You almost wonder if our government and military brass botched this ending so badly on purpose so that we'd have to go back, and do it all over again. It's not like any of them will be held accountable. $$$

Be prepared for strikes in Afghanistan. It will be so ordinary that no news channel will care to make it breaking news maybe as a short issue before weather.

Markus

Never going to happen. The Taliban will let the thousands of Americans out simply because they are in a good position and won't risk being bombed over it.

US says its evacuation plans from Kabul airport are being stepped up after criticism for being too slow.

Nine men from Hazara minority were tortured and murdered by the Taliban - Amnesty International.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab under pressure over accusations of putting Afghan interpreters' lives at risk.

Taliban shot dead relative of one of its journalists, says German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

A German national has been shot while trying to get to Kabul airport. According to a German government spokeswoman, the civilian is to be flown out soon: "he is being given medical care and there is no risk to his life".

President Joe Biden is to give an update later on Friday on the US evacuation operation in Afghanistan, the White House has said.

As long as they're leaving by aircraft i have hope that you are right but if this ends with the last ones having to walk or drive out it could be reminiscent of the 1842 British withdrawal from Kabul.

Afghanistan the end dont think so WWII didnt end after the battle of El Alamien this isn't the end it isn't even the begining of the end but it is perhaps the end of the begining Winston Churchill Quote.

How long will it be before Afghanistan the festering Sore needs lancing once again and the US Nato dip thier feet in muddy waters again what will we call that Operation The Great Crusade.

The US were hoping the Taliban wouldnt take over Afganistan for at least 90 days talk about 3 little pigs and the house of straw childrens story
the Afgan people have been thrown under a bus big time.
Will all the western Nationalities get out the taliban are holding all the aces this could turn out very nasty indeed.

Without Iran stepping up there was no chance for the government to hold out and I still think this will settle out okay if the west just shuts up and leaves.

Why would Iran do the west any favours.

settle out okay for whom Russia and China must be rubbing there hands with glee all that new lithium deposits found in Afghanistan whats going to happen when the oil runs out and Tbirds wont roll :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ2Q...&start_radio=1

Billy Bragg

"Help Save The Youth Of America"

Help save the youth of America
Help save them from themselves
Help save the sun-tanned surfer boys
And the Californian girls

When the lights go out in the rest of the World
What do our cousins say
They're playing in the sun and having fun, fun, fun
Till Daddy takes the gun away

From the Big Church to the Big River
And out to the Shining Sea
This is the Land of Opportunity
And there's a Monkey Trial on TV

A nation with their freezers full
Are dancing in their seats
While outside another nation
Is sleeping in the streets

Don't tell me the old, old story
Tell me the truth this time
Is the Man in the Mask or the Indian
An enemy or a friend of mine

Help save the youth of America
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls

Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of living
And the price of bringing him home

They're already shipping the body bags
Down below the Rio Grande
But you can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land

And the fate of the great United States
Is entwined in the fate of us all
And the incident at Chernobyl proves
The world we live in is very small

And the cities of Europe have burned before
And they may yet burn again
And if they do I hope you understand
That Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them

The real problem is that there never was an exit strategy ... for twenty years. No possible 'safe' exit plan from this quagmire from the beginning. No lessons about using war as a 'foreign policy first option' learned by the chicken hawks of the nation. Surgical strikes to take out criminals do not require invasion and occupation.

"At the moment everything at NATO revolves around the evacuation at Kabul airport. Nevertheless, the first cracks in the alliance are becoming visible. And the criticism comes mainly from Great Britain, so far the Americans' closest ally. Several conservative politicians and former ministers openly question the Americans' claim to leadership in the alliance over Afghanistan.

Hungary's chief diplomat Péter Szijjártó also vigorously demanded during the secret deliberations of the EU foreign ministers this week that "the EU's strategic independence" be strengthened because of the developments in Syria and Afghanistan. That has been France's position for a long time."

https://translate.google.com/transla...-Verdacht.html

Ha, I just wanted to post on in how far the circumstances of the retreat are putting America's leadership in NATO in doubt. I see serious damage done there. Beyond repair.

To leave, I still think was and is the right thing to do. It is overdue, since many, many years. One could have stayed another 30 years, and nothign would have changed, I am certain. But the planning for how to do it, obviously leaves plenty to be desired.

And I mind everybody, that Trump signed a pullout agreement for even earlier this year, and without any conditions accepted by the Taleban. Biden already has stretched timetables beyond their Trump-set limits. The usual bipartisan polarization thing that many Americnas have as their new hobby nowadays, does not bite here.

I could absolutely imagine that future historians will write about this desaster in some decades: "The chaotic and reality-disconnected way in which the pullout from Afghanistan was unilaterally triggered by one NATO member alone, was the beginning of the end of the alliance."

The big question, the elephant in the room, now is: what will Europe do to reduce its dependency from US forces that are increasingly unlikely to stand by the claimed purposes that once were the reason why they got send to Europe in the first. Lets face it, since many years the US sends one message at all four directions, loud and strongly: the US is an untrustworthy and unreliably "ally". And it likes to arrange politically strategic defeats for itself. And of Biden it is known that he prefers only soft power to support "allies", but wants military means limited to defend own American interests and people exclusively. "America first". And that is even legitimate, we non-Americans have no claim that America has to serve our interests. So again the question: with America increasingly falling out as world policeman and guardian of our security - what are we Europeans doing about it?

I don'T expect to become impressed any time soon.

Helmut Schmidt got it right on Afghanistan, he said something like this: the only conqueror who got Afghanistan right, was Alexander the Great. He entered it from one side, and then left it immediately again on the other side, on the Kyber Pass.


All others failed.

The US has advised citizens not to travel to Kabul airport because of possible security threats at the gates.

American helicopters have been flying US citizens to the airport from a hotel compound nearby.

The Taliban's co-founder has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is set to join talks on establishing a new government.

US President Joe Biden has vowed to bring home all Americans and the Afghans who helped them.

But he warned that the mass evacuation mission would be risky and dangerous.

Co Founder of No one left behind pulls no punches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DztdH9DylNw

^Strong. Thanks for sharing!


Note, the man does not argue with pulling out, but with the way in which it is being done.

An easy walkover for the Taliban, which they may lose again if the play their cards wrong.

Heard in the news some days ago. If Afghanistan once again turns into a terror nest, USA and NATO will intervene.

Markus