Afghan Conflict: Iran, Taliban Clashes Appear to Subside

[Kubra]

> Invade
> Raze villages
> Install a self-serving kleptocracy
> Harm the average Afghan
> Revive the Taliban
> Leave

A whole lot of wrong in those claims.

America revived the Taliban? How? America raised villages? Is the USA the USSR now? Yes, Afghans died in the war, but America wasn't "razing villages", Mỹ Lai style, and there is no evidence to support your wild fantasy. As for harming the average Afghan, I seem to recall Afghanistan suffering horrifically under the hands of quasi-religious fanatics who ruled as despots. It is unfortunate that those same despots could not have been defeated, but you can't say that America didn't at least try for 20 years.

You might want to do a quick fact check next time you want to make things up.

It "revived the taliban" by bungling its (re)construction efforts royally in ways that even folks in the midst of it knew were quite dumb. Officially speaking, I'm trying to get fit enough to run a marathon. Practically speaking, I'm demolishing a six pack a plate of spring rolls.

[The Land of the Ephyral]

I wonder how long the stance of doing no business with the Taliban-led Emirate will last. Because it's an easy position to take in the short-term when you're trying to make a political statement, but when you consider the long-term reality and the very real potential that the internationally recognised government of Afghanistan may never retake power without a second invasion to try and restore them, one has to wonder how long this policy will be desirable or strategically pragmatic. Whilst legitimacy is an important political concept, if hypothetically 50-100 years from now the Taliban or a derivative of them are still ruling in Afghanistan, the rest of the world closing their eyes and putting their fingers in their ears to this would increasingly just look like pettiness rather than a principled moral stance.

It just occurs to me that, as with the actual exit with Afghanistan, the subsequent position taken against the Islamic Emirate has not been extensively well thought-out, and generally rushed to score political points with demographics that don't want to see them recognised.

[Insaanistan]

"Liberation Front of Afghanistan" created.

For a recap, there is currently:

ISKP
NRF
Andarab Resistance Front
Supreme Council of National Resistance
Lost Soldiers of the Hazarajat

and probably some more groups that I forgot about.

ISKP is… well, ISIS.

NRF is the main non-terrorist resistance front.
Andarab Resistance Front is basically a branch of the NRF.
Supreme Council of National Resistance is legitimately f*cking useless and made up of all the cowards the left.
Lost soldier of Hazarajat are NRF allied/affiliated afair.
Liberation Front of Afghanistan seems to have stated they’re not part of the NRF, I haven’t seen anything definitively saying they’re not allied with them at all.

[Nociav]

NRF is the main non-terrorist resistance front.

Terrorism - the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

Supreme Council of National Resistance is legitimately f*cking useless and made up of all the cowards the left.

So Massoud and Saleh are running that joint too?

[A White Africa]

I wonder how long the stance of doing no business with the Taliban-led Emirate will last. Because it's an easy position to take in the short-term when you're trying to make a political statement, but when you consider the long-term reality and the very real potential that the internationally recognised government of Afghanistan may never retake power without a second invasion to try and restore them, one has to wonder how long this policy will be desirable or strategically pragmatic. Whilst legitimacy is an important political concept, if hypothetically 50-100 years from now the Taliban or a derivative of them are still ruling in Afghanistan, the rest of the world closing their eyes and putting their fingers in their ears to this would increasingly just look like pettiness rather than a principled moral stance.

It just occurs to me that, as with the actual exit with Afghanistan, the subsequent position taken against the Islamic Emirate has not been extensively well thought-out, and generally rushed to score political points with demographics that don't want to see them recognised.

The elephant in the room is whether Afghanistan will stay together as one country. Even if the Taliban become recognized, the world isn't ever going to pump the same amount of aid into their emirate as they did the old republic. Even if they can go full BRI with China, it will be a long way off until they reap tangible development.

Without oodles of cash or infrastructure obtained in the medium term, it'll be a binary between Pakistan's situation with separatists & jihadists fighting a strong state, or former Yugoslavia's with Farsi-speaking Taliban having enough of playing second fiddle and even opening up to alternative official ideologies. There's no former Czechoslovakia or Soviet Union route here.

The plain fact is that Afghanistan is not a nation-state, but a state-nation. Either the Taliban will carry out a steady transformation of it into a Pashtun community under Deobandi law, with the successful subordination of all other identities, or this recent two decade jubilee has let too many imaginations crop up for an age of social media.

[Nociav]

The plain fact is that Afghanistan is not a nation-state, but a state-nation. Either the Taliban will carry out a steady transformation of it into a Pashtun community under Deobandi law, with the successful subordination of all other identities, or this recent two decade jubilee has let too many imaginations crop up for an age of social media.

Afghanistan is a nation-state. Afghans have a sense of national identity revolving around Islam and resistance to foreign occupation. I really wish people would stop buying into the idea that Afghans don't believe in a united Afghanistan. Four decades of civil war still hasn't made separatism a popular phenomenon.

[Nociav]

US troops confirmed to have fired at civilians after Kabul Airport suicide bombing.

Another war crime to add the the list.

[Picairn]

US troops confirmed to have fired at civilians after Kabul Airport suicide bombing.

Another war crime to add the the list.

I've read the whole thing and I don't see any decisive confirmation that US troops fired into civilians.

[Nociav]

US troops confirmed to have fired at civilians after Kabul Airport suicide bombing.

Another war crime to add the the list.

I've read the whole thing and I don't see any decisive confirmation that US troops fired into civilians.

ProPublica and Alive in Afghanistan spoke to six doctors from three different Kabul hospitals about their experience treating civilians in the aftermath of the attack. The doctors remained convinced that they saw wounds from bullets, not only ball bearings. All said they had the experience necessary to make the distinction, having responded to numerous terrorist attacks and firefights in their medical careers.

And it goes further in-depth from that point onwards.

[Picairn]

ProPublica and Alive in Afghanistan spoke to six doctors from three different Kabul hospitals about their experience treating civilians in the aftermath of the attack. The doctors remained convinced that they saw wounds from bullets, not only ball bearings. All said they had the experience necessary to make the distinction, having responded to numerous terrorist attacks and firefights in their medical careers.

And it goes further in-depth from that point onwards.

Several paragraphs below:

In the interview, Amiri repeatedly cautioned that he did not conduct a forensic examination and said he was not interested at the time in determining a cause of death.

Pentagon officials dismissed doctors’ external assessments of wounds as scientifically inconclusive. Only an autopsy “could produce definitive results,” said Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command.

Urban also said the ball bearings used in the bombing were almost the same size as bullets used by American troops, adding to the potential for confusion.

Dr. David King, a trauma and combat surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Trauma Center, treated victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, in which terrorists used improvised explosive devices loaded with ball bearings and nails. In an interview, he told Alive in Afghanistan and ProPublica that it was very difficult to distinguish wounds from gunshots versus ball bearings.

“As a generalization, I would say that with a high degree of confidence, looking at the hole alone, you largely, generally cannot tell the difference,” he said.

So not confirmed until we see an autopsy.

EDIT: A relevant study on the difficulty to differentiate between blast injuries and gunshot wounds:

Secondary blast injuries are characterised by penetrating trauma associated with materials added to explosive systems that are propelled by explosive air movement. These injuries are caused most often by small, shrapnel-like metallic objects, such as nails and bolts. Propulsion causes ballistic-type injuries that must be recognised and distinguished from those caused by firearm projectiles. Differentiating between these lesions is very difficult when using conventional criteria (size, shape, number and distribution on the body) with only external examination of corpses. This is why the particularities of these lesions must be further illustrated and then confirmed by complete autopsies and radiological and anatomopathological examinations.

[Nociav]

And it goes further in-depth from that point onwards.

Several paragraphs below:

In the interview, Amiri repeatedly cautioned that he did not conduct a forensic examination and said he was not interested at the time in determining a cause of death.

Pentagon officials dismissed doctors’ external assessments of wounds as scientifically inconclusive. Only an autopsy “could produce definitive results,” said Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command.

Urban also said the ball bearings used in the bombing were almost the same size as bullets used by American troops, adding to the potential for confusion.

Dr. David King, a trauma and combat surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Trauma Center, treated victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, in which terrorists used improvised explosive devices loaded with ball bearings and nails. In an interview, he told Alive in Afghanistan and ProPublica that it was very difficult to distinguish wounds from gunshots versus ball bearings.

“As a generalization, I would say that with a high degree of confidence, looking at the hole alone, you largely, generally cannot tell the difference,” he said.

So not confirmed until we see an autopsy.

EDIT: A relevant study on the difficulty to differentiate between blast injuries and gunshot wounds:

Secondary blast injuries are characterised by penetrating trauma associated with materials added to explosive systems that are propelled by explosive air movement. These injuries are caused most often by small, shrapnel-like metallic objects, such as nails and bolts. Propulsion causes ballistic-type injuries that must be recognised and distinguished from those caused by firearm projectiles. Differentiating between these lesions is very difficult when using conventional criteria (size, shape, number and distribution on the body) with only external examination of corpses. This is why the particularities of these lesions must be further illustrated and then confirmed by complete autopsies and radiological and anatomopathological examinations.

The Afghan doctors are convinced they treated gun shot wounds, not shrapnel. A senior surgeon put it clearly:

“We had patients with bullet injury in this attack, it’s clear,” he said. Aref said that the distinction between ball bearing and bullet wounds is clear to him after witnessing multiple similar mass casualty events in Kabul. “My proof is my experience.”

An Italian hospital also agrees with its Afghan counterparts that they treated gunshot wounds:

Doctors with Emergency Surgical Centre, a well-regarded, Italian-run facility in Kabul that specializes in the treatment of war victims, said they received 10 people with fatal injuries from gunfire.

An Israeli expert agrees that the doctors would be able to distinguish gun wounds from shrapnel:

Michael Cardash, a former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division, has examined bomb attacks for more than 30 years. In an interview, he said that some experienced war zone doctors can distinguish such wounds on sight.

“If he’s a doctor in Kabul, he has probably seen gunshot wounds before,” he said. “I would say, if he is an experienced doctor, he probably knows what he is talking about.”

These are people with real experience in these fields who are sure they treated gunshot wounds.

The Pentagon's highly polished report, where they (as usual) "investigated" and cleared themselves of all blame, can be dismissed since the Pentagon has a 20-year history of cover-ups and fabrications when it comes to Afghanistan. As things stand, it's entirely reasonable to put the blame on the US.

[Picairn]

-snip-

Yes, I already knew which part you'll take out and present to me with no critical review. None of the six doctors in question found a bullet. One admitted he did not conduct a forensic examination nor an autopsy. Blast experts interviewed by ProPublica said the wounds caused by blast and gunshot can be incredibly similar on the outside. Dr. David King has stated that external examination of wounds generally can not tell the difference. Lastly, I'll defer to the judgement of Delannoy et al. (2020) on the issue of differentiation.

These, too, are all people with experience and knowledge, especially in the case of Delannoy and co. who examined the clinical findings of "68 autopsies, 83 external examinations, 140 standard radiographic examinations, and 49 computed tomography (CT) scans".

[Nociav]

-snip-

Yes, I already knew which part you'll take out and present to me with no critical review. None of the six doctors in question found a bullet. One admitted he did not conduct a forensic examination nor an autopsy. Blast experts interviewed by ProPublica said the wounds caused by blast and gunshot can be incredibly similar on the outside. Dr. David King has stated that external examination of wounds generally can not tell the difference. Lastly, I'll defer to the judgement of Delannoy et al. (2020) on the issue of differentiation.

These, too, are all people with experience and knowledge, especially in the case of Delannoy and co. who examined the clinical findings of "68 autopsies, 83 external examinations, 140 standard radiographic examinations, and 49 computed tomography (CT) scans".

Hmm. You've convinced me that there isn't enough evidence.

[Picairn]

Hmm. You've convinced me that there isn't enough evidence.

I'll admit I'm wrong and eat my own words if an official autopsy declared these were gunshot wounds.

[Insaanistan]

NRF Kills 8 Talibs as it & Other Resistance Groups Spread; Survey Reveals 94% of Afghans Believe They are Suffering, 53% Now Want to Leave Afghanistan Forever, & for the 1st Time Ever, Most Afghan Men (60%) Believe Women Are Being Disrespected & Mistreated by the Govt

[Insaanistan]

As Taliban Prepare to Assault Panjshir Again, Ali Maysam Nazary Claims NRF Will Continue to Fight “Until the Whole of the Country is Freed”; Political Experts warn Taliban-NRF & Taliban-DAESH Clashes Will Only Intensify as Warm Weather Begins Returning

[Insaanistan]

”For Weeks, Convoys Have Been Entering Panjshir”: Taliban Send Hundreds of Suicide Bombers to Panjshir & Baghlan in Preparation to Fight NRF as Spring Draws Nearer

[A White Africa]

Afghanistan is a nation-state. Afghans have a sense of national identity revolving around Islam and resistance to foreign occupation. I really wish people would stop buying into the idea that Afghans don't believe in a united Afghanistan. Four decades of civil war still hasn't made separatism a popular phenomenon.

Which is a negative identity which works as long as you have non-Muslim intruders at a given moment. Take that away, and what's left?

Are the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa part of Afghanistan, or do Pakistan's borders represent more than the old boundaries of the British Empire? Emirate hasn't settled that question in writing.

Is it better to take money from the ISI than the CIA, or are both foreign opportunists exploiting Afghan divisions?

Does an Afghan sharia borrow from Shi'a jurisprudence as well as Sunni? If not, shall the Hazaras and Baghlan Ismailis live autonomously under their own sharia? If not, what makes them Afghan other than living under the state's boot?

Is everybody to be raised bilingual in Pashto and Farsi? Are they to be raised in just whatever the language of their community is? Are Khorasanis to learn Pashto whereas Pashtuns have no need to learn Farsi?

Is the Salafism of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan a valid alternative to Deobandism? 'Cause the former two are where ISKP is growing and Nuristan won't be far off. Or the moderation of the few people in Wakhan, who are fine with selling & drinking vodka from Tajikistan, but still bow to Mecca?

Nobody can cobble/Kabul (lol) together a positive identity with depth without reference to infidels and foreigners. Makes sense for a state which was basically just the Durranis scooping up the empty space on the map between Persia, Russia and the Raj.

[Nociav]

Afghanistan is a nation-state. Afghans have a sense of national identity revolving around Islam and resistance to foreign occupation. I really wish people would stop buying into the idea that Afghans don't believe in a united Afghanistan. Four decades of civil war still hasn't made separatism a popular phenomenon.

Which is a negative identity which works as long as you have non-Muslim intruders at a given moment. Take that away, and what's left?

Are the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa part of Afghanistan, or do Pakistan's borders represent more than the old boundaries of the British Empire? Emirate hasn't settled that question in writing.

Is it better to take money from the ISI than the CIA, or are both foreign opportunists exploiting Afghan divisions?

Does an Afghan sharia borrow from Shi'a jurisprudence as well as Sunni? If not, shall the Hazaras and Baghlan Ismailis live autonomously under their own sharia? If not, what makes them Afghan other than living under the state's boot?

Is everybody to be raised bilingual in Pashto and Farsi? Are they to be raised in just whatever the language of their community is? Are Khorasanis to learn Pashto whereas Pashtuns have no need to learn Farsi?

Is the Salafism of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan a valid alternative to Deobandism? 'Cause the former two are where ISKP is growing and Nuristan won't be far off. Or the moderation of the few people in Wakhan, who are fine with selling & drinking vodka from Tajikistan, but still bow to Mecca?

Nobody can cobble/Kabul (lol) together a positive identity with depth without reference to infidels and foreigners. Makes sense for a state which was basically just the Durranis scooping up the empty space on the map between Persia, Russia and the Raj.

With the sheer range of questions your asking, some of which are loaded or have next to nothing to do with the Afghan national identity, I have no clue what your trying to say. You seem to implicitly admit that there is a national identity in your final paragraph which only adds to my confusion. What is it your trying to say?

[Insaanistan]

”For Weeks, Convoys Have Been Entering Panjshir”: Taliban Send Hundreds of Suicide Bombers to Panjshir & Baghlan in Preparation to Fight NRF as Spring Draws Nearer

This like, the 2nd or 3rd time that I’ve seen the Taliban sending suicide bombers to deal with the resistance.
Like, they do have soldiers who are trained to kill without purposely killing themselves in the process, right?

[Rusozak]

”For Weeks, Convoys Have Been Entering Panjshir”: Taliban Send Hundreds of Suicide Bombers to Panjshir & Baghlan in Preparation to Fight NRF as Spring Draws Nearer

This like, the 2nd or 3rd time that I’ve seen the Taliban sending suicide bombers to deal with the resistance.
Like, they do have soldiers who are trained to kill without purposely killing themselves in the process, right?

From my examination of the Taliban's composition they have very few, if any, professional soldiers. Just militia and thugs with AKs. And they don't really have drones or air power to conduct remote bombings.

[Kubra]

”For Weeks, Convoys Have Been Entering Panjshir”: Taliban Send Hundreds of Suicide Bombers to Panjshir & Baghlan in Preparation to Fight NRF as Spring Draws Nearer

This like, the 2nd or 3rd time that I’ve seen the Taliban sending suicide bombers to deal with the resistance.
Like, they do have soldiers who are trained to kill without purposely killing themselves in the process, right?

suicide bombers have a really favourable cost to benefit ratio.

[Nociav]

”For Weeks, Convoys Have Been Entering Panjshir”: Taliban Send Hundreds of Suicide Bombers to Panjshir & Baghlan in Preparation to Fight NRF as Spring Draws Nearer

This like, the 2nd or 3rd time that I’ve seen the Taliban sending suicide bombers to deal with the resistance.
Like, they do have soldiers who are trained to kill without purposely killing themselves in the process, right?

This also like 2nd of 3rd time I've seen unreliable sources report things Afghan Sources haven't. As usual, Pajhwok and the rest of the independent Afghan media seem to have missed reports that foreign media somehow has exclusive access to.

You really need to fact check. It's almost as if your deliberately spreading news that comes from questionable sources. Almost.

[Insaanistan]

This like, the 2nd or 3rd time that I’ve seen the Taliban sending suicide bombers to deal with the resistance.
Like, they do have soldiers who are trained to kill without purposely killing themselves in the process, right?

This also like 2nd of 3rd time I've seen unreliable sources report things Afghan Sources haven't. As usual, Pajhwok and the rest of the independent Afghan media seem to have missed reports that foreign media somehow has exclusive access to.

You really need to fact check. It's almost as if your deliberately spreading news that comes from questionable sources. Almost.

If I was deliberately spreading news from questionable sources, I’d be using Pro-NRF YouTube channels, like this one:

https://youtu.be/PG9M1HJNR20

The news I’ve been citing largely comes from Sputnik, Aamaj News, the Independent (Persian language site), Iranian Students News Agency, and sometimes times TRT, Republic World, DW & BBC (Persian language site).

I’m not gonna cite news that’s not credible because I frankly don’t a give two 2 Fs about what “Sounds good”. It doesn’t help the NRF when people do that, because we’re not in Pants on Fire, where my lies magically come to truth (even then, his lies weren’t actually coming true, his sister was playing a prank on him to teach him a lesson about his pathological lying).

What we are in is in the real world, where multiple news sources have reported the Taliban are preparing to assault Panjshir again, where it’s known fighting picks up again in Afghanistan as winter comes to an end, where ISIS-K is STILL doing suicide bombings across the country, where the vast majority of Afghanistan are suffering & most want to leave and never come back now.

[Nociav]

This also like 2nd of 3rd time I've seen unreliable sources report things Afghan Sources haven't. As usual, Pajhwok and the rest of the independent Afghan media seem to have missed reports that foreign media somehow has exclusive access to.

You really need to fact check. It's almost as if your deliberately spreading news that comes from questionable sources. Almost.

If I was deliberately spreading news from questionable sources, I’d be using Pro-NRF YouTube channels, like this one:

https://youtu.be/PG9M1HJNR20

The news I’ve been citing largely comes from Sputnik, Aamaj News, the Independent (Persian language site), Iranian Students News Agency, and sometimes times TRT, Republic World, DW & BBC (Persian language site).

I’m not gonna cite news that’s not credible because I frankly don’t a give two 2 Fs about what “Sounds good”. It doesn’t help the NRF when people do that, because we’re not in Pants on Fire, where my lies magically come to truth (even then, his lies weren’t actually coming true, his sister was playing a prank on him to teach him a lesson about his pathological lying).

What we are in is in the real world, where multiple news sources have reported the Taliban are preparing to assault Panjshir again, where it’s known fighting picks up again in Afghanistan as winter comes to an end, where ISIS-K is STILL doing suicide bombings across the country, where the vast majority of Afghanistan are suffering & most want to leave and never come back now.

Sputnik:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sputnik-news/

"Factual Reporting: Very Low"

Aamaj is so unreliable it got deleted from Facebook for spreading misinformation.
https://www.facebook.com/AamajNews
https://twitter.com/Paktyaw4l/status/14 ... 0796023811

IndyPersian is pro-NRF.

Do some background research on the sources you cite.

The last time there were huge reinforcements coming into Panjshir, there were videos of the Taliban convoys everywhere.

See:
https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1 ... 6644026374
https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1 ... 4783321090
https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1 ... 8904483840
https://twitter.com/Natsecjeff/status/1 ... 6622285824

and there's still more videos. None of that exists for whatever Sputnik is going on about.