Afghanistan Falls

[Innula Zenovka]

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[Innula Zenovka]

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[Free]

Let's not forget the Republicans! (We know the media won't pass up a chance to let them get their 2,000 cents in.)

Republicans split on strategy to make Biden pay a political price for Afghanistan

The GOP is divided over how hard -- and how quickly -- to go after President Joe Biden in the wake of Thursday's deadly attack on US troops at the Kabul airport.

edition.cnn.com

While a growing chorus of rank-and-file Republicans have called for Biden's resignation or impeachment over the administration's disastrous exit from Afghanistan, key leaders and others in the party have struck a more measured tone for the moment.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy even pushed back against some of his members during a private conference call Thursday night, suggesting that the demands for Biden's immediate ouster are counterproductive and saying the focus right now needs to be on getting Americans out of Afghanistan safely. But he also promised to pressure the administration.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I'm interested that people disagree with (presumably) the FT's assessment of the US's exit -- while most of the ire in the British media, left and right, has rightly been directed at our own government, notably Johnson and his hopeless Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (possibly his main qualification is to make Johnson look a bit better by comparison, both as his predecessor and his boss), everyone seems to agree that the US operation went badly wrong, not least because they didn't consult the other NATO allies on the ground, and I think that view is pretty generally shared elsewhere.

What am I missing?

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Stop Blaming Biden for Afghanistan. He's Cleaning Up Trump's Mess.

The Trump Administration led us straight into this mess and President Biden is doing everything he can to get us out of it.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

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[Innula Zenovka]

'I'm like a prisoner': Life in a Taliban city

People in Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, explain how life has changed in recent weeks.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Revealed: Foreign Office ignored frantic pleas to help Afghans

Thousands of urgent messages from MPs and charities had not been read by the end of the UK evacuation from Afghanistan

www.theguardian.com

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A whistleblower with access to the Foreign Office email accounts in question said most cases covered more than one person, meaning ministers could have no clear idea of the real numbers left behind. “It’s not just that MPs weren’t getting replies – their emails weren’t being read,” said the source. “The inbox currently has a 5,000-email backlog. It’s not that they are the emails which haven’t been actioned. It’s not even that they are emails which haven’t been processed and put into a spreadsheet. It’s that no one has actually opened the email.

 

[Romana]

Let's not forget the Republicans! (We know the media won't pass up a chance to let them get their 2,000 cents in.)

Republicans split on strategy to make Biden pay a political price for Afghanistan

The GOP is divided over how hard -- and how quickly -- to go after President Joe Biden in the wake of Thursday's deadly attack on US troops at the Kabul airport.

edition.cnn.com

One wonders what Qevin McQarthy would have said if TFG had followed through on this plan, which was his, and made a real mess of it.
Maybe on some level he knitwear this, and doesn't want it stressed.

 

[Ellie]

Afghan folk singer shot dead in his village

This is horrific & saddening news. I hope it is not a taste of what's to come for the Afgan people. Some commentators are saying the Tb are not in full control of their units & especially what its members do, especially in areas far distant from the capital city.

 

[danielravennest]

Afghan folk singer shot dead in his village

This is horrific & saddening news. I hope it is not a taste of what's to come for the Afgan people. Some commentators are saying the Tb are not in full control of their units & especially what its members do, especially in areas far distant from the capital city.

This is a given. Afghanistan is more a bunch of tribes and regional warlords than a unified country.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

This is a given. Afghanistan is more a bunch of tribes and regional warlords than a unified country.

And the Taliban aren't particularly unified, either -- they're more a bunch of local militias, all with a broadly similar ultra-conservative social views (think of the US equivalents) than an organised rebel army.

They've now got a country to run and, it seems gravely likely, there's a humanitarian disaster waiting to unfold as so many of the people who made the infrastructure work, if they haven't already left, are trying to escape elsewhere, or are in hiding, fearing for their lives.

 

[Romana]

Chachi joins in...and gets told to take several seats....

 

[Kalel]

Last US planes leave Kabul airport, ending Afghanistan war

The last American evacuation flights left Kabul’s international airport Monday, ending the longest US war weeks shy of its 20th anniversary — but with hundreds of American citizens …

nypost.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Left behind in Afghanistan: If I can’t get out, I’ll die

An Afghan who had authorisation to fly to the UK speaks to the BBC about his struggle to escape.

www.bbc.co.uk

I'm currently in hell right now.
In the past two weeks I've moved to 15 safe houses with my family because the Taliban are trying to find me.
Nowadays when there's a knock on the door, it's the first thing that enters my mind.
My heart stops beating because I think "Is this the Taliban? Have they found me and my family?"
It's not just me, it's hundreds of people who've worked for the government, the media, NGOs, human rights defenders - everyone is currently hiding in different places waiting to see when their turn will come.
I am one of those they're looking to detain and to kill.

 

[Ranma Tardis]

Yet in the end the Afgan people surrendered to the Taliban. They expected the USA to fight for them. We fought for 20 years for them but it was not enough. There was nothing for us to do but continue to fight for them or leave.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

'Ten people died here.. including my daughter'

A family comb through rubble for remains of relatives they say were killed by a US drone strike.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Questions Raab needs to address as he faces MPs over Afghanistan

Embattled foreign secretary will appear before a Commons select committee on Wednesday

www.theguardian.com

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