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US unleashes B-52s in bid to stem Taliban advance
- echelon 5y agoThe Taliban regime is going to be hostile to women. It'll be a return to violence, executions, and feudalism. Yet I see a lot of liberals that have no problem with a Taliban takeover and would rather see a US withdrawal. I'm a liberal person, but I think Taliban takeover is a horrific outcome. What's the argument / angle here? Furthermore, it seems to open the geopolitical sphere for China to step into the vacuum. It gives them more people to sell to, and a broader Belt and Road. It's strategic for their exports, too. That seems to not be in the interest of the United States. Also, US troops in Afghanistan are positioned close to the Chinese border, which seems like a thing the US would want in order to apply pressure. What's going on? I don't understand the withdrawal at all.
- hereforphone 5y agoBad bot
- MattGaiser 5y agoI think they should just do a South Korea type plan with airstrikes, which has basically been the last 5 years. There are 30,000 soldiers in SK. Is posting 10,000 in Afghanistan for logistical, medical, training, and airstrike purposes really that crazy? You can keep letting the Afghan soldiers do the fighting as that is what is politically necessary, but give them a pile of support on the rear end.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoHuh? South Korean airstrikes in the last 5 years? Where? Or did I misunderstand you?
- ksaj 5y agoThe key word was 'plan,' although I can see how it can sound like it meant airstrikes were happening there.
- ineedasername 5y agoThe US has given significantly more military aid to Afghanistan than most other countries in the region spend and had many thousands of soldiers there for years. Undoubtedly the general Afghan populace does not look forward to Taliban rule, but a big part of the problem is the Afghan government receiving all of this aid seems both corrupt & incompetent, unable to make the best use of the enormous resources put at their disposal. In my eyes the withdrawal is an admission that 20 years of US occupation have not been able to resolve these issues, and trying to fight a war on behalf of a country whose government takes little interest in the welfare of its own people is close to impossible. I think that about the best we can hope for is that going it alone with the prospect of losing the fruits of their corruption to the Taliban will encourage Afghan leadership to act. At least those leaders that won't be able to flee the country with their wealth intact.
- the_only_law 5y agoWe give me money to regimes that are oppressive to hostile to women.
- na85 5y ago>The Taliban regime is going to be hostile to women. It'll be a return to violence, executions, and feudalism. Yet I see a lot of liberals that have no problem with a Taliban takeover and would rather see a US withdrawal. There are hundreds of countries where women are treated like shit, of which Afghanistan is but one. Perhaps the people who want to see a withdrawal realize that America-as-World-Police isn't sustainable, and serves only to kill scores of American service members, to say nothing of countless Afghan civilians, while lining the pockets of executives at Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, and General Dynamics. Perhaps a better solution would be curbing domestic racism and xenophobia in the United States and inviting these women to immigrate.
- bobcostas55 5y agoAmerica got crushed by a handful of 70 IQ inbred religious nutters after spending over $2 trillion. The alternative to withdrawal is permanent occupation, but the US might be the most incompetent colonial master of all time, so it doesn't really make any sense.
- dzink 5y agoIs it possible the country has become so heavily dependent on western money that insurgence happens to bring back the flow of cash from returning western military presence there?
- laurent92 5y agoIs it possible that it’s just a proxy war? I imagine for 1 rouble invested by Russia arming the Talibans, it costs $10 to the West if we want to do something? It’s really a question, I’m not knowledgeable.
- beej71 5y agoSeems likely to me. It's what I'd do if I were Russia. It's not like we don't have a history of proxy war there, or something.
- trynumber9 5y agoI wouldn't. Russia has enough of a problem with Islamists. Afghanistan isn't far away. They have many migrant workers from the central Asian countries. If more refugees flood into the nearby countries it could become even more serious. The only reason I can see for Russia to support the Taliban is pure spite or profit from selling arms. But the new-Taliban is mainly equipped with captured or bought ANA weaponry.
- rich_sasha 5y agoPakistan is broadly accused of bankrolling the Taliban, as supposedly they like their neighbour being a mess.
- HeckFeck 5y agoHey, a concert instead of bombs might promote goodwill and healing in a war town land. Though I'm not sure how well an Islamist group would take to 'Love Shack', it might actually further sour relations.
- hereforphone 5y agoThey'll be fine with it, as long as their wives don't sing along.
- mbg721 5y agoMight work better for Iraq: "There's a lot of ruins...in Mesopotamia".
- jdavis703 5y agoMany interpretations of Islamic teachings prohibit listening to music. If the goal is to win hearts and minds, I don’t think imposing religiously forbidden entertainment would be helpful.
- jeffrallen 5y agoWar is stupid.
- laurent92 5y agoPeace is the success of war. Failure of war is anarchism and more war.
- haswell 5y agoPeace is not always the success of war. War is not the only path to peace. Failure of war is not always anarchism and more war. These are all possible outcomes, and some may be more likely than others, but rarely is the outcome a thing that can be described simply as “success”.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- failwhaleshark 5y agoWar is [often] a racket. - Smedley Butler On the defensive-side: Weakness invites aggression. Prepare for war so you don't have to. MAD is that and has prevented untold world wars and potentially billions of deaths for 70 years by making large-scale war too costly. On the other hand: Over-preparing, over-extending, and over-spending on unnecessary wars is evidence of MIC corruption.
- roenxi 5y agoThe unrelenting Taliban aggression into Afghanistan, the ancestral heartland of the United States which Americans have inhabited for millennia, is outrageous. They should go back to their own country, IMO.
- throwaway894345 5y agoYou realize that the Afghan people by and large do not want Taliban rule, right? Very few want to be ruled by a violent, oppressive theocracy. Personally I would like the US to leave Afghanistan as well, but I have sympathy for the people who may have to suffer Taliban rule. Ideally the international or at least regional community would step in.
- Causality1 5y agoStep in and do what? Occupy the country indefinitely? How many decades will it take for Afghanistan to stop being Afghanistan?
- MattGaiser 5y agoWhy not? Americans haven't been engaged in ground combat operations for years now outside of special forces. They were just providing the weapons, logistics, training, and air power to contain the Taliban. That seems reasonably sustainable. Make it into South Korea with airstrikes.
- laurent92 5y agoAfghanistan is about the same size as Texas, permanent occupation is technically manageable. However, it would bring hate upon the US. It’s also a proxy-war with Russia, who might be funding the opposite side, so the costs to colonization are not just occupation, but hedging the spendings of all other countries who don’t want USA to occupy the zone. So, impossible if we don’t get others on board, among Arab countries in general, perhaps China or Russia too.
- hereforphone 5y agoYou already pulled out. Just give it up.
- jdavis703 5y agoExcept that there are still something like 300 marines in Kabul.
- hereforphone 5y agoAnd they'll remain until the State Department gets scared and leaves. BTW I spent almost two years in Kabul and was friends with the Marines at the embassy there at the time.
- echelon 5y agoYou seem knowledgeable on the topic and have firsthand experience. Would you mind answering some of my questions here [1]? I'm genuinely curious. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28099710 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28099710
- magwa101 5y agoIn 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the Buddhist statues I thought these guys would be trouble.
- haswell 5y ago> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
- jdavis703 5y agoThe article describes the Afghan Air Force as struggling. But they literally don’t have anything close to a B-52 in their fleet, in fact they have no bombers at all.
- throwaway894345 5y agoFrom many other articles I’ve read, “struggling” refers to an inability to manage even rudimentary maintenance of their existing fleet or deploy what they have effectively. Note that the Taliban don’t have an air force at all.
- abz10 5y agoAFAIK the Afghan commanders stole their soldiers pay so the soldiers sold their weapons to the Taliban. The Taliban taking it back over seems like a natural consequence.
- ineedasername 5y agoI think a lot of that wage theft was actually from soldiers that didn't exist: upwards of 100,000 on the roles that can't be accounted for. As for the Afghan equipment that has ended up in Taliban hands, that appears to be the result of the Taliban capturing it. That is happening sometimes even without a fight as Afghan soldiers believe they're being abandoned by the US to an impossible fight. Either way, a significant amount of Taliban weaponry was provided by Russia.
- hereforphone 5y agoThe Afghan Army is corrupt. The Taliban is authoritarian. Guess which will occupy the majority of the country in a month or two
- rascul 5y agoNo paywall: https://www.theportal-center.com/2021/08/us-unleashes-b-52s-in-bid-to-stem-taliban-advance/ https://www.theportal-center.com/2021/08/us-unleashes-b-52s-...
- NonContro 5y agoThe Taliban are now armed with American weapons. Entire bases were abandoned overnight, full of supplies and equipment: https://youtu.be/f37xrmiqmnU?t=132 https://youtu.be/f37xrmiqmnU?t=132 There are videos of Taliban rolling through cities in American humvees: https://t.co/cdHsZgjSv8 https://t.co/cdHsZgjSv8 Its a matter of time before they take Kabul. $2.2trillion gifted to the Military Industrial Complex.
- rootusrootus 5y agoToo bad we couldn't at least have done some sabotage of equipment left behind. Hell, just slashing tires on the humvees for starters, would make a pretty big dent in their immediate usefulness. But there are probably other low-effort ways to make them difficult to repair.
- throwaway4good 5y agoMaybe it is by design. Leave an unstable nation filled with weapons at the doorstep of China and Russia.
- kook_throwaway 5y agoOur government put more effort into stopping poor people from having affordable vehicles than preventing the Taliban from getting military vehicles[1]. See engine disablement section, basically just replace oil with salt water. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoSounds bad for the environment. Or do you think all that motor oil would be captured in an environmentally responsible way?
- kook_throwaway 5y agoAnother decade of bombs and depleted uranium is bad for the environment too. Besides, DoD is already the biggest polluter on the planet. Anything that slows the war machine will be a net positive.
- throwaway4good 5y agoAnd at the same time the US enters deal with the Taliban for them to protect an oil pipeline. Everyone, including the US, assumes the Taliban will rule all of Afghanistan within months.
- dehrmann 5y agoWhat surprises me the most about the US withdrawing is that Biden didn't remember what happened when the US left Iraq when he was VP. Military commentators were almost universally saying withdrawing was a bad idea, especially with how few US resources were in Afghanistan.
- rascul 5y agoHow many more US lives and dollars must we spend to satisfy everyone?
- walkedaway 5y agoWhy is that surprising? Have you not been paying attention to Biden's lack of mental capacity the past couple years?