Afghanistan

[ootlg]

It was nevertheless one of the few retreats from Afghanistan which didn't leave the retreating army decimated.

[perrykneeham]

I ran into a former colleague today and he told me that he just started a project to support the spares and maintenance of all those Hummers and associated donut run vehicles that the Yanks gave in aid and which Johnny Talib is currently kicking the arse out of. Based in the Gulf.

[ootlg]

Who's paying?

[perrykneeham]

I got the impression that the Yanks were. It all sounded very odd, but the Yanks were certainly involved. A deal has been done. Somebody needs to maintain order and I guess they'll still need vehicles.

The alternative is to let other players in.

[ootlg]

US business supporting the Taliban? Why not? Except for the religious extremists I found the Afghans okay people.

[voice]

That's usually the case most places you go, avoid the religious nut jobs and even Alabama and Texas are full of nice people.

[wetkingcanute]

The Afghan people have/had a fantastic culture of poetry, story telling and literature.
A couple of my friends went on the Hippy trail to Afghanistan in 1969 and came back with wonderful stories.
And I learnt a lot more by reading The Return of a King by William Dalrymple - recommended by andy.

But as for the current situation I refer you to the first post of this thread.

[wetkingcanute]

John Simpson in Afghanistan: Watching the destruction of a nation?

Afghanistan's economy has collapsed and up to eight million people are facing starvation.

Almost six months after the Taliban took power, BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson returns to the country for BBC Panorama. Afghanistan’s new masters face international isolation for links to terrorism and years of human rights abuses. Now, however, there are growing questions over whether the West needs to change its approach to Afghanistan’s leaders to allow aid to reach its people.

Difficult decision do we prop up the Taliban to stop millions of people staving - and in doing so strengthen an appalling group or let everyone starve in the hope that the Taliban will fall apart?

[flatandy]

I often hear tales like WKC's of people who headed through Afghanistan during Hippy Trail times (and before then, in a couple of very good books - Robert Byron's The Road To Oxiana, and the spectacular A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush by Eric Newby) of how fantastic it was. But, I note, these authors were all men, and everyone I know who has the good reminiscences seem to be blokes.

There are some pieces that talk about how women were walking around in mini-skirts in Kabul back in the pre-Soviet-Invasion times, but you don't actually often hear women talking about how great it was.

Anyway, there's part of me now that thinks the Taleban will survive. That's because outside the big cities things were just as crappy and repressive during the US occupation as they were under the Taleban. Meanwhile the US is probably helping out the Taleban and they both want order on the ground more than anything, alongside the crushing of more extremist and militant groups like the various IS offshoots.

[mids]

I blame Biden. It was a paradise under Trump. A paradise.

[voice]

One of my best mates from growing up is Pashtun, spent a lot of time with him and his brothers and wider family, all nice blokes, but they have a level of misogamy that's just deep and ingrained, the mothers never left the house and the sisters were on a very tight leash.

[mids]

Didn't get to shag any of them then?

[voice]

I liked living dangerously in my younger days, but not that much.

Though I did shag the sister of another mate who's family are Sikh, probably just as dangerous had they found out, those feckers had swords.

[wetkingcanute]

and knives in their socks

[mids]

And that's just the women.

[ootlg]

Feb 8, 2022 18:09:29 GMT flatandy said:

I often hear tales like WKC's of people who headed through Afghanistan during Hippy Trail times (and before then, in a couple of very good books - Robert Byron's The Road To Oxiana, and the spectacular A Short Walk In The Hindu Kush by Eric Newby) of how fantastic it was. But, I note, these authors were all men, and everyone I know who has the good reminiscences seem to be blokes.

There are some pieces that talk about how women were walking around in mini-skirts in Kabul back in the pre-Soviet-Invasion times, but you don't actually often hear women talking about how great it was.

Anyway, there's part of me now that thinks the Taleban will survive. That's because outside the big cities things were just as crappy and repressive during the US occupation as they were under the Taleban. Meanwhile the US is probably helping out the Taleban and they both want order on the ground more than anything, alongside the crushing of more extremist and militant groups like the various IS offshoots.

Two excellent books. When I as out there I met loads of birds doing the overland trip and as you say, some had some difficult times with (mainly Muslim) men. Rape wasn't that unusual. So they usually travelled in groups or with blokes - although I knew of one bloke who'd been raped. A lot depended on your attitude; some people seem to be victims. Afghan girls in Kabul wore knee-length skirts, not mini-skirts, but were mainly students at Kabul uni, but outside the city it was medieval. The reigning king, Zahir Shah, was a good leader, forward thinking and liberal but he was deposed in '73 and then the troubles began. But great days for young overlanders - I have to add probably the best days of my life. Sad how it's all gone.

[rick49]

Commander in charge of Kabul evacuation: White House and Jill Biden were 'distractions' during chaotic time

hotair.com/karen-townsend/2022/02/11/commander-in-charge-of-kabul-evacuation-white-house-and-jill-biden-were-distractions-during-chaotic-time-n447881

[perrykneeham]

IS are up to monkey business in Afghanistan, I see.

www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/islamic-state-khorasan-province-expands-attacks-beyond-afghanistan

I wonder where Pakistan's intelligence service is in all this?

[ootlg]

Sitting back, watching, encouraging, discouraging, using them as proxy forces to destabilise the neighbors and over-extend themselves.

[voice]

1000 dead in earthquake

Not having much luck are they

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61890804