Afghanistan Falls

Bartholomew Gallacher · Nov 22, 2021

Essence Lumin said:
Attack us with what? ICBMs? Sailing over and shooting? Also, culpability?

Have a look at Israel: probably suicide attacks at chosen, iconic locations for that purpose where nobody would expect this to happen. And thanks to the farmers association of Wisconsin in the 60s it's easy to make your home grown, highly effective and also safe explosive just by using fertilizer and diesel fuel. The recipe for that was back then published in their monthly magazine, they used it to blow up duck ponds. The IRA was delighted when the got their hold on that recipe back then. What happened in Northern Ireland could also happen in the USA.

Now let's just imagine some sleepers in the USA, preferably disguised as farmers, building a nice pickup truck filled with that and detonating it at a busy Walmart. This would be enough to create some major ripples of terror throughout the nation. When these people are talking about attack, normally they do mean terror. And it's easy enough to keep your tracks low in America while getting access to unregulated stuff to create some highly effective explosives on your own.

Veritable Quandry · Nov 22, 2021

A rental truck full was what they used for the Oklahoma City bombing. It's harder to get large quantities of fertilizer since then but not impossible.

Innula Zenovka · Nov 22, 2021

Aid agencies urge West and UN to save Afghanistan amid refugee crisis

Aid agencies are demanding emergency intervention by the United Nations in the crisis in Afghanistan amid fears a new flood of refugees will try to cross into I

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Innula Zenovka · Nov 24, 2021

Yalda Hakim: My return to Afghanistan

The BBC's Yalda Hakim - who was born in Afghanistan - reports on the impact of 100 days of Taliban rule.

www.bbc.co.uk

From healthcare workers in Kandahar to cleaners at Kabul hospitals, none of Afghanistan's public healthcare staff have been paid since the government fell and foreign aid came to a halt.

Despite everything, they still turn up for work, caring for an increasingly desperate population as they themselves slip closer to the brink.

Nasreen works as a cleaner at the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in the capital, Kabul.

"If we don't come to work, these babies will die, how can we abandon them?" she tells me.

The ward needs to be as clean as possible to ensure the patients, most of them weak and severely malnourished, don't get any infections.

Nasreen says she can't afford transport, so she walks to work, a gruelling commute, down the side of one of the many mountains - trekking back up again after a 12 hour shift.

However dire the plight of the healthcare workers is, the patients they care for are in a far worse position.

Innula Zenovka · Dec 2, 2021

‘It’s like hell in here’: The struggle to save Afghanistan's starving babies

Doctors in Afghanistan’s crisis-hit hospitals are caring for their patients in almost impossible conditions.

www.bbc.co.uk

Innula Zenovka · Dec 7, 2021

Whistleblower condemns Foreign Office over Kabul evacuation

Ex-diplomat claims string of failings within department led to ‘people being left to die at the hands of the Taliban’

www.theguardian.com

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Top civil servant stayed on holiday while Taliban seized Afghan capital | ITV News

The Foreign Office's permanent-under secretary spoke about going on holiday days before Kabul fell and his decision to stay on holiday as the Taliban took over. | ITV National News

www.itv.com

Innula Zenovka · Dec 7, 2021

Letter suggests ‘cover-up’ of PM’s involvement in Afghan dog airlift, says MP

Chris Bryant reveals Pen Farthing was sent a letter from Boris Johnson’s PPS confirming evacuation

www.theguardian.com

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Innula Zenovka · Dec 7, 2021

Afghanistan: Girls' despair as Taliban confirm secondary school ban

The BBC hears about the ban's harmful impact from teachers and students in 13 Afghan provinces.

www.bbc.co.uk

Innula Zenovka · Dec 8, 2021

Hundreds approved for evacuation to UK remain trapped in Afghanistan

British nationals and vulnerable Afghans stuck without help months after Taliban takeover

www.theguardian.com

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Innula Zenovka · Dec 11, 2021

Fresh evidence on UK’s botched Afghan withdrawal backs whistleblower’s story

MPs’ inquiry given further details of Britain’s mismanagement of Afghanistan exit with ‘people left to die at the hands of the Taliban’

www.theguardian.com

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Tugendhat said that he wanted to wait for a final report on the crisis before concluding where the responsibility for any failings should fall. However, he said that it was a “whole government” failure, with the Foreign Office, Home Office and Ministry of Defence all involved in the operation. He said the failure had seen allies in Afghanistan abandoned.

Innula Zenovka · Dec 12, 2021

Fears grow that Home Office has lost will to resettle Afghans under threat

Thousands are still at the Taliban’s mercy in Afghanistan, and expert warns that ‘politically expedient’ initiative may now wither

www.theguardian.com

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“It’s a tried and tested technique. You announce something, you look good. Then somehow circumstances prevent you from actually achieving your targets,” said Thomson, who is also a former UK ambassador to Pakistan and Nato.

Since the announcement of the resettlement scheme on 18 August more than 100 days have passed with no apparent tangible progress. Its website has not been updated since 13 September and confirms the programme “is not yet open”.

Innula Zenovka · Dec 15, 2021

UK charities launch appeal to help eight million Afghans at risk of starvation

There is a ‘very small window of opportunity’ to intervene, say aid workers, as poverty, conflict, drought and a freeze in humanitarian funding bring Afghanistan to the brink

www.theguardian.com

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A combination of conflict, economic collapse, drought and the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the country to a tipping point, according to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the umbrella group of 15 aid agencies behind the appeal.

Fiona McSheehy, director of humanitarian operations for Save the Children UK, said: “There’s a very small window of opportunity for us to support the population of Afghanistan. The situation is very bad at the moment. Winter is coming very quickly now.

“I’ve witnessed emergencies around the world, and I can honestly say this is the worst situation I have seen.”

The launch of the appeal on Wednesday comes as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) predicted that near universal poverty will take hold in Afghanistan next year, with 97% of the population at risk of living below the poverty line.

I don't know if there are comparable appeals elsewhere but I've donated at

Disasters Emergency Committee

Conflict in the Middle East has devastated lives. Millions of people in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria urgently need shelter, food and basic supplies. Save lives. Donate now.

www.dec.org.uk

and would urge anyone who can afford it (which not everyone can, of course) to help if they can.

Vicki Aken, country director of the IRC in Afghanistan, said girls as young as six were being sold into early marriage as it meant one less mouth to feed. “The World Food Programme estimates that the average labourer gets roughly one day of work a week, not even close to being enough to feed a family, which is why we are seeing negative coping mechanisms, such as girls as young as six or seven years old being sold into early marriage just to keep the rest of the family alive,” she said.

“When I arrived in Afghanistan in 2017, the number of people living in poverty was about 50%. It is now at 97%.”

Innula Zenovka · Dec 15, 2021

On the front line as Afghan children battle malnutrition and measles

The BBC reports from a hospital in remote Ghor province which is struggling to cope.

www.bbc.co.uk

Arkady Arkright · Dec 16, 2021

Innula Zenovka said:
On the front line as Afghan children battle malnutrition and measles

The BBC reports from a hospital in remote Ghor province which is struggling to cope.

www.bbc.co.uk