So what's next for these poor damned people?
Australia's ABC writer, Stan Grant attempts to detail the history of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
fulltimestudent
JoinedPosts by fulltimestudent
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Afghanistan-Kabul falls to Taliban - U.S. Embassy staff evacuated by helicopter
by fulltimestudent inin a scene reminiscent of the fall of saigon, the usa embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.. for a third time in asia ( a fourth, if you count usa supported chiang kai shek's defeat in mainland china) usa supported forces have been defeated.
more than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) afghanistan is back to where it started,.
will the taliban behave differently this time ?
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112
Afghanistan-Kabul falls to Taliban - U.S. Embassy staff evacuated by helicopter
by fulltimestudent inin a scene reminiscent of the fall of saigon, the usa embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.. for a third time in asia ( a fourth, if you count usa supported chiang kai shek's defeat in mainland china) usa supported forces have been defeated.
more than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) afghanistan is back to where it started,.
will the taliban behave differently this time ?
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fulltimestudent
Rocketman, There are more details in this Straits Times (A Singapore newspaper-also government owned).
Quoted (in Part):
"The swift offensive has resulted in mass surrenders, captured helicopters and millions of dollars of US-supplied equipment paraded by the Taleban on grainy cellphone videos. In some cities, heavy fighting had been under way for weeks on their outskirts, but the Taleban ultimately overtook their defensive lines and then walked in with little or no resistance."
"How the Afghan military came to disintegrate first became apparent not last week but months ago, in an accumulation of losses that started even before President Joe Biden's announcement that the US would withdraw by Sept 11.
It began with individual outposts in rural areas where starving and ammunition-depleted soldiers and police units were surrounded by Taleban fighters and promised safe passage if they surrendered and left behind their equipment, slowly giving the insurgents more and more control of roads, then entire districts.As positions collapsed, the complaint was almost always the same: There was no air support or they had run out of supplies and food. "
"These shortfalls can be traced to numerous issues that sprung from the West's insistence on building a fully modern military with all the logistical and supply complexities one requires, and which has proved unsustainable without the US and its Nato allies."
And, there's more similar info. One things clear - the 'West' just doesn't get it. By which I mean that 'West,' seems to consistently fail to understand how ordinary Asians may 'see' the world.
If you wanted to follow that theme through, you may find Pankaj Mishra's book, From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Re-making of Asia, helpful.
The Nations that form NATO and the USA have all attempted to create empires out of Asian nations and somehow all seem to think they are still in charge.
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Afghanistan-Kabul falls to Taliban - U.S. Embassy staff evacuated by helicopter
by fulltimestudent inin a scene reminiscent of the fall of saigon, the usa embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.. for a third time in asia ( a fourth, if you count usa supported chiang kai shek's defeat in mainland china) usa supported forces have been defeated.
more than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) afghanistan is back to where it started,.
will the taliban behave differently this time ?
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fulltimestudent
Rocketman123: "
"I'd like to know where and what happened to the Afghan government military force , there haven't been much fighting by this force ? Did they put on their civilian cloths and leave the country ?"
Maybe the UK Guardian has some of the answers, I'll quote bits selectively:
Quote:
" ... the whole country has been effectively overrun in a matter of weeks as military commanders either surrendered without a fight or gave up in a matter of hours. ..
...a tale of two armies, one poorly equipped but highly motivated ideologically, and the other nominally well-equipped, but dependent on Nato support, poorly led and riddled with corruption. ...
...the US military to be persistently over-optimistic about the Afghan military capability, even though it had no reliable evidence to make that assessment ..."
In connection with motivation, we can ask whether the US Army intelligence correctly understood the feelings of ordinary Afghanis, from whom were drawn the soldiers forming the "old" national army. Where they in the army for the pay, or because they believed in their cause? How did they, as well as other Afghanis, feel about the random killing of civilians in strikes against targeted dissidents?
The US Army had the same problem in Vietnam, incorrect assessments of the morale of the South's army.
I read the full article on nine/msn site:
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Afghanistan-Kabul falls to Taliban - U.S. Embassy staff evacuated by helicopter
by fulltimestudent inin a scene reminiscent of the fall of saigon, the usa embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.. for a third time in asia ( a fourth, if you count usa supported chiang kai shek's defeat in mainland china) usa supported forces have been defeated.
more than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) afghanistan is back to where it started,.
will the taliban behave differently this time ?
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fulltimestudent
jtg; "I'm having trouble linking the story."
Not sure why you have a problem. But see if the web address works
Stan Grant claims (and, I guess he's right) that the Taliban was never defeated. They just went underground and waited.
The West's big mistake (in most of my first post situations) was the mistaken belief that you can take large masses of culturally different people and transform ththem overnight into carbon copies of western people who themselves are the result of centuries of cultural change.
And holding them in contempt (witness the term "goat herders" ) hardly helps. On that level, we can also think about the revelations concerning Aussie soldiers in Afghanistan in the current legal case, slowly working its way through the Australian legal system.
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OK, I see the problem you've had in posting, but cant solve it. If anyone else wants to read Stan Grants analysis, got the ABC'c Facebook page and scroll down
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112
Afghanistan-Kabul falls to Taliban - U.S. Embassy staff evacuated by helicopter
by fulltimestudent inin a scene reminiscent of the fall of saigon, the usa embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.. for a third time in asia ( a fourth, if you count usa supported chiang kai shek's defeat in mainland china) usa supported forces have been defeated.
more than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) afghanistan is back to where it started,.
will the taliban behave differently this time ?
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fulltimestudent
According to this Aljazeera report, the USA embassy may only be partly evacuated. Embassy officials are described as still busy burning documents.
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112
Afghanistan-Kabul falls to Taliban - U.S. Embassy staff evacuated by helicopter
by fulltimestudent inin a scene reminiscent of the fall of saigon, the usa embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.. for a third time in asia ( a fourth, if you count usa supported chiang kai shek's defeat in mainland china) usa supported forces have been defeated.
more than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) afghanistan is back to where it started,.
will the taliban behave differently this time ?
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fulltimestudent
In a scene reminiscent of the fall of Saigon, the USA embassy staff have been evacuated by helicopter.
For a third time in Asia ( a fourth, if you count USA supported Chiang Kai Shek's defeat in mainland China) USA supported forces have been defeated. More than 1 trillion dollars wasted and a huge deathtoll (both sides) Afghanistan is back to where it started,
Will the Taliban behave differently this time ? We have to wait and see!
Australia's government -owned news service tells the story:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-15/taliban-takes-jalalabad-with-kabul-now-in-sights-afghanistan/100378750
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YHWH's Magnificent Killing Machine
by fulltimestudent inthe remains of what may be one of the largest pterosaur's yet found have been discovered in outback queensland.
the palaeontologists that have been examining the discovery describe it as having been a fearsome beast, with a spear -like mouth and a 7 metre wingspan.. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-10/dragon-like-pterosaur-outback-queensland-identified-named/100361038.
for more on australian dinosaurs see this video (also included in the above news story).. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6dquboi_qi&t=36s.
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fulltimestudent
The remains of what may be one of the largest pterosaur's yet found have been discovered in outback Queensland.
The palaeontologists that have been examining the discovery describe it as having been a fearsome beast, with a spear -like mouth and a 7 metre wingspan.
For more on Australian dinosaurs see this video (also included in the above news story).
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Did the Worst Ever Human Plague Cause Modernity-There's an argument that it did!
by fulltimestudent indr. andrew latham (a professor of political science at macalester college in saint paul, minnesota).
argues that the effects of this plague (in europe) changed europe and created the conditions that led to modernity.. it's an interesting thought, as we wander through the current pandemic.. this article was shared from the medievalists.net website.
https://www.medievalists.net/2021/08/the-black-death-and-the-great-transition/.
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fulltimestudent
I'd agree with Simon and sbf that the 1200 (?) y,o print industry seems to be facing major changes. Though, I'm guessing that an individual's ability to own a cheaper printer hooked up to the world-wide web means that printing could be increasing. Not sure how I could prove that, though. I no longer buy newspapers, but read (after scanning for what interests me) the internet editions of several national newspapers - something I could not do 25 years ago. For daily news . TV news (with its limitations) is a daily practise, but that may be a carryover from childhood, when the whole family sat around the radio in the loungeroom to listen to the 7.00 pm news. And, another major source of news (for me - -mainly because its free) is Australia's government owned ABC. Since both sides of politics here claim its biased, it just may give a mostly unbiased viewpoint,
As to Simon's P.O.V. that China "could do with some reset so they learn how to behave and treat animals in non-barbaric ways so people don't think they are a bunch of backward abusive cunts." The wet-markets he's referring to, can be found everywhere in the less-developed world. You'll find them through S.E.Asia, India and Africa (and maybe parts of South America. They serve to allow millions (maybe billions) to buy freshly killed flesh foods in areas that do not have refrigerated food chains. Slowly they will disappear.
Incidentally, I've already posted here (somewhere) that my father once caught a fruit bat kept it in a cage for 2 months while he fattened it. then killed it and had my mother roast it. Can't tell you what it tasted like as I would not eat it. He did the same another time with a black swan.
As a kid, in country Australia, I regularly caught and killed rabbits, both to eat (rabbit stew) and to sell the skins. At least 2 sundays a month my father would kill a chook (chicken) for sunday lunch, And, I guess many in western countries catch fish to eat.
All of which indicates that humans. a flesh-eating animal, needs to kill and eat other animals.
Are the animals we eat. always killed in humane ways? Depends on our viewpoint I guess. Some humans are strongly opposed to killing any animal, in any way.
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Did the Worst Ever Human Plague Cause Modernity-There's an argument that it did!
by fulltimestudent indr. andrew latham (a professor of political science at macalester college in saint paul, minnesota).
argues that the effects of this plague (in europe) changed europe and created the conditions that led to modernity.. it's an interesting thought, as we wander through the current pandemic.. this article was shared from the medievalists.net website.
https://www.medievalists.net/2021/08/the-black-death-and-the-great-transition/.
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fulltimestudent
sbf - The current pandemic, is clearly not on the mortality scale of the bubonic plagues, so it may just hasten some of the trends already evident.
For example, if production can be independent of physical work, then business enterprises are likely to hasten automation. Do you agree?
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Did the Worst Ever Human Plague Cause Modernity-There's an argument that it did!
by fulltimestudent indr. andrew latham (a professor of political science at macalester college in saint paul, minnesota).
argues that the effects of this plague (in europe) changed europe and created the conditions that led to modernity.. it's an interesting thought, as we wander through the current pandemic.. this article was shared from the medievalists.net website.
https://www.medievalists.net/2021/08/the-black-death-and-the-great-transition/.
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fulltimestudent
Dr. Andrew Latham (a professor of political science at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota). argues that the effects of this plague (in Europe) changed Europe and created the conditions that led to modernity.
It's an interesting thought, as we wander through the current pandemic.
This article was shared from the Medievalists.net website
https://www.medievalists.net/2021/08/the-black-death-and-the-great-transition/