Afghan "train, advise and assist" 1984 style

[TV and credit cards]

The hell it didn't, together with the larger problem of illegal mass migration from Mexico and Central America! There are some areas in the US that resemble Latin America. My former neighborhood looks like Mexico and not US now, with all store signs in Spanish, "Salon de Belleza", "Carniceria Jalisco" and everybody you see on the street is Mexican/Central American.

You can play sensible Derec and talk of vetting and illegal immigration all you want but it’s statements like this that undergird all of what you say.

In a nation of immigrants, what is the US supposed to look like?
Does it stop when one’s own cultural is well represented, when others are so in the minority that society as a whole works to benefit that majority with a wink and a nod?
If there is a “look of the US”, it is that of change. Now this change is slow enough that each generation growing up in its insular community of like people of their relations and parents friends gets to grow out of that community and see the United States as it really is: a nation of immigrants, always changing, occasionally pausing, and hopefully evolving. Some grow and embrace this change. Others yearn for that little America they knew as a child.

 

[funinspace]

Well, as the Afghan occupation is obviously over, I guess Derec dragging this thread down his immigrant phobia rabbit hole isn't such a big deal...

it didn't happen when countries accepted refugees from Indo-China in the 60s, it didn't happen when the rest of South East Asia followed suit and

That is a non-European culture, but one far more compatible with US culture than Islam. And it is silly to say that it did not change American culture to some extent.

LOL...you should go to Long Beach and get a hair cut; watching Hong Kong TV (back when it wasn't part of the PRC); and hearing a constant chatter of alien languages. I got the gal that at least spoke broken English. Then off to lunch, where again, pretty much nothing in English, but awesome food.

it didn't happen when you believed Stephen Miller/Trump etc about the horrors of the caravans a few years ago.

The hell it didn't, together with the larger problem of illegal mass migration from Mexico and Central America! There are some areas in the US that resemble Latin America. My former neighborhood looks like Mexico and not US now, with all store signs in Spanish, "Salon de Belleza", "Carniceria Jalisco" and everybody you see on the street is Mexican/Central American.

I spent a decade in SoCal as a minority, in a Latino run city. Here is a pic of those invaders when I was growing up (Ironically, some of these foreigners were here first...funny how that works):

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Thank you Derec. You proved my point far more eloquently than I ever could.

Not at all. Again, look at what's happening in Europe. Major European cities like Berlin or London are nigh unrecognizable compared with 20 years ago.
View attachment 35231
Muslims in Germany waving the Koran and protesting against the freedom of the press.

You're right Derec. If you let these people in, in 20 years time America will most likely restrict rights for women, label the media as an Enemy of the State, question the merits of science over faith and force everyone to live in an oppressive system that ostensibly only benefits a select elite. It's oh so clear to me now.

But it is so much more scary when Muslims do it!

 

[barbos]

Let's hope this will teach US to not invade muslim countries and invade friendly countries like Norway.

 

[barbos]

But it is so much more scary when Muslims do it!

Yes, it is, just ask...... muslims who were falling from the plane. Oh, wait, you can't, they're dead.

 

[Jarhyn]

You're right Derec. If you let these people in, in 20 years time America will most likely restrict rights for women, label the media as an Enemy of the State, question the merits of science over faith and force everyone to live in an oppressive system that ostensibly only benefits a select elite. It's oh so clear to me now.

But it is so much more scary when Muslims do it!

I can only imagine that the reason Islamists and Christianists of their respective extremeties hate each other is that they compete fiercely for the same niche

 

[ZiprHead]

Taliban Interim Government Agrees to Let Foreigners Leave Afghanistan

(Reuters) -Two hundred foreigners in Afghanistan, Americans among them, are set to depart on charter flights from Kabul on Thursday after the new Taliban government agreed to their evacuation, a U.S. official said.

The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since the Islamist militia seized the capital in mid-August, triggering the chaotic U.S.-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans.

The flights come two days after the Taliban announced an interim government made up of mainly ethnic Pashtun men, including Islamist hardliners and some wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, dashing international hopes for a more moderate administration.

The Taliban were pressed to allow the departures by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. official said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

 

[barbos]

Taliban Interim Government Agrees to Let Foreigners Leave Afghanistan

(Reuters) -Two hundred foreigners in Afghanistan, Americans among them, are set to depart on charter flights from Kabul on Thursday after the new Taliban government agreed to their evacuation, a U.S. official said.

The departures will be among the first international flights to take off from Kabul airport since the Islamist militia seized the capital in mid-August, triggering the chaotic U.S.-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans.

The flights come two days after the Taliban announced an interim government made up of mainly ethnic Pashtun men, including Islamist hardliners and some wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, dashing international hopes for a more moderate administration.

The Taliban were pressed to allow the departures by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. official said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

It's good you can trust these FBI most wanted terrorists.

 

[lpetrich]

Opinion | The Taliban shows what it means by ‘inclusive.’ The time for American wishful thinking is over. - The Washington Post

Taliban leaders have unveiled Afghanistan’s new cabinet, and the Islamic Emirate they have anointed is far from the “inclusive” government that the radical insurgents promised. Rather, it consists almost entirely of hard-line ethnic Pashtun men from the Taliban’s long-standing inner circle. Key figures include prime minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a former official of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime who is under sanctions by the United Nations, and interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the violent Haqqani network, who is sought by the FBI for his role in bloody terrorist attacks. Sidelined completely: the women of Afghanistan, as well as such figures from the deposed U.S.-backed republic as former president Hamid Karzai and former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah. The Taliban had held showy but, evidently, insubstantial talks with them after taking power.

In one sense, however, the Taliban has kept its promises: The new powers-that-be in Kabul enjoy not even the pretense of popular election, exactly as a spokesman, Waheedullah Hashimi, foreshadowed in August when he told Reuters: “There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country." The transparency and accountability of the new political process are epitomized by the man widely believed to wield real power in the Taliban, religious leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, who has not been seen in public for years, though a statement was issued in his name to the effect that the new cabinet is an apparently interim “acting” body. How and when a transition to permanent status would occur were left unclear.

Iran insists on ‘inclusive’ government in Afghanistan | Taliban News | Al Jazeera

On Wednesday, a day after the Taliban announced the formation of the new Afghan government, which was dominated by its old guard and included no representation for women or members of the Shia community, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries – including Iran, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan – held a virtual meeting.

...
Earlier this week, after the Taliban claimed it had taken control of the Panjshir region from resistance fighters, Tehran for the first time “strongly” condemned the assault there and said killings must stop.

Iran has also seen protests against the Taliban in recent weeks, including one on Tuesday in front of the Pakistani embassy in Tehran, where dozens chanted “death to the Taliban” and “death to Pakistan” for its alleged role in assisting the Sunni group.

The Taliban is Sunni Muslims, while some Muslims in northern Afghanistan are Shiites, like Iran's leaders.

Taliban must allow departures from Afghanistan, Blinken says | Taliban News | Al Jazeera - "Top US diplomat criticises new Afghan government but says administration’s engagement with the Taliban will continue."

There are a few hundred American citizens remaining in Afghanistan.

First civilian flight from Kabul since US exit lands in Doha | Taliban News | Al Jazeera - "Qatar Airways flies passengers on first commercial international plane from Afghanistan since US withdrawal."

The flight, operated by state-owned Qatar Airways, landed at Doha’s Hamad International Airport on Thursday, marking the first successful flight of its type since the chaotic airlift of more than 120,000 people concluded last month.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from the airport in Doha, said there were about 113 passengers on board.

“The nationalities on board are comprised of Canadians, Americans, Ukrainians, Germans, British citizens and others,” Jamjoom said.

“They are transiting through Doha. After they clear customs they will be taken temporarily to a compound here in Doha, housing Afghan evacuees and Afghan refugees.”

Qatari, US, and UK officials praised the flight.

Qatari and Turkish technical teams have helped restore operations at the airport, which was damaged during the chaotic evacuations of tens of thousands of people to meet the US troop withdrawal deadline of August 31.

The departure of a large group of Americans, a first since the US withdrawal, suggests that US officials have come to an arrangement with the new Taliban rulers.

Also on that plane were 13 Britons.

 

[ZiprHead]

[TWEET]<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m not sure I have ever seen someone give a speech at a formal occasion as drunk as Rudy Giuliani is right now at the 9/11 dinner. <a href="https://t.co/54G5oCuBe3">pic.twitter.com/54G5oCuBe3</a></p>— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1436897225871962113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>[/TWEET]

 

[untermensche]

This clown has been riding doing nothing special on 911 for 20 years.

He did nothing, saved nobody, cleared no rubble, inhaled no fumes.

He was mayor when NYC was attacked.

That is nothing to brag about.

 

[Swammerdami]

This article ("‘9/11 millionaires’ and mass corruption: How American money helped break Afghanistan") gives a different look at the tragedy in Afghanistan.

Over time, U.S. government contracts became the fuel for a system of mass corruption that engulfed the country and, eventually, doomed its fragile democracy.

“The ultimate point of failure for our efforts, you know, wasn’t an insurgency,” said Ryan Crocker, a two-time U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan in 2016. “It was the weight of endemic corruption.”
...
According to a Pentagon analysis, 40% of the $108 billion that the Defense Department paid to contractors in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2012 ended up in the hands of either the Taliban, the violent Islamist Haqqani terror network, organized crime rings, transnational drug traffickers or corrupt Afghan officials.

 

[Patooka]

You're advocating military action that provides only a minimal PR victory. When has that ever been a sound strategy?

It was a minimal military action. It was a drone strike, and we got two bad guys. I say that's a success.

I guess it was a good thing you were never in the military or an implementer of policy:

US admits deadly Kabul blast killing multiple civilians, 7 children 'was a tragic mistake'

A US drone strike in Kabul last month killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children, a senior US general says.

And that is my point. Simply deciding to do something as a response is the best way I can think of to make a shitty situation even worse. Fuck your ego, fuck your pride, fuck your self esteem. Wanting to immediately lash out because some brown people attacked US marines overseas is a fucking stupid strategy. It's also the best way I can think of to recruit brown people to further acts of extremism.

 

[Trausti]

Taliban in Bamyan Province

 

[untermensche]

Unless one is a crazed anti-Muslim xenophobe these pictures don't have much meaning.

Believe it or not the Taliban are just humans.

They are humans that are doing what many crazed US Christian fundamentalists would love to do, if they had the power to do it. Christian fundamentalists that say a women must obey her husband.

Right now crazed and deluded US Christians are trying to amass the power to send the government into the wombs of women and force women to keep unwanted pregnancies.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Didn’t know the Taliban was such a playful bunch. We should have just challenged them to a game of dodgeball.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Unless one is a crazed anti-Muslim xenophobe these pictures don't have much meaning.

Believe it or not the Taliban are just humans.

They are humans that are doing what many crazed US Christian fundamentalists would love to do, if they had the power to do it. Christian fundamentalists that say a women must obey her husband.

Right now crazed and deluded US Christians are trying to amass the power to send the government into the wombs of women and force women to keep unwanted pregnancies.

I'm not sure what you are saying here? Are you saying that we shouldn't mock crazy religious people acting looney?

 

[Jarhyn]

Unless one is a crazed anti-Muslim xenophobe these pictures don't have much meaning.

Believe it or not the Taliban are just humans.

They are humans that are doing what many crazed US Christian fundamentalists would love to do, if they had the power to do it. Christian fundamentalists that say a women must obey her husband.

Right now crazed and deluded US Christians are trying to amass the power to send the government into the wombs of women and force women to keep unwanted pregnancies.

I'm not sure what you are saying here? Are you saying that we shouldn't mock crazy religious people acting looney?

We are saying you are pointing at something that is a problem far away while pointedly avoiding discussing similar people doing the same thing domestically.

 

[funinspace]

Unless one is a crazed anti-Muslim xenophobe these pictures don't have much meaning.

Believe it or not the Taliban are just humans.

They are humans that are doing what many crazed US Christian fundamentalists would love to do, if they had the power to do it.

I'm not even sure what is crazy about it. These guys have been fighting a 20 year war under harsh conditions, and now own the keys to the magic kingdom. So they are checking and and playing with some of the stupid shit that US money helped pay for. Who gives a crap?

Besides, it probably is a faked photo taken in one of the desert SW US lakes , done by the deep state...

 

[TomC]

These guys have been fighting a 20 year war under harsh conditions,

And whether violent American people want to accept it or not, the Taliban was fighting for their home. Their culture. They were fighting a violent, nuclear tipped, superpower, with far more money than sense.
Tom