Afghan Conflict: Russian Political Leader Meets With Massoud

[Insaanistan]

As Massoud Works to Garner Support Among Neighbors, Russia Cautions NRF Against Actions That “May Lead to Civil War”

[Novus America]

-snip-

So much of international relations is just ‘too bad they can’t both lose.’

But both can loose here. It is not like IS-K has a reasonable path to governance or power there, let alone outside of Afghanistan.
When fighting a long term insurgent both sides can effectively loose, as long as neither side gives up, neither will win. And yet both will continually take casualties.

In many cases yes both sides loosing is not an option and you have to reluctantly pick the less bad one as a (hopefully temporary) ally of convenience (still should not be considered a friend) but that is not the case here.

Neither side in the IS-K/Taliban fight have anything to offer us, both are inherently hostile to us, and siding with either harms us.

[Novus America]

Imagine justifying ISIS to own it to the Talibs and Russians.

People here are not doing that though. Besides the fact that in terms of their actual beliefs they are not that different, both are very similar in terms of their brutality and extremism, the point is not to justify either. If there was justice, neither would exist. It is just pointing out we have no interest in helping our enemies, regardless of who their enemies are. The enemy of our enemy is still our enemy.

[The Two Jerseys]

Taliban bans use of foreign currency

Trillion afghani note when?

Also, I just learned that the name of the Afghan central bank is "Da Afghanistan Bank". I kid you not.

[Novus America]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.milita ... g.html/amp

It has been confirmed the failure of the air strike and the fact it killed only innocent civilians was due to a “rushed timeline”, confirming they were essentially killed for politics. The Biden administration felt it needed to show it was doing something to fight back after the disastrous mess of its Afghanistan withdrawal and the resulting suicide bombing and wanted an immediate response, despite lacking the intel needed to carry out such a quick response.

So innocent people died for an approval rating. It is just bad, and whoever in the administration forced the strike should be held accountable. But sadly will not be.

Innocent people die in war and mistakes happen. But there is no reason for this to have been so rushed with the exception of it was done for domestic political purposes.

[Spirit of Hope]

Reading the article it doesn't sound like it was politically pushed rushed timelines but rushed timelines because they though there was a VBIED about to attack the airport.

Probably they had some other intelligence about a potential VBIED and confirmation bias started kicking in along with wanting to make the strike before the attack occurred.

[Novus America]

Reading the article it doesn't sound like it was politically pushed rushed timelines but rushed timelines because they though there was a VBIED about to attack the airport.

Probably they had some other intelligence about a potential VBIED and confirmation bias started kicking in along with wanting to make the strike before the attack occurred.

“The Aug. 29 strike was a marked departure from that pattern, in that the strike occurred in the country's largest city with many journalists nearby covering the final U.S. evacuation.“

That alone is highly suspect, in the past strikes had generally not been carried out in that manner. It appears it certainly was for image as much as anything. It was not a routine strike done within the usual protocols.

Of course the fact that the withdrawal was done through the airport rather than the far more defendable Bagram as the military had wanted played a role, but the seems little reason such a strike was carried out so quickly after a speech saying there would be retaliation. It could very well be a bit of both, they got some poor intel and when they heard that they decided to use it for the basis of the strike.

Remember at the time the strike was explicitly stated to be retaliation for the airport attack. ““This strike was not the last,” Biden said in a statement. “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.”“
https://apnews.com/article/business-afg ... a611aed07c

If it was not a politically motivated strike, why was it advertised as such?
You cannot have it both ways, if one said it was a retaliation for the bombing at the airport when it was done, one cannot simply say it was not when it turns bad. They would have to be lying then or lying now.

At the time of the strike it was openly advertised as an immediate retaliation fir the suicidal bombing.
Which it probably was. Which is a big problem.

[Spirit of Hope]

I'm not disagreeing that it was a badly conducted strike, it was. The intelligence was flawed, the planets allowed themselves to fall into confirmation bias and rushed their decision.

What I am saying is that this strike wasn't targeting leadership, it was supposed to be targeting a VBIED that was thought to be about to strike the airport.

From what I have read the process was rushed because: The leadership had days previously been hit by a suicide attack, they had Intel that another attack was in the works and that it might include a VBIED. They then thought they figured out what vehicle was the VBIED and decided to strike it. Since they thought another attack was imminent they rushed the decision process and ended up killing innocent people and children. Another attack then did occur, but using rockets not a VBIED.

By necessity a strike against a VBIED in the city is going to happen in the city near the airport.

I think you are mixing up two different strikes. There was a different drone strike, that was targeted at ISIS-K leadership around the same time. That one wasn't in the city and did hit it's target. From what I remember that was the strike Biden was referencing in his speech.

[Insaanistan]

Russia: NRF “Preparing for War”

[HISPIDA]

Russia: NRF “Preparing for War”

any translations from what i assume to be arabic or urdu?

[The Jamesian Republic]

Russia: NRF “Preparing for War”

Soviet-Afghan War II?

[HISPIDA]

Russia: NRF “Preparing for War”

Soviet-Afghan War II?

absolutely fucking not. that is the last thing that russia wants when it comes to afghanistan

russia's probably egging on and funding the NRF because an NRF victory is the best outcome for russia

[Redeemed Britannia]

Russia: NRF “Preparing for War”

any translations from what i assume to be arabic or urdu?

Persian, and it literally translates to "Russia: The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, under leadership of Ahmad Masoud, is preparing to resume conflict with the Taliban"

[Soviet Socialist Kazakhstan]

See? Afghanistan was a lot better off under Soviet rule.

[Soviet Socialist Kazakhstan]

any translations from what i assume to be arabic or urdu?

Persian, and it literally translates to "Russia: The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, under leadership of Ahmad Masoud, is preparing to resume conflict with the Taliban"

Let the two religious fanatic militias wear each other down. Sooner or later, the Afghan people will rise up against both of them.

[Insaanistan]

Persian, and it literally translates to "Russia: The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, under leadership of Ahmad Masoud, is preparing to resume conflict with the Taliban"

Let the two religious fanatic militias wear each other down. Sooner or later, the Afghan people will rise up against both of them.

Uhhhh… your lack of knowledge of this conflict is demonstrated by the fact you think the NRF are “religious fanatics” and that the majority of Afghans don’t support them.

[Insaanistan]

See? Afghanistan was a lot better off under Soviet rule.

Soviet rule is what caused this.

[Fahran]

See? Afghanistan was a lot better off under Soviet rule.

It was better before the Soviets supported the local commies honestly. In fact, Soviet and Pakistani involvement did more than American involvement to permanently destabilize the country.

[Soviet Socialist Kazakhstan]

Let the two religious fanatic militias wear each other down. Sooner or later, the Afghan people will rise up against both of them.

Uhhhh… your lack of knowledge of this conflict is demonstrated by the fact you think the NRF are “religious fanatics” and that the majority of Afghans don’t support them.

Yeah, they're so popular with the Afghan people that they can't beat the Taliban without American aid.

[Soviet Socialist Kazakhstan]

See? Afghanistan was a lot better off under Soviet rule.

It was better before the Soviets supported the local commies honestly. In fact, Soviet and Pakistani involvement did more than American involvement to permanently destabilize the country.

No, it was fine before that stupid rogue faction forced the Soviets to invade, but even so, they gave Afghanistan many advances in science, education, land reform, and infrastructure. American aid just went straight to warlords like the NRF and in Karzai's pockets. American imperialism is allowed to continue only because Americans mostly don't feel any personal loss from such long wars due to a lack of conscription. They have no skin in the game of ending the imperialist wars of aggression.

[Fahran]

No, it was fine before that stupid rogue faction forced the Soviets to invade, but even so,

The rogue faction whose members had to flee to the Soviet Union to escape being purged by Mohammed Daoud Khan and who then conspired to assist in toppling him? And who then failed to effectively govern the country because they had absolutely no respect for religious faith or tradition in a very religious and traditional country? The last time Afghanistan was somewhat stable internally was when M. Daoud Khan was in charge, and even he wasn't as effective or as popular as the monarchy.

they gave Afghanistan many advances in science, education, land reform, and infrastructure.

Some sources indicate that literacy and women's rights actually improved more sharply under the American occupation than under the Soviet occupation. The American occupation was also far less bloody by almost every indication we have. That said, neither of these occupations was viable in the long-term because both lacked substantial local support. People do not like subjugation and occupation, whether it is old school colonial with administration and exploitation, neoliberal with women's rights and gay marriage, or communist with gulags and literacy.

Source

American aid just went straight to warlords like the NRF and in Karzai's pockets.

While a lot of money went down the drain, the US occupation saw substantial gains in education, literacy, and even, in some areas, standards of living. There was also a pretty steep fall in rates of sexual violence because the pack of rapists that was/is the Taliban were no longer in charge of the place.

American imperialism is allowed to continue only because Americans mostly don't feel any personal loss from such long wars due to a lack of conscription. They have no skin in the game of ending the imperialist wars of aggression.

This is actually accurate. It's also why we should never ban conscription. With that being said, what the Soviet Union did was absolutely imperialism by the metric you're using.

[New Tryphalia]

Afghanistan was a waste of time, blood, and treasure. Just let them fight it out in peace and everyone stay out of that damn place until they're so tired of fighting that they all agree to some weird, devolved federation of clans and tribes. Probably headed by a member of the old royal family. Symbolically at least. It's never gonna enter the 19th century, let alone the 21st.

[Insaanistan]

Uhhhh… your lack of knowledge of this conflict is demonstrated by the fact you think the NRF are “religious fanatics” and that the majority of Afghans don’t support them.

Yeah, they're so popular with the Afghan people that they can't beat the Taliban without American aid.

The NRF is just over 10,000 remnants of the Afghan army and other militias. War is not the fantasy Communist world where every person in sight takes up arms and defies all odds and establishes a Marxist utopia.

[Insaanistan]

“Voice of Resistance” News Channel Established

[Evil Wolf]

Yeah, they're so popular with the Afghan people that they can't beat the Taliban without American aid.

And the Taliban are so popular in Afghanistan that they hid in Pakistan for two decades, needed tens to hundreds of millions in Pakistani funding and equipment, and rely on a not insubstantial amount of foreign jihadists to do their training and fighting.

You seem to be confusing a game of "who can murder the local population into submission" with "popularity". The majority of the Afghan population seems legitimately terrified of the Taliban. The fact that the Taliban are super confused as to why people are fleeing Afghanistan and are now begging people not to leave doesn't really speak well of the Taliban's "popularity".