US, NATO Outta Afghanistan 2021

[OldSolduer]

Say isn’t China backing the Taliban? IF they are then cash is the least of their worries

 

[Altair]

Say isn’t China backing the Taliban? IF they are then cash is the least of their worries

China doesn't front cash without getting or owning something in return.

I guess they could be bankrolling them to get access to the trillions in resources in ground, but I suppose it remains to be seen if the country is stable enough to allow for that level of resource extraction and whether or not the money china would provide is enough to make up for all the money the west will pull out.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I have no doubt that the US troops are ready and willing. It's their political leadership that's letting them down, sadly.

I just saw this a few minutes ago: US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad

The Washington Examiner is not, I think, pro-Biden, but, even so, this does sting a bit.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I just saw this a few minutes ago: US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad

The Washington Examiner is not, I think, pro-Biden, but, even so, this does sting a bit.

Hey Yank General, on behalf of 2 PARA

 

[The Bread Guy]

I just saw this a few minutes ago: US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad

The Washington Examiner is not, I think, pro-Biden, but, even so, this does sting a bit.

Interesting catch (and yeah, the Examiner is definitely anti-Democrat), but so far, this is the only outlet carrying this tidbit - and the writer doesn't say who told him, even in protected generic terms. Still, interesting (and stinging) scuttlebutt, indeed, even if partly true ....

Meanwhile, no shortage of "holy crap" to go around even among the allies ...

The government is coming under pressure after it emerged ministers did not make a phone call about evacuating Afghan translators who had helped UK forces.

It had said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was too busy to speak to his Afghan counterpart, with a junior minister being asked to do so instead.

But the Foreign Office now says it "was not possible" to arrange the call before the Afghan government collapsed.

Mr Raab has rejected demands from opposition parties to resign.

It was revealed earlier this week that the foreign secretary was unavailable to make the phone call last Friday - while he was on holiday in Crete - as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

(...)

The Afghan foreign ministry reportedly refused to arrange a call with a junior minister, pushing it back to the next day.
But a Foreign Office spokesman has now told the BBC: "Given the rapidly changing situation, it was not possible to arrange a call before the Afghan government collapsed." ...

 

[Good2Golf]

Smells like BS, or something taken out of context.

would also be interesting to know if the UK or France have deals with the Taliban? I think anyone other than the US is under appreciating the protection they are afforded by ‘being allies’ of those who have the deal to not interfere. I suspect if it was a true Wild West, that the SAS, 2 Para, French SF and other allies zipping around Kabul would be not having an easier injury-free go of it…I’d dare say there’s some hubris in the air and it isn’t the Taliban or the Americans.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Wonder if the information was released in response of Brit and French stories.

US Deployed Helicopters To Rescue 169 Americans In Kabul Operation

US troops briefly exited Kabul airport at one point during ongoing evacuation operations to retrieve 169 people from inside the city, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday.

www.ndtv.com

US Deployed Helicopters To Rescue 169 Americans In Kabul Operation

"They were very close to the perimeter of the airport. Very close. And in a short amount of time, with a short amount of distance, some of our troops were able to go out there and retrieve them and bring them in," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Washington:
The US military in Afghanistan deployed three helicopters to rescue 169 Americans unable to reach the Kabul airport gates to leave the country, an official said Friday.

In the first evidence that US forces are willing and able to go beyond the US-secured airport to help people seeking evacuation, three Chinook helicopters flew to pick up the group of US citizens at the Baron hotel, not far from the airport, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

The group had planned to walk to the Abbey Gate of the airport, but a crowd was gathered there and US officials were concerned for the Americans' safety.

"There was a large crowd established outside the Abbey Gate, a crowd, that, not everybody had confidence in, in terms of their ability to walk through it, and so local commanders on the scene took the initiative and flew these helicopters out there to pick them up," Kirby said.

Earlier, President Joe Biden mentioned the rescue in a speech, but gave few details.

Since US troops took over the airport to facilitate an airlift of potentially tens of thousands of people a week ago, they have avoided going outside the gates to steer clear of possible clashes with the Taliban, who have seized control of the country.

The Pentagon says the US commander on the ground in the airport is in frequent contact with the local Taliban commander to make it easier for Americans and Afghans with US visas to reach the airport to leave.

 

[OldSolduer]

Smells like BS, or something taken out of context.

would also be interesting to know if the UK or France have deals with the Taliban? I think anyone other than the US is under appreciating the protection they are afforded by ‘being allies’ of those who have the deal to not interfere. I suspect if it was a true Wild West, that the SAS, 2 Para, French SF and other allies zipping around Kabul would be not having an easier injury-free go of it…I’d dare say there’s some hubris in the air and it isn’t the Taliban or the Americans.

Perhaps the deal is "we won't shoot you in the face with Hellfires if you let us roam free and fetch who we want" ?

 

[Kirkhill]

I read that President Biden is "giving up" on Afghanistan to "focus" on China.

China shares a rugged 76-kilometre (47-mile) border with Afghanistan.

Beijing has long feared Afghanistan could become a staging point for minority Uyghur separatists in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang.

But a top-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants.

In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan's reconstruction.

China ready for 'friendly relations' with Taliban, welcomes Afghan development projects

China is ready to deepen "friendly and cooperative" relations with Afghanistan, a government spokeswoman said Monday, after the Taliban seized control of the country.

www.france24.com

The Uyghur are a Turkic people located primarily in northwestern China. Significant communities can also be found in Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with a small number in Afghanistan. Their origins can be traced back to Turkish nomads who lived in Siberia. They became independent of the Turks in 744 AD, but were forced to leave their homeland in 840 AD. It was then that most of them immigrated to western China.

The Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan represent a very slight percentage of the country's total population. They have been heavily influenced by Russians and other Central Asian peoples; most are bilingual and today, few of them speak Uighur as their first language.

Uyghur literally means "allied." For centuries, the Uyghur were an important link between China and the rest of the world. They lived along the legendary Silk Road and worked as caravan drivers transporting Chinese goods. The strategic locations of their homes allowed them to be the "middlemen" between the Orient and Europe.

Uyghur in Afghanistan

Joshua Project profile for the Uyghur in Afghanistan

joshuaproject.net

So he is abandoning the one place where he can directly influence the Uyghur situation of Xinjiang and directly confront Beijing over their handling of ethnic minorities.

Not a good look for the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Or Falung Gong, Muslims and Christians.

Nor can it be particularly comforting for the Baltics and the Visegrad Group or Ukrainians.

 

[dimsum]

But a top-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants.

In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Excuse me if I call BS on that promise.

I'm not even suggesting that the Taliban govt doesn't want to do it. They might. I'm suggesting that the Taliban "control" probably doesn't extend as far as they think it does, especially in those famously porous border regions.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Excuse me if I call BS on that promise.

Aaaaaaaaall in the phrasing This from a statement from said meeting last month (CHN foreign ministry info-machine, but links to an archiving site) - highlights mine:

... The Afghan Taliban will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China ...

In that context, they may be more careful.

 

[Kirkhill]

The Chinese re-education camps are filled with Uyghur militants. Not Al Qaeda or Taliban.

One man's patriot is another's terrorist.

 

[The Bread Guy]

The Chinese re-education camps are filled with Uyghur militants. Not Al Qaeda or Taliban.

One man's patriot is another's terrorist.

Too true. The CHN info-machine statement mentions the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), "an Uyghur Islamic extremist organization founded in Western China. Its stated goals are to establish an independent state called East Turkestan replacing Xinjiang." No longer considered terrorists by the U.S. as of late last year.

 

[Kirkhill]

I read that President Biden is "giving up" on Afghanistan to "focus" on China.

China ready for 'friendly relations' with Taliban, welcomes Afghan development projects

China is ready to deepen "friendly and cooperative" relations with Afghanistan, a government spokeswoman said Monday, after the Taliban seized control of the country.

www.france24.com

URL unfurl="true"]https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15755/af[/URL]

So he is abandoning the one place where he can directly influence the Uyghur situation of Xinjiang and directly confront Beijing over their handling of ethnic minorities.

Not a good look for the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Or Falung Gong, Muslims and Christians.

Nor can it be particularly comforting for the Baltics and the Visegrad Group or Ukrainians.

Further to this

Anti-Taliban resistance: What's happening in the Panjshir Valley?

"I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban.

news.sky.com

And you always need a map



The Panjshir and that long finger like extension from Kabul into the Taklamakan Desert is the southern bound of the Turkic Stans and the Silk Road.

It is also the northern limit of the Iranian Persian Pashtun/Pathan Taliban that connects Northwest India, the Punjab, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran with China (once the Tibetans and Uyghurs are moved out of the way).

The Pashtuns thus connect China with Persian Iran and divide India from the Turkic Stans and Mongolia, the ancient enemies of the Han Chinese.

Al Qaeda is an Arab mob. The only thing the Persians dislike more than a Turk is an Arab.

So, as Belgium used to be known as the Cockpit of Europe I would argue there are two comparable Asian Cockpits - The Hindu Kush of the Himalayas and the Caucasus of Turkey. The Kurds play a comparable role in the Caucasus to the Pashtun in the Hindu Kush.

The only real question is whether we ignore the game or we play the game. And what's a grub stake in the game.

 

[Kirkhill]

Biden's aides afraid to tell the autocratic president he was wrong.

“This White House is very disciplined, especially when it comes to leaks and such. But the downside of discipline is if you're running things like an autocracy, and you broker no dissent internally, that's not what the purpose of a White House staff is."

Joe Biden's aides 'too afraid' to tell him he was wrong on Afghanistan, say White House insiders

The US president is facing the greatest crisis of his tenure

www.telegraph.co.uk

And he has lost Tony Blair

Tony Blair slams Joe Biden's 'imbecilic' retreat from Afghanistan

America shuts Kabul airport as Dominic Raab is forced to turn to China and Russia for help in Afghanistan

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Kirkhill]

Consequences

'Dear diary, our life is over': Female ex-soldier details terror of Kabul's first week under Taliban rule

Ex-Afghan soldier K tells how she burned her military uniform after learning a policewoman had been publicly executed

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Kirkhill]

And then there is this comment from a Brit who happens to have dark skin

Observing events around the world, however, I fear we are entering the fourth stage of Hopf’s cycle; that hard times are coming, enabled by a weak West that is not equal to the task of overcoming them.

The chief culprit has been President Joe Biden. His administration, with the gratingly right-on Kamala Harris at his side, has been a wokefest from the start, whether it was rescinding Donald Trump’s ban on critical race theory-inspired implicit bias training for federal employees on his first day, signing ill-thought-through executive orders on trans rights, or jumping on every other virtue-signalling bandwagon he could find.

His commitment to these Left-wing shibboleths has won him not only the faltering support of the Democrats’ influential young radicals, but that of America’s media establishment, which has covered shamelessly for a president who should have spent more time worrying about his role as commander-in-chief and his obligations to the people of Afghanistan than trying to rival Justin Trudeau or Jacinda Ardern for “wokest world leader”.

Biden's woke presidency is a self-indulgent luxury the West can no longer afford

The US President should have spent more time worrying about Afghanistan, and less competing to be the world's wokest leader

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Kirkhill]

And finally this editorial from the Telegraph.

The Left's illusion of a Biden presidency has been shattered

The establishment consensus, desperate to be rid of Trump, was that the veteran Democrat would be a return to stability. This was wrong.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Fishbone Jones]

UK’s Parliament Holds Joe Biden in Contempt as France and Britain Forced to Rescue Citizens Trapped in Kabul​

UK’s Parliament Holds Joe Biden in Contempt as France and Britain Forced to Rescue Citizens Trapped in Kabul › American Greatness

The Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the desperate situation in Kabul has angered U.S. allies, leaving them scrambling to evacuate their citizens and the Afghans who…

amgreatness.com

The Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the desperate situation in Kabul has angered U.S. allies, leaving them scrambling to evacuate their citizens and the Afghans who supported them during the 20 year war.

More at link.

 

[MilEME09]

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Lack of communication from the US is apparently hampering evacuation efforts by allies