a m ole Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 Just now, OutByEaster? said: For naught?!? A number of funds and energy companies have made excellent profits. And the Taliban now have excellent military equipment donated by the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 Interesting little thread on South Korea's involvement in Afghanistan: One of my Korean friends when I lived there had actually spent some time in Afghanistan on deployment; he didn't really like to talk about it so I never knew much of what he did there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 15, 2021 Share Posted August 15, 2021 LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 (edited) 6 hours ago, a m ole said: And the Taliban now have excellent military equipment donated by the US. And a new ally in China. And the opium trade, nothing has flourished like the opium trade. Edited August 16, 2021 by sne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 8 hours ago, icouldtelltheworld said: Sorry to be dull but one more vote for this from me. This is potentially the largest foreign policy setback for the West in many decades and will surely generate a lot of discussion on here. It doesn't really seem apt for that discussion to take place on a thread initially started to discuss a set of uprisings in an entirely different region Come on @blandy unlock it, and merge the relevant posts from here into it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 The Pakistani government position: Reminder: The US persists in treating Pakistan as an ally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted August 16, 2021 Moderator Share Posted August 16, 2021 19 hours ago, chrisp65 said: I suspect some VT mods are deeply involved in UK Foreign Policy. We’ve drawn a line on a map and the world will have to fall in line. I looked at @Genie's request. There are >60 posts directly mentioning Afghanistan in this thread, dating back 10 years. We could move them. But then there's all the replies, which would mean manually reading 225 pages of posts picking which are relevant and which not. Then there's all the posts that discuss the middle east and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Western actions and politics... Sorry. It's not practical to unpick them all. it's easier for posters to just use the existing thread and not start new threads for things where a thread already exists. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, blandy said: I looked at @Genie's request. There are >60 posts directly mentioning Afghanistan in this thread, dating back 10 years. We could move them. But then there's all the replies, which would mean manually reading 225 pages of posts picking which are relevant and which not. Then there's all the posts that discuss the middle east and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Western actions and politics... Sorry. It's not practical to unpick them all. it's easier for posters to just use the existing thread and not start new threads for things where a thread already exists. Is a possible compromise changing the thread title to something like 'the Arab Spring and the War on Terror'? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 The only thing that can control the Taliban. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted August 16, 2021 Moderator Share Posted August 16, 2021 4 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: Is a possible compromise changing the thread title to something like 'the Arab Spring and the War on Terror'? But that's what it is called 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 1 hour ago, ml1dch said: The airport currently under US control. Several deaths being reported now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awol Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 32 minutes ago, Genie said: The airport currently under US control. Several deaths being reported now. From what I’ve read the Taliban accepted a large Financial inducement not to impede the US + int community evacuation. Having spent 20 years trying to get rid of us, it seems counterintuitive to try and keep us there now. For those with friends who jump out of planes, 2 Para are on the ground in Kabul to facilitate the UK part of Operation GTFO. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 12 hours ago, ml1dch said: What EU position? It's not an EU-level competence. Different counties across Europe will hold the positions they feel appropriate regarding refugees, for good or ill. What weird sources have told you otherwise? You're of course right that this isn't an EU-level competence. But we should look at what actual EU countries are doing, because we need to puncture any ideas that they may be behaving any more 'virtuously' than we are on this topic. Eg: Also worth noting that 7 EU countries - including Germany - were demanding the EU pressure the Afghan government to allow them to restart forced returns to Afghanistan *seven days ago*: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said: Is a possible compromise changing the thread title to something like 'the Arab Spring and the War on Terror'? probably safer what with @blandy track record 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: You're of course right that this isn't an EU-level competence. But we should look at what actual EU countries are doing, because we need to puncture any ideas that they may be behaving any more 'virtuously' than we are on this topic. Eg: Also worth noting that 7 EU countries - including Germany - were demanding the EU pressure the Afghan government to allow them to restart forced returns to Afghanistan *seven days ago*: The issue here is though, no one mentioned the EU here. I posted a tweet about the UK, and @colhint mentioned the EU as a means of deflecting any criticism towards the UK govt. It's worked clearly as now there's no discussion on the UK handling, and only discussion on the EU's handling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 2 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said: It's worked clearly as now there's no discussion on the UK handling, and only discussion on the EU's handling. We can talk about more than one thing at a time. I'm more than happy to talk about our own government's inhumane actions on this issue, and the hypocrisy of Tory MPs grandstanding about the 'immorality' of leaving the country while they have no intention of doing the one thing that would actually help some real Afghan people. But I'm also going to talk about the actions of other western countries too. Not going to apologise for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 1 hour ago, blandy said: I looked at @Genie's request. There are >60 posts directly mentioning Afghanistan in this thread, dating back 10 years. We could move them. But then there's all the replies, which would mean manually reading 225 pages of posts picking which are relevant and which not. Then there's all the posts that discuss the middle east and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Western actions and politics... Sorry. It's not practical to unpick them all. it's easier for posters to just use the existing thread and not start new threads for things where a thread already exists. It was less a comment on mod intransigence, more a comment on the UK not really even knowing where the place is after 200 years. Incidentally, do you think Raab will have a sneaky Sunday evening peek at his inbox the day before he gets back off his holidays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted August 16, 2021 Moderator Share Posted August 16, 2021 Just now, chrisp65 said: It was less a comment on mod intransigence, more a comment on the UK not really even knowing where the place is after 200 years. Incidentally, do you think Raab will have a sneaky Sunday evening peek at his inbox the day before he gets back off his holidays? Yeah, I got that - I just quoted your post as it was the most recent one with context as to why the other thread stayed out of bounds. I hadn't quite realised the significance of e mailed information 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 16, 2021 Share Posted August 16, 2021 (edited) 5 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: Incidentally, do you think Raab will have a sneaky Sunday evening peek at his inbox the day before he gets back off his holidays? Frantically Googling "what is Afghanistan and why does it matter" They seem to have no end of rugs. Why do they not simply use them to fly out of the country? Edited August 16, 2021 by Davkaus 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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