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- On August 15, Taliban captured Mahmud-i-Raqi city, the capital of Kapisa province
- On August 15, Taliban captured Maidan Shahr, the capital of Maidan Wardak province
- On August 15, Taliban captured Parun city, the capital of Nuristan province
- On August 15, Taliban captured Khost city, the capital of Khost province
- On August 15, Taliban entered Kabul city and took control of all government buildings and facilities
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exactly bravo!
Here is an article that looks at the very significant impact that the devolution of Afghanistan has had on its civilian population:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2021/08/civilian-casualties-in-afghanistan.html
It certainly seems like the world simply cannot learn the lesson that history has taught; Afghanistan is unconquerable no matter how much military force is used, an expensive lesson learned by the Soviet Union in late 1979 and throughout the 1980s. The Taliban survived 20 years of attacks by international forces and now look poised to take over the entire nation once again.
Charles, the lesson (just as it was in Vietnam) is that an enemy able to avoid confrontations on the ground simply by setting up headquarters across a border can keep a fight going indefinitely. Both NATO & the USSR suffered from this; previous empires successfully conquered what is today Afghanistan because they didn’t obey an imaginary line bisecting the Hindu Kush. Indeed, they were pushed out by new invaders seeking their own hegemony in Asia, not by the natives (except for the revolts against the two caliphates & the Hotak dynasty pushing out Safavid Persia).
I’m not going to blame the abysmal conduct of the ANA, nor the similarly terrible management of it by the republic, on Pakistan. It’s just that the Taliban survived thanks to the Bush administration forgetting about it after the Bonn conference, and squandered its attention on Iraq & Iran until shortly before Obama, rather than burying Pakistan in sanctions until it could truthfully say there were no Taliban left on its side of the border.
Sure, with the Taliban extinct, we still would’ve had a horribly dysfunctional government which might’ve crumbled years even earlier than now from warlords or drug cartels (since there wouldn’t be a coalition justified by the Taliban’s existence). But these are separate matters.
There is no “government control” anymore. The Taliban are the government. The “government control” should be labelled “insurgency controlled” or “rebel controlled.”
As Ted Rall pointed out, the Taliban’s achievements actually put those of the Vietcong in the shade.
The US achieved their goal in Afghanistan: A country ruined, in the hands of a radical faction. Just as they do everywhere. Afghanistan had, at some point, a working country, education, equality and – most importantly – some degree of prosperity because they exploited their own resources, rather than had it done by international corporations. Now, the country is isolated from its neighbours. Who will they sell to? Who will rebuild the country?
If they wanted to fight they would’ve done so with whatever they could get their hands on, even bolt action rifles. The defeat and general rout of the ANA is just one more piece of evidence that the world does NOT want the JUDEO-“Christian” ideals the US imposes as norm, if they cared at all they would’ve fought
CIA Internal Memo: 17/08/21: Afghan Sit Rep: Central Asian sector is now full blown SNAFU
So, what you are saying is, the US spent $88 billion, and two decades, training a ghost army. Bravo.
Ahmad Shah Massoud’s son, Ahmad Massoud calls for the fight against the Taliban from the Panshir region of Afghanistan, I hope their futile resistance will be failed and destroyed. let the Taliban’s enemies fall to the ground all of them.