Taliban

Afghanistan – Longest US War Continues To A New Stage

August 17, 2021 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Taliban, US Empire

In recent weeks, the Taliban military rapidly advanced, taking provincial capitals in Afghanistan and then the capital city of Kabul on August 15. The US-backed former President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in a helicopter packed with cash, the US embassy took down the stars-and-stripes, and Western governments evacuated personnel. In the leadup to the debacle, the US bombed a country, which has minimal air defenses, in a war that has cost at least 171,000 to 174,000 lives. Along with Qatar-based long-range B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers and AC-130 Spectre gunships, MQ-9 Reaper drones were deployed. While claiming it would end the war, the US had intended to continue to bomb Afghanistan at will and to keep private military contractors (i.e., mercenaries) there, along with some uniformed US and allied NATO troops such as those from Turkey.

Afghanistan Shenanigans

August 16, 2021 Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlin's Newsletter. Educate! Afghanistan, Taliban, Wars and Militarism

"It's long been obvious to anyone paying attention that the Taliban would regain control of the country when occupying western powers withdrew, but I don't think anyone would've put money on it happening this quickly. A few interesting questions have come up about this, like for example how hilarious would it be if after spending twenty years and trillions of dollars and thousands of human lives "fighting the Taliban", the Taliban suddenly resumed power as a US puppet regime?"

US Embassy Staff Flee Kabul As The Taliban Takes Control

August 15, 2021 Popular Resistance. Educate! Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Taliban, Wars and Militarism

Taliban fighters entered Kabul on Sunday and sought the unconditional surrender of the central government, officials said, as Afghans and foreigners alike raced for the exit, signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. The beleaguered central government, meanwhile, hoped for an interim administration, but increasingly had few cards to play. Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. Helicopters buzzed overhead as part of an evacuation of personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Several other Western missions were also preparing to get staff out. In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.

The Collective Suicide Machine

July 27, 2021 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost. Educate! Afghanistan, Taliban, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

The debacle in Afghanistan, which will unravel into chaos with lightning speed over the next few weeks and ensure the return of the Taliban to power, is one more signpost of the end of the American empire. The two decades of combat, the one trillion dollars we spent, the 100,000 troops deployed to subdue Afghanistan, the high-tech gadgets, artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, Reaper drones armed with Hellfire missiles and GBU-30 bombs and the Global Hawk drones with high-resolution cameras, Special Operations Command composed of elite rangers, SEALs and air commandos, black sites, torture, electronic surveillance, satellites, attack aircraft, mercenary armies, infusions of millions of dollars to buy off and bribe the local elites and train an Afghan army of 350,000 that has never exhibited the will to fight, failed to defeat a guerrilla army of 60,000 that funded itself through opium production and extortion in one of the poorest countries on earth.

Biden Administration’s September 11 Withdrawal Plan Violates Peace Agreement

April 15, 2021 Black Alliance for Peace, Popular Resistance. Educate! Afghanistan War, Joe Biden, Peace Agreement, Taliban

Members of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) criticized U.S. President Joe Biden's announcement Wednesday that he would pull troops from Afghanistan on September 11, 2021, thereby violating a key component of a peace agreement negotiated by the previous administration. A September 11 withdrawal—landing on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack—reinforces the false impression that the Taliban government had something to do with the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. BAP is concerned the attempt to move the date of U.S. withdrawal past the agreed-upon May 1 deadline will give hardliners in the Biden-Harris administration the opportunity to create the conditions for continued U.S. occupation of Afghanistan by baiting the Taliban into renewed attacks.

The Taliban MLB Franchise Favored To Win It All

March 25, 2021 Maj. Danny Sjursen, USA (Ret.), AntiWar.com. Educate! Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Peace Agreement, Taliban

Let the record show that the almighty American military machine was soundly defeated by an enemy that didn’t like fighting either in the dark or cold. Talk about bad medicine that’s good for a society (somehow still) desperately in need of a decisive case study in the limits of its own power and martial prowess. Enter the tested teachers of the Taliban and Afghanistan (though, ironically, Talib vaguely translates as "student.". Seriously though, when I commanded a sandbagged shit-hole (in 2011-12) just miles from Talib-ground zero in Kandahar province at the very crest of the Obama-surge and U.S. troop counts – we prayed for winters and sunsets.

The Truth About Russian-Taliban Ties

July 5, 2020 Andrew Korybko, One World. Educate! Afghanistan, Media, Russia, Taliban

The New York Times' latest fake news provocation alleging that Russia's military-intelligence agency GRU solicited the Taliban (officially designated as "terrorists" by Moscow) to assassinate American soldiers in Afghanistan has brought a lot of attention to Moscow's ties with the militant group. The truth, however, is just as intriguing than the fake news about them. On the surface, it's surprising enough that Russia has diplomatic contacts with the Taliban considering that the latter grew out of the 1980s Mujahiddin that defeated the USSR. Casual observers could be forgiven for thinking that Russia still holds a grudge against the group, but astute followers of the country's foreign policy have no such excuse. Russia's 21st-century grand strategy is to become the supreme "balancing" force in Eurasia, to which end it's sought to prioritize relations with non-traditional partners.

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