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Afghanistan withdrawal.

palasr said:
As an American, I have to disagree. Trump was an unmitigated dumpster fire of epic proportion. Every policy, every decision, every cabinet sycophant, every toady congressperson abetted in the near destruction of the country as we know it. January 6th nearly overthrew the republic, had a few more court decisions gone his way, or people with guns had shown up. No, at 52 years old I've seen my fair share of presidents come and go - I used to think George W was a nightmare. Trump made him look damn good in comparison (swallows pride). When Biden was elected, I can assure you that much of the country (and the world) breathed a huge collective sigh of relief - had Trump been re-elected, we would be in a death spiral toward fascism.

The point being, every president, no matter how esteemed or historically revered by the masses will make a few poor decisions throughout their term - not everything can be clean and tidy and go to plan. While I agree Biden could have read the tea leaves a bit more carefully, the Afghanistan withdrawal was never going to be pretty. He merely inherited a fairly shitty situation, and committed to leaving - something his three predecessors never had the fortitude to do. For that alone, I (and over 70% of the American public via polling) applaud Joe Biden.
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I get where you coming from with your argument. For me Biden acted on the withdrawal to protect further damage to USA military forces and everything else was in a effect 'collateral damage' to a difficult situation. It is that collateral damage that separates the opinion of the way of withdrawal between the USA and UK. Biden wanted to protect US bodies and every thing else came a poor second...
 
Yank said:
There are prescription opiates aren't there???
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Not quite sure how they're produced, used to be on Rainham marshes just outside London but illegal here now akaik.

We have a lot of prescription opiates thankfully. Tramadol is synthetic.
 
Probably more dead.

Maybe a silly question: Does anyone understand if ISIS and Talibans are friends or enemies? Or is it one of those "complex situations."
 
In other news that beggars belief: UK government emergency Afghanistan helpline redirects to washing machine repair line in Coventry (London Economic).

The Conservative Party: You couldn’t make it up.
 
PaulMB said:
Probably more dead.

Maybe a silly question: Does anyone understand if ISIS and Talibans are friends or enemies? Or is it one of those "complex situations."
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It's a "complex situation."

Hans Morgenthau made the point that nations and groups don't have "friends," they have "interests." And when those interests align, nations/groups can look like friends. But that shouldn't be confused with actually being friends, in the normal meaning of the word.
 
"ISIS-K" is a 2015 offshoot of the Pakistan Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)), they oppose the Taliban's deal with the USA.
 
PaulMB said:
Probably more dead.

Maybe a silly question: Does anyone understand if ISIS and Talibans are friends or enemies? Or is it one of those "complex situations."
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They are not friends: apparently the Taliban are not extreme enough.
ISIS trying hard to break up the airport withdrawal agreement with USA.
 
wacko said:
I'll answer your last two:
Size km2: 14,300 vs 652,860 (2 1/2 times the size of the UK).
Pop: 2m vs 38m
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i.e the “10,000” figure is wildly optimistic given that 10,000 was the number of soldiers in NI during the troubles, logistic support in NI was also a lot easier.
 
according to one pakistani here , afghans quite like the Taliban becuase they dont allow bribes , if you go across borders to pakistan you have to pay bribes to a number of folks . under sharia law this is not allowed and taliban enforce it
 
hifinutt said:
according to one pakistani here , afghans quite like the Taliban becuase they dont allow bribes , if you go across borders to pakistan you have to pay bribes to a number of folks . under sharia law this is not allowed and taliban enforce it
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Depends how you define bribes Phil. There’s loads of reports of hefty “fees” for crossing checkpoints and escalating “Taxes” if you’re transporting goods.
 
Rob998 said:
Depends how you define bribes Phil. There’s loads of reports of hefty “fees” for crossing checkpoints and escalating “Taxes” if you’re transporting goods.
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Think of it as a toll fee. People on checkpoints are now Government employees and they have to eat too.
 
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