Reports from citizens are that alot are welcoming taliban. This has been planned out for months now and the corporate media want to push the narrative of poor Afghanis. Yes it sucks for alot of people but if conditions are so bad why did not they not fight AT ALL. The evil of this world is the media and the narratives they spin for clicks.
I have no doubt that many Afghanis support and welcome the Taliban. They couldn’t be that successful without it.. I’ve also heard, from media sources, that the Taliban success is do to them negotiating with local leaders and promising to treat locals better. That said a lot of this reads as Taliban propaganda. The Taliban are certainly going to promise that they are going to treat people better and play up how much support they have. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of Afghanis acting out of fear rather than sincere belief in the Taliban or that the collapse has more to do with the failure of the Afghanistan government than support for the Taliban.
Like most others I don't think we could or should've stayed in Afghanistan but I do think that this withdrawal was rushed and the Biden Admin seemed more concerned with getting this done quickly than considering the situation on the ground. It will be interesting to see what internal debates there were regarding how quickly to this withdrawal was planned and it wouldn't surprise me if many were against a fast withdrawal.
victory of the people but i am afraid the country is heading to wrong direction... none of our business now. return the country and return home. Both Trump and Biden made the correct decision.
I'm watching the Meet the Press piece on Afghanistan and it really looks like things could get bad for the people of Kabul. The culture of Kabul was cosmopolitan compared to the rest of Afghanistan with things like fashion and hair salons. All of those are being shutdown anticipating that the Taliban will crack down on those things. Everyone expects the Taliban to reimpose their Medieval culture back on Kabul. There is a lot of anger on the streets of Kabul with many feeling betrayed by the US. They also reported on many US Veterans who fought in Afghanistan feeling they don't know what they fought for or what their comrades died for. On a personal note I know people who served in Afghanistan including martial arts students. One of my friends who went into Afghanistan back in 2003 talked about how he would have ride around in an unarmored Humvee and how much fear he felt and the sense he was being sent to fight poorly equipped with an undefined mission. I haven't talked to him recently but I know he felt that we should withdraw but I still feel bad as an American that 20 years of sacrifice and blood is meaning very little.
The future looks very bleak for Afghans with the Taliban back in power. But how many thousands died in this 20 year military conflict, and was it worth it in the end? I don’t think so. At this stage, the best course of action might just be to hold our noses and try to normalize relationships with the new government. We’ve done it with Pakistan, who have many of the same type of extremists running that country.
Eh - this would be like if Trump took over in a coup. A bunch of people around the country would be celebrating. It doesn't mean the people as a whole support it. The people who aren't celebrating the Taliban are probably not out on the streets so they don't get killed protesting the new murderous government that is coming in. This can't be spun as anything other than a failure - Blinken's saying "we achieved our goals" is nonsense. If that were true, we'd have left a decade ago. The US spent 20 years - 4 presidents, with 11 years under GOP leadership and 9 under Dems - and never could figure out how to defeat the Taliban or build a functioning alternative government and societial structure. As a result, women are going to oppressed, lots of people will be killed and brutally repressed. That said, staying hadn't shown any indication it was doing anything other than prolonging anything. The government we supported was corrupt as hell too, so the problems were simply different and we were largely papering over them with money. All that said, I don't think Biden gets the blame for Afghanistan failures or its falling. But he did fail - and dramatically so - in getting Afghans out who supported US efforts over the last 20 years. There are over 10,000 people just in the interpreter visa line, and the estimate to get approval is apparently 4 years. These people need to be moved and moved now or most of them will die. Same with all the other people who supported the US in the war effort. This story is just one of thousands that is heartbreaking and could have so easily been avoided: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/15/asia/afghanistan-interpreters-us-visa-taliban-cmd-intl/index.html
Agreed, I think things would be less rushed without the pandemic since we are focusing so much domestically while dealing with China.
Perhaps. We can only pray the next gen of taliban is aware of their past image and want to do this transition without abusing the civilians. I feel bad for any afghanis who wanted westernization bc they will likely hurt the most. Biden couldn't let this be a Trump win so this is what the world gets. I am happy we are out but this was going to be handled much better before biden screwed it. He literally gave the taliban every card they needed and more.
20 years and it all fell apart in a week. Kabul is falling and their president has fled. No matter any way you cut it...it is a blight on America. Never listen to the US government when it comes to intervening in foreign countries and their affairs. They don’t know what they are doing. Either blow it all up or leave it the f*ck alone! There is no in-between.
It’s almost as if they were ready to be the Islamic Emirate again. Maybe Trump was on to something when he wanted to host the Taliban leaders at camp David last 9/11.
