… and They’re Back!!!

| May 5, 2021

… and in case anyone thinks the Taliban weren’t just itching to pick a fight all over again, I’m happy to disappoint those who thought it would be easy. We didn’t complete withdrawal by May 1st, but we are pulling out. Even so, because the Taliba have to stick their oar into it and jump the starting line, they have decided it is best to attack while they still can.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taliban-launches-huge-afghan-offensive-after-deadline-us-pullout-2021-05-04/

From the article:  Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand’s provincial council, said the Taliban had launched their offensive on Monday from multiple directions, attacking checkpoints around the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, taking over some of them.

Afghan security forces had carried out air strikes and deployed elite commando forces to the area. The insurgents had been pushed back but fighting was continuing on Tuesday and hundreds of families had been displaced, he added. – article

So they did, because we didn’t meet the May 1 deadline, and in fact, as you may recall, Pres. Wattshisname, you know, the Thing, said we might not be completely gone until that day in September, one which most of us sadly remember: Sept. 11.

Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", 2020 Election, Afghanistan, None

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2banana

Pedo Joe has condemned lots of Americans to a needless death and for a Saigon like evacuation humilation from Afghanistan.

Anonymous

Democrats sure loved it last time.

MustangCryppie

I haven’t been to Afghanistan, but from what I’ve heard about Afghan troops, I would be very interested in seeing what passes for “elite commando forces” in their army. I’m sure there are many here who lots of experience with this.

A Proud Infidel®™

Here’s a sample of our Personnel trying to teach PT to the Afghan national Police (ANP):

Anonymous

Sparks

This is an example of the exemplary service of the ANA. How troops went our with stoned airheads like this is beyond me to even think. I could not imagine having asshats like them behind me in a firefight or depending on them from cover and forget guard duty. God bless all the troops who had to serve with these clowns.

Anonymous

“You may have the watches, but we have the time.” –Talibastards

5JC

The whole point in getting out by May 1st was to avoid the summer fighting season. That was going to happen so long as there is someone in the country to kill that doesn’t believe that goat herding with your 10 year old bride is God’s plan for everyone.

Anonymous

Democrat cuckold war porn… they can’t wait for the humiliation again:

5JC

Now that Chief Gallagher is back in the news rubbing it in the Taliban faces that should get them hot and bothered.

David

5JC-remember when Trump wanted to get out by May 1, and the Dems objected… let’s see how many American lives their delay costs.

SFC D

I’m shocked, shocked to find the Taliban is acting like… well, the Taliban. Al Qaeda will be fast on their heels.

USMCMSgt (Ret)

Inquiring minds want to know who will fill the void?

Clearly the Taliban is calling dibs, but won’t ISIS regroup and perhaps lay their claim as well?

Martinjmpr

Eh, they can try. But they likely won’t have any more success than the Taliban or al Quaeda did.

The thing about the Afghans is they’re pretty much equal opportunity haters. They hate everybody who isn’t their own tribe and they even hate some of them enough to fight them.

If you haven’t read “The Outpost”, you should. It explains how the presence US forces in some of these remote regions provoked more fighting than it prevented. Local “Taliban” cells that had been all but dormant were suddenly active once the infidels had established a presence in their region. And once the US forces left, the fighting stopped, too.

Afghanistan is basically a burlap sack full of angry cats. If ISIS wants to grab hold of that sack, I say let ’em. It would serve them right.

SteeleyI

Great book. To get the deeper history, I recommend ‘Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia’, and for even more perspective, ‘The Great Game’. For recent insight, read ‘West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story’, and the novel ‘The Kite Runner’ will give you some insight into the culture.

Afghanistan is the crossroads of empire, therefore the graveyard of empires.

The first thing you have to understand is that there is no ‘Afghanistan’- that is a Western concept. To the people that live there it isn’t a country, it isn’t even a group of provinces; it is the land of their particular tribal, ethnic, and religious group. Pashtun, Hazari, Nuristani, Balochi, Tajik, etc. There has never really been a successful central government, and no one that lives there really cares.

The Persians, Greeks, Mongols, Arabs, Sikhs, Brits, Russians, the US (and Brits again) plus a few other minor players have all ‘invaded’ at one time or another.

The Taliban are local, which to the locals is better than outsiders. Once the outsiders are gone, the real mujahadin will pick up their guns and rid themselves of the Taliban.

Poetrooper

In one sense, it seems to this observer that the various tribes inhabiting what the external world identifies as Afghanistan, are like the widely varied Native American tribes who also never fully understood the “nation” concept outside of their own tribal congregations.

And in the other sense, it would appear that the Afghan tribes, unlike their Native American counterparts, have been successful in defeating the multiple incursions by the great powers because the forces deployed by those great powers were merely that, military forces intent on suppression of resistance while not being the vanguard of a huge wave of determined, land-hungry immigrants seeking not just military victories but permanent settlement of the seized lands.

I know nothing of the situation on the ground in that region but I can’t help but wonder that if any of the past military invasions had been immediately followed by a mass immigration of civilian settlers determined to occupy and hold the conquered lands, if things might not now be different.

Hondo

The first thing you have to understand is that there is no ‘Afghanistan’- that is a Western concept. . . . . There has never really been a successful central government, and no one that lives there really cares. (emphasis added) Partially true, and partially false. While the concept of a multi-ethnic/multi-tribal “Afghanistan” ruled collaboratively by a multi-ethnic/multi-tribal government does appear to be foreign to the area, there have been relatively long periods where what is today “Afghanistan” did indeed have effective native central government. The Ghaznavid Dynasty originated in eastern Afghanistan, and for roughly two centuries (977 to 1186) ruled an empire encompassing all of what is today Afghanistan (along with substantial other territory). Similarly, the Ghurid Dynasty ruled an empire encompassing roughly the same area for another hundred years, starting shortly after the fall of the Gaznavid Dynasty. Their empire ended shortly before the Mongol Empire conquered the region. Finally, the Duranni Dynasty governed much the same area for roughly a century – from the 1740s to the late 1830s. Two of these dynasties were founded by native Afghan Pashtuns (Gaznavid and Duranni). The third was founded by residents of the area of Ghor in central Afghanistan. Their ethnicity isn’t precisely known, but was probably not Pashtun (they do not appear to have been Pashto speakers). They also predate and thus may have been ethnically distinct from today’s Hazara, who are believed to have substantial Turkic and Mongol ancestry. My point is that a united Afghanistan has indeed experienced long-ish periods of indigenous self-government. Moreover, these periods of indigenous self-rule do not include those other times where the entirety of Afghanistan was ruled by foreign empires (Persian, Mongol, Timurid, and Mughal). Yes, all of those periods were generally dominated by a ruling elite from a particular Afghan tribe. However, to to say that Afghanistan has never experienced unified self-government under native Afghan leadership is not correct. In the three dynasties I note above, Afghanistan has had periods of unified self-rule totaling roughly 400 years out of the last 1050. That’s nearly 40% of the time. Add the modern… Read more »

Stoney

Even nearly 900 years before they were Muslim, that place was a burlap bag full of angry cats.

Alexander the Great sent scouts north to what is now Afghanistan to find a different means of getting into India. His scouts came back and basically said,

“fuck that place boss, those backward people are crazy as shit, we should just do a heads on assault.”

Jus Bill

I foresee that the PLA will be the next national armed force to be suckered into the bottomless war vortex that is that area of the world. I read somewhere that Chinese mining interests are lusting after Afghan rare earth deposits, and already have a presence there. It would then become an irresistible temptation for the CIA to further screw up the area yet again.

MI Ranger

Yeah there is a huge Copper mine, that the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) made an agreement with the Chinese to build. I heard they were actually using local labor (unusual for the Chinese) but there seemed to be some dispute with export of the minerals (taxes).
One thing Afghanistan has is huge untapped mineral deposits…mostly because no one can get in there and get an agreement to allow the mining and a separate agreement (or agreements) to get the stuff out of the country. I see the Chinese doing a Uighur type settlement action to start pacifying the people.

Slow Joe

Meanwhile, the population of Afghanistan has doubled since we invaded in 2001, serving as evidence of how much free food we have sent into that hellhole.

No farmer is going to farm if we keep sending free food their way.

A Proud Infidel®™

They got far more money from growing Opium, thus I’m sure they’ll go right back to the drug trade. The Islamonazis thought that they were giving it to “The Great Satan” by producing drugs and that gave THEM millions of addicts along the way.

Jus Bill

Go back?

A Proud Infidel®™

I meant further back, my mistake.

David

Every druggie is a collaborator and supporter. One of the few things with which I agreed with the Chicoms.

MI Ranger

Funny, the farmers actually want to grow food instead of Opium (talked to lots of them when I was there…attended two jurgas on the subject). The issue was getting there stuff to market (before it spoils), which since 2008 has greatly improved due to better roads (ring road, roads to Pakistan) and local market hubs.
The other problem with Opium (and the reason Farmers don’t like growing it) is they are usually forced to grow it, and they go in debt when the crop fails and if they don’t get killed because of it, life is really bad. Get rid of the drug runners and the drug problem goes away!

Sparks

Afghanistan can grow cotton in world consumption qualities. We don’t want them to though because it would hurt our farmers here and those of our allies. This is a case where I think we should give them a good exportable, profitable crop and let them deal with the world markets. Perhaps and stop the opium growth.

alligatorcrocodilesame

Pedo Joe keeps his word
That Americans will suffer
Die and be served

To the great death
As millions cry
That old pedo Only Lies

Now you’ll think
The history did pretend
That what once occurred
Has only happened again

Remember this game
We used to know it well
If we don’t go down swinging
We’ll surely burn in hell

Little poem I wrote just now. What do you think the history books will say about all this corruption, defeatism, and pointlessness? Maybe a couple pages of nonsense inked with the blood of good Americans who died for something stolen away by the very same politicians and people they’d die for?

A Proud Infidel®™

I’ve done my time in that hellhole and a bunch of what i saw during that tour convinced me that a lot of the people in that region cannot be made civilized. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are reasons why Afghanistan is also known as “The Graveyard of Empires, just ask the British, French and Russians why, thus I say let China be saddled with that tar baby!

Sparks

API, after talking with about 3 dozen vets of your era who served there, to a man, they agreed with what you just wrote. They believe there will always be a hardcore segment of Afghan society that will never allow peace. Not from without nor within.

KoB

Lest ALL of the AlQueerdas and Talibastards take it over. Then nuke the entire site from orbit. “It’s the only way to be sure.”

Anonymous

Hear hear!