Anti-Taliban fighters claim victories as first stirrings of armed resistance emerge

Anti-Taliban fighters claim victories as first stirrings of armed resistance emerge (msn.com)

This is the second time in a week that I've heard mention of this new armed resistance. There may be some hope yet for Afghanistan. Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires, and that includes the Taliban if they aren't careful. With this armed group, and also widespread protests against the Taliban, it looks like the Taliban aren't very popular there.

But, I think we should still pull out of Afghanistan. The US Government can't help Afghanistan in a public way, the last time we did things openly, like arming rebels in Syria under Obama, it didn't work out. Instead, let's leave it to the CIA to do the dirty work behind the scenes. That's their job. Let them do arms deals with this new faction in Afghanistan if they are worthy of aid. I'm sure the intelligence community can vet them.

 

Better late than never!

 

I don't doubt that your intentions are good, but allowing our CIA to operate illegally, pursuing shadowy objectives which our Constitution mandates be carried out in the light of day (like declaring war), so that there can be public debate-- which is sometimes a very helpful thing: it is citizen disapproval with our Afghanistan evacuation, that is directly responsible for Joe Biden now "getting it," & being on the right page (with our performance, consequently, quickly having improved)-- and doing their work, with blanket impunity, due to a deep-sixing of documents that might lead to any accountability, has a history, as well; and it it is far worse than the history of doing things, "in a public way." Off the top of my head, we backed a fool-hearty attempt to overthrow the Cuban government, which could not but have been a major factor in Cuba's decision to accept Soviet nuclear missiles, leading to the closest the world has ever come, at least that is publicly-known, to a nuclear war.

Moving on, we installed (or helped remove the "impediments," to being installed) nondemocratically-elected leaders (like the Shah of Iran, to name just one), who turned out to be autocrats, criminals, & abusers of human rights, which contributed or directly led to those populations turning against Western, capitalist, democracy, in general, and against our country, specifically (leading to exponentially troublesome consequences).

Need I go on?

 

If any other foreign power is covertly involved in Afghanistan, especially to support the Taliban, then I say let the CIA have at 'em.

 

Who would expect anything like that to happen? Something is going to happen.

 

The best kind of government for Afghanistan is a tribal confederacy, with a weak central government that restricts its actions to handling international affairs, and trying to keep the tribes from fighting each other.

 

Or allow the tribes to fight each other a little bit. Just to keep them busy.

Actually, they going to do that anyway. How long before the Taliban breaks off into smaller groups?

 

So the Northern Alliance is realligning. No surprises there. The only real question mark is whether or not the Taliban care enough to use their new Biden-supplied weaponry to try to hold an area where they have never been welcome.

 

So, history repeats itself. This is exactly what happened after the Russkies left.

 

If they've got the will to fight and if at least a good chunk of those 300,000 trained Afghan soldiers are up for it, then they at least deserve material and covert support. Could be that they'll easily overwhelm the Taliban if they can build and maintain momentum, and the Taliban will be out of their element since they've spent 20 years fighting us and a formal local military, not fighting their own people from a position of authority to try and stop a popular uprising.

 

We already armed those 300K losers, and they turned it over to the Taliban.

 

If they want to fight and regain what they fumbled, then why not help out? As I've pointed out before, they, like us, were caught by surprise when the Taliban swept through so quickly. There are a lot of good, brave people in that country fighting and ready to fight, but their leaders failed them at a crucial moment. It would seem that new leadership is rising up regionally to organize and fight the way that we had hoped and expected the government and military to do. Wouldn't it be a waste to leave them with no support after all of that training and equipment and other investment? If they could be helped now more cheaply and without putting American lives at risk, it seems like the right thing to do.

 

They were not caught by surprise. When US made a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to pull out, the Afghans started making deals with the Taliban too, basically agreeing to turn over the nation to them, and that included the equipment we had given them.

 

Tribal societies are always fighting each other, that's why they typically don't have peace unless ruled by a strongman.

 

It's too simple to say "the Afghans started making deals" since we're really talking about millions of individuals who don't all agree and who, unlike us, don't have the luxury of functioning, representative government. Plus, it sounds like the Taliban have been violating terms of their agreements with locals (shocker, eh).

Bottom line, if enough are ready to fight and overthrow the Taliban, and if helping them in even a hands-off way will help encourage and enable them to do it, it seems worth it. Not that we would want to get involved right away, especially with the evacuations going on in coordination with the Taliban in Kabul, since that could make the situation far more volatile if not hostile again.

 

Ok, you're right. The CIA has caused major blunders throughout its history.

 

Taliban Battles Militia in First Significant Clashes Since Takeover - WSJ
I didn't think that there would be this Afghan militia out to battle the Taliban and claim victory. To me it looks like that the Taliban might be suffering consequences in the short or long run. I don't know let alone anyone else thought that there would be these anti-Taliban forces popping up to do some battle here. I should have known that not everybody in Afghanistan not everyone was going to agree with everything the Taliban did. Well, you have proof of that. What odds will there be if these Militia forces battle the Taliban and take over Afghanistan. I believe it will take longer for this militia to beat the Taliban if by chance. But what the Taliban does in fighting back against the militia, we'll have to wait and see what the outcome will bring.

 

Please let it be true. If it isn't, then there is no moral order in the world and good does not triumph evil as a general proposition, as I'd like to believe.

As for fundamentalists like the Taliban, some elements of which seem as bad as ISIS, don't they have mothers and sisters and have any shame for their institutionalized brutalization of women and girls? If not, then what are they exactly? Monsters? Devils"?

 

If that were true, there would have been no need to invent the idea of hell.

 

suicide mission ... the Taliban is in complete control and will dispense of any dissenters starting with family members ...

 

Interestingly there hasn't been much if any new/mention of the Hazara's reaction to the reinstatement of a Taliban Government. They're still a sizable minority in the country and last time around they suffered significant oppression at the hands of the Taliban (relative to the rest of the country). In fact traditionally they have always suffered discrimination. That changed to a degree under the US sponsored government, at least to an extent. They will not be happy about the recent changes. So will many other Afghans, especially those with little prospect of resettlement.So long term?

The US and the West have a bargaining chip with the Taliban. Play nice or we'll start feeding light weapons and, supplies and intelligence to your opponents (just like we did to you when you fought the Russians) and lets see how you like dealing with a decades long insurrection.

(And the wheels on the bus go round and round.)

 

They are religious FANATICS.......that believe outdated concepts that are rather medieval. The male is the dominant figure and assumes the power and control over women.......... who can be used and abused at their disposal. Most of the them are illiterate , and function a ver primal level.

 

Its simple because its true. Of course not every individual made a personal deal, but their leaders did on other people's behalf. If the leader of your division or battalion orders you to stand down, then everyone stands down.

Overthrow? Us get involved? Heck, we just made a deal with them last year which promised the Taliban a seat at the table, and we honored that promise. This was the deal. We gave it to them. Now they sit at the table, and we should be talking about overthrowing them? No way! If there is going to be a civil war, then so be it. They can duke it out and the winner takes control. Not our problem, unless the winner starts harboring / assisting terrorists.

 

A force for "Evil" rather than the Good of US citizens. Our intelligence agencies have become a plague on the people they are supposed to serve.

 

These religious Fanatics live in a fantasy land of sorts. I take it you're talking about the Taliban. It seems to me that they don't want to live in the real world.