. Biden sought to exit before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That was an artificial, political deadline. Had he waited until winter, he could have enabled the U.S.-trained Afghan forces to dig in and prepare for several months until snows melted and the beginning of the next fighting season. This would have also allowed a more orderly withdrawal. Instead, he presided over a collapse whose ramifications have already been felt in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s pressure on Taiwan. Weakness and confusion are not good looks. They do not ensure peace, only the perpetuation of conflict. Biden may have wanted to end a “forever war” but his team’s incompetence ensured new ones across the globe. "
The Taliban’s Fight for Hearts and Minds – Foreign Policy - "In many ways, Charkh seems like a typical rural Afghan district. With little development or industry to speak of, its population of 48,000 ekes out a living mostly from farming. Poverty is common; those who can find better jobs elsewhere leave and send money back to support their families. But a closer look at Charkh reveals a divergence from what one may expect of an average Afghan district. Administrators there are widely seen as fair and honest, making them outliers in a country consistently ranked among the world’s most corrupt. Locals say there is remarkably little crime. Disputes among neighbors or families are rare, and when they arise, the district governor or judge quickly settles them. A health official regularly monitors clinics to make sure that doctors and nurses are present and that medicines are stocked. Across the district’s schools, government teachers actually show up, and student attendance is high—an anomaly in a state system where absenteeism is rife. On paper, Charkh’s surprising success could be interpreted as evidence of how the U.S.-backed administration of President Ashraf Ghani has finally extended a semblance of good governance beyond the capital of Kabul. But in fact the Afghan government deserves no credit for Charkh; the district is currently governed by the Taliban. The de facto local authorities, from the mayor to the town’s only judge, come from the Taliban’s ranks, and ordinary bureaucrats, such as teachers and health officials, have been vetted and selected by the insurgency—even though Kabul still pays their salaries... the Taliban leadership realized that instead of attacking government schools and aid projects, it could gain much more by co-opting them. In doing so, it could take credit for providing services and win over the local population... Unlike the Islamic State, which attempted to create new parallel infrastructure in the territory it seized, the Taliban prefer to co-opt existing government services and aid projects. In an October 2017 interview via WhatsApp, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid explained the seeming contradiction involved in working with a state his organization was simultaneously fighting: “This is about meeting people’s needs. It’s not a part of the war.” But it is, of course. The Taliban have realized that there’s no need to attack symbols of the state if you can instead capture their resources and redirect them to your aims. This process has been made much easier by most Afghans’ frustration with the widespread corruption that has crippled public services and made finding work so difficult. An estimated 80 percent of state teachers must pay bribes to get their positions... Sharafi defended the agreement, which the Afghan security services criticized bitterly. “Of course the Taliban are using this agreement as propaganda to show how weak the government is,” he said. “But is it better for children to be in school or for there to be no school and nothing for them to do but join the Taliban?”"
From 2018
We are no longer a serious people - "The progressive wing of the party in power—Bernie, AOC, the 'squad', the whole crew that normally tweets 10 times per day and has opinions on everything—goes absolutely mute when confronted by some hard, inconvenient reality outside the US liberal bubble like Cuba or Afghanistan. As the situation in Afghanistan worsened, the charismatic new face of progressive politics was…enthusing about public libraries. Yay! The reason for this sudden silence is that in the year 2021, the cream of American society and the flower of its finest universities, can only understand the world as projections of the country’s own domestic neuroses. Our current elites, whether in media or politics, squint at the strange peoples and languages of whatever international conflict and only see who or what they can map to their internal gallery of heroes and villains: Who’s the PoC? Who’s the Nazi? If however the situation involving foreign realities can be grafted onto simplistic domestic narratives, in however fantastic a fashion, then that issue becomes a curious side show to the main American stage. That’s what’s happened to Israel, which now features as a talking point in that same progressive wing of the party. And if the situation can’t be mapped, such as Afghanistan or the recent protests in Cuba, it’s utterly ignored for being just completely beyond human comprehension or concern. This is the true privilege of being an American in 2021 (vs. 1981): Enjoying an imperium so broad and blinding, you’re never made to suffer the limits of your understanding or re-assess your assumptions about a world that, even now, contains regions and peoples and governments antithetical to everything you stand for. If you fight demons, they’re entirely demons of your own creation, whether Cambridge Analytica or QAnon or the ‘insurrection’ or supposed electoral fraud or any of a host of bogeymen, and you get to tweet #resist while not dangling from the side of an airplane or risking your life on a raft to escape. If you’re overwhelmed by what you see, even if you work at places called ‘the Institute for the Study of War’, you can just take some ‘me time’ and not tune into the disturbing images because reality is purely optional at this stage of the game... the irony highlights the real civilizational difference here... an unserious country mired in the most masturbatory hysterics over bullshit dramas waged war against an insurgency of religious zealots fired by a 7th-century morality, and utterly and totally lost."
siraj hashmi on Twitter - "has anyone thought to cancel the Taliban takeover by digging up all its old tweets?"
Facebook - "Biden's speech on Afghanistan in a nutshell: I did what I had to do, SORRY NOT SORRY. He reinforced the false binary of staying in Afghanistan and withdrawing without strategic planning, intentionally conflating a botched execution with a generally agreed upon objective and plan. "We had to do it" isn't an excuse for doing it "this" way. Biden and Blinken said a month ago this precise scenario wouldn't happen. And they were wrong. Beyond accepting ZERO responsibility, Biden also avoided addressing the optics of a retreating US abandoning its allies reverberating globally which will have geopolitical consequences."
Stunned allies criticize US over Afghanistan chaos: 'The biggest debacle that NATO has suffered'
Meme - Porkchop Express: "Sorry, not sorry, not going to care about Afghanistan because I grew up with an alcoholic, psychologically abusive father in constant state of distress, anxiety and worry about the future. Hearing the key in the door every evening was my own "Afghanistan" for almost 20 years."
Matt Walsh on Twitter - "The State Department calls on the Taliban to form an “inclusive and representative government.” This is not a Babylon Bee skit. It’s a real thing that just happened."
DEI doesn't work on the Taliban
Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. 💸 on Twitter - "Have we tried simply getting a group of celebrities to make a motivational video asking the Taliban to stop"
Meme - "WHAT "STORMING THE CAPITAL" ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE"
Nancy Pelosi on Twitter - "The U.S., the international community and the Afghan government must do everything we can to protect women and girls from inhumane treatment by the Taliban. As we strive to assist them, we must recognize that their voices are important and respect their culture"
Facebook - "Taliban say they will guarantee women's rights 'within the limits of Islam’ after takeover of Afghanistan"
"Yeah, sure. So basically, no rights. Oh the absolute vanity and narcissism of activists over the past five years making references to and LARPing The Handmaid's Tale, thinking that it was self-referential to the Western context. No. This reality is happening right now now, protected by criticism from the forces of postmodernism and cultural relativism."
Meme - Mustata 47: "Because of Trump, I'll hopefully watch the first concession speech in 33 years of my life."
Mustafa 47 @ @CombatJourno: "I'm hopelessly stuck in Kabul with my wife and child. Like myself, hundreds of other journalists are also stuck here. I have an 11-months old daughter. Please pray for her safety."
Facebook - ""you don't swallow a rat poison to see if this time around it doesn't kill you." I don't believe whatsoever that the Taliban will become "more moderate" now that they are in power. Why would they? They WON because they are not moderate. Extremists don't become less extreme when their whole brand is that they are extreme. I know this helps the narrative that the US withdrawal wasn't that bad but it's a big lie. And the people spreading this lie are not the ones who gonna face the consequences of being beheaded in the streets for not following the rules."
Opinion: The discourse around Afghanistan shows how little the West understands Islam - The Globe and Mail - "there is also the reality that the Taliban’s governing will be constrained and defined by other factors, such as a different population than when they were last in power, economic realities facing the country and relationships with other states. This kind of uncritical coverage also has consequences closer to home. There are already efforts in many of our own Western societies to dehumanize our own populations of the Islamic faith. Lord Pearson, a British member of the House of Lords, for example, last week declared: “So I submit that it is not phobic to fear Islam, which is responsible for by far the most violence on our planet today.” It was an appalling statement, though true to the record of the individual in question, who is infamous for expressing such anti-Muslim bigotry on a regular basis. But it will be no surprise if, after the Taliban takeover in Kabul, people like him find new, unnuanced ways to invigorate their audiences. This is the truth about anti-Muslim bigotry today: It is not only increasing, it is also leaving the fringes and heading toward the mainstream. That, in turn, has an effect on our public policy discussions. If those who shaped public opinion in the West viewed the people of Afghanistan as fully deserving of dignity, the history of Western involvement there would look very different. That’s true if you consider the initial decision to invade in 2001, the way in which Western forces engaged over the past 20 years, and the way in which they withdrew. It’s also why we see so many politicians, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, raising the spectre of Afghan refugees swarming Europe. If there was simple, basic empathy for this population, that kind of attitude would be unthinkable. To put it bluntly: Imagine Afghanistan was a white, Christian, European state, and what our conversations would look like then."
Whitewashing the Taliban to score woke points. Excellent.
Weird how Hungary and Poland are white, Christian, European states which keep getting slammed for violating human rights
About the only job women can do for the Kabul government is clean female bathrooms, acting mayor says - "Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, and only women whose jobs cannot be done by men are allowed to come to work -- the latest restrictions imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan."
Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Twitter - "The thinker most vindicated by #Afghanistan is Edmund Burke: change that's not progressive, slow, & pragmatic ends up blowing up (Reflections on the Revltion in France). Bureaucrato-utopistas IYI tried to jump from the middle ages to modernity, burkas to gender studies in 1 go."
Taliban Holds Up Glenn Beck Group's Planes; At Least 100 Americans Among Passengers - "Six private charter planes seeking to evacuate at least 1,000 people—including more than 100 Americans—out of Afghanistan have been grounded by the Taliban amid negotiations with the U.S. State Department"
Of course he's still evil
Taliban accounts mock USA with Pepe the Frog and other 'edgy' memes - "If people had any doubt that 2021 could get even crazier, then it is safe to say that Qasr Bakhaly of the Taliban has safely dispelled any such notions. After the end of the 20 year US occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban is mocking the United States with memes of Pepe the Frog and other memes... It was not the only Taliban account mocking the USA and the West with what are considered ‘based memes’. Another account, with the username @MalangKhostay with over 25,000 followers on the platform, shared ‘Wojak’ memes to mock western culture."
Taliban Shows Propaganda Savvy by Recreating Iwo Jima Flag-Raising - "the Taliban likely "began to have a better appreciation for the power of propaganda" when it noticed that "exaggerating the impact of airstrikes on local communities and highlighting the death of innocent civilians contributed to, at times, a hesitancy on our side.""
Dr. Khalid PhD 😈☝️🏳️ on Twitter - "One day French NGOs went to Afghanistan claiming to want to solve hunger. Their real goal was to recruit Afghan women and make porn. The Taliban found out and executed them. France of course was furious over this human rights violation."
Taliban ban Covid jab in Paktia, claims report; Video shows them partying after fall of Jowzjan
Taliban fighters stop chemists selling contraception - "Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan’s main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population... Restricting contraceptives will be a significant blow in a country with an already fragile healthcare system. One in every 14 Afghan women dies of causes related to pregnancy and it is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to give birth... Some reproductive rights experts in Afghanistan contacted by the Guardian were not willing to comment due to security concerns."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, The bravery and anger of Afghanistan's schoolgirls - "When I ask each girl their names in turn, not only do they announce their own, but their fathers too. Not only are they school girls, they’re daughters in this conservative society."
The correspondent doesn't realise that her surname comes from her father, or how patronyms work
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Afghanistan withdrawal - "‘I think every Afghan would like foreign troops to leave as quick as possible, but the way this drawdown is unfolding is creating a lot of anxiety here. You can feel the mood darkening month by month. I was here in May. And now I'm here in July and the mood is different.’"
Damn Trump screwing up the withdrawal!
Thread by @GadSaad on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " Most of the Afghan folks (in the order of 100,000) just brought into the US are apparently not translators ( as they do not speak English) nor are they holders of special visas. They are simply refugees fleeing their homeland. Is it racist to question whether it is in the best interest of the US to absorb so many refugees in one shot when the great majority do not share the foundational values that define secular and liberal societies? Is it bigoted to question the political machinations as to why they are being resettled in particular areas?"
Taliban vs. Left - "One of the most telling things I have seen since the Sept. 11 massacrewas an early "peace movement" e-mail. It listed three major demands:stop the war; stop racism; stop ethnic scapegoating. A liberal friendhad appended a sardonic comment to the bottom. "Any chance we couldcome out against terrorism as well?" One of the overlooked aspects of the war we are now fighting is the awakening it has spawned on the left. In one atrocity, Osama bin Laden may have accomplished what a generation of conservative writers have failed to do: convince mainstream liberals of the illogic and nihilism of the powerful postmodern left. For the first time in a very long while, many liberals are reassessing--quietly for the most part--their alliance with the anti-American, anticapitalist forces they have long appeased, ignored or supported. Of course the initial response of left-wing intellectuals to Sept. 11was one jerking of the collective knee. This was America's fault. FromSusan Sontag to Michael Moore, from Noam Chomsky to Edward Said, therewas no question that, however awful the attack on the World TradeCenter, it was vital to keep attention fixed on the real culprit: theUnited States. Of the massacre, a Rutgers professor summed up theconsensus by informing her students that "we should be aware that,whatever its proximate cause, its ultimate cause is the fascism of U.S.foreign policy over the past many decades." Or as a poster at thedemonstrations in Washington last weekend put it, "Amerika, Get a Clue."... Unlike previous Cold War battles, this one is against an enemy with no pretense at any universal, secular ideology that could appeal to Western liberals. However repulsive, the communist arguments of, say, Ho Chi Minh or Fidel Castro still appealed to a secular, Western ideology. American leftists could delude themselves that they shared the same struggle. But with Osama bin Laden, and the Islamo-fascism of the Taliban, no such delusions are possible. The American liberal mind has long believed that their prime enemy in America is the religious right. But if Jerry Falwell is the religious right, what does that make the Taliban? They subjugate women with a brutality rare even in the Muslimworld; they despise Jews; they execute homosexuals by throwing themfrom very high buildings or crushing them underneath stone walls. Thereis literally nothing that the left can credibly cling to inrationalizing support for these hate-filled fanatics. This is therefore an excruciating moment for the postmodern,postcolonial left. They may actually have come across an enemy thateven they cannot argue is morally superior to the West. You see thisdiscomfort in the silence of the protestors in Washington, who simplynever raised the issue of bin Laden's ideology. You see it in BarbaraEhrenreich's sad plea in the Village Voice: "What is so heartbreakingto me as a feminist is that the strongest response to corporateglobalization and U.S. military domination is based on such a violentand misogynist ideology." ... The real issue, as pointed out this week by Britain'sLabour prime minister, is that some on the left have expressed "ahatred of America that shames those that feel it.""
From 2001. Too bad 20 years later, things have only changed for the worse. Their cope is whataboutism, false equivalence and blaming whitey