Afghanistan - America- Chaos

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

Before The Biden Adminestration;

Feb. 29, 2020
Updated Feb. 29, 2020.

U.S.-Taliban sign landmark agreement
in bid to end America's longest war.

The U.S. has agreed to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan within 14 months and pull out of five bases in 135 days.

Cheers, whoops and shouts of "God is Great" broke out after Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's political leader, signed the landmark agreement in Doha on Saturday.

DOHA, Qatar — The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan started nearly 7,000 miles away on a sunny September morning when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, as well as the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

On Saturday, more than 18 years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001- the U.S. made a bid to end America's longest war.

Hundreds of miles from the battlefields of Afghanistan in a glitzy banquet hall in a five-star hotel in Qatar, the United States and the Taliban signed a landmark agreement that paves the way for U.S. troops to begin withdrawing from the poor and war-torn central Asian country.

"The Taliban will not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including Al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies,” the agreement states.

Under the pact, the U.S. would reduce its forces to 8,600 from 13,000 in the next three to four months. Remaining U.S. forces would withdraw in 14 months, although a complete pullout would depend on the Taliban meeting commitments to prevent terrorism.

U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban’s chief negotiator and one of its founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, signed the agreement in Doha after more than a year of on-off formal talks.

Some in the room broke out in whoops, cheers and shouts of "God is Great" at the signing. The several dozen members of the Taliban exited the room after the ceremony beaming.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also attended the ceremony, but did not sign the "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan," under which the Taliban pledged to enter into peace talks with Afghan government officials, representatives of the opposition, and members of civil society on March 10.

The U.S. committed to work with both sides in upcoming talks to secure the release of up to 5,000 prisoners held by the Afghan government and 1,000 prisoners held by the Taliban by the start of intra-Afghan peace talks.

Washington also agreed to lift U.S. sanctions on the Taliban later this year and to work with other members of the U.N. Security Council to remove sanctions against members of the Taliban within three months.

Speaking to reporters, Pompeo said the United States was "realistic" about the deal it signed, but was "seizing the best opportunity for peace in a generation."

He said that while he was still angry about the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. will not "squander" what its soldiers "have won through blood, sweat and tears."

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was in Kabul Saturday to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and leaders of NATO and the resolute support mission, which trains, advises and assists Afghan national defense and security forces. His aim there was to “further engage with the Afghan peace process,” he wrote in a tweet.

He later spoke to U.S. troops in the country, noting that some of them had not been born when the war broke out.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was also in Kabul on Saturday for another signing ceremony with Esper and Ghani.

Roots in 9/11
The deadliest terror attack on American soil, which killed nearly 3,000 people, prompted President George W. Bush to send the first of many waves of U.S. troops to Afghanistan, a country most Americans could not then spot on a map, in October 2001.

Their mission was to topple the Taliban regime after it sheltered Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. While the invasion swiftly overthrew the militants,
it also embroiled America in a deadly quagmire that has cost the lives of around 2,300 U.S. troops and wounded many thousands of others.

After 18 years, there are currently between 12,000 to 13,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, who advise Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against America’s “endless wars” abroad and Saturday’s deal will give him a talking point in his bid for re-election.

America’s war in Afghanistan has spanned three U.S. administrations. Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, had tried to extricate U.S. troops from the country and even outlined a plan for a final exit. But Obama held off in the end amid concerns about the staying power of the Afghan security forces against a resilient insurgency.

The war has taken a devastating toll. Afghanistan currently tops the list of the world’s deadliest conflicts.

Since 2016, children have accounted for nearly a third of the estimated 11,000 civilian casualties every year in the conflict, according to Human Rights Watch. Since the United Nations began systematically documenting the impact of the war on civilians in 2009, it has recorded more than 100,000 civilian casualties, including more than 35,000 killed and 65,000 injured.

Between 2001 and October 2018, more than 58,000 Afghan security forces were also killed, according to a study by Brown University.

U.S. and Taliban agree to tentative truce in Afghanistan, official says.

And nearly two decades after the U.S. invaded and billions of American taxpayer dollars later, the Taliban control, influence or contest nearly half of the country, according to the last reported numbers released by the Department of Defense in January 2019.

The Afghan government is perceived to be one of the world’s most corrupt and is currently facing its own political crisis as its rivals refute the results of September’s presidential elections, claiming that
the polling was riddled with fraud.

And the status of women in Afghanistan — like so many other parts of Afghan life — is once again up in the air as a return to Taliban rule in the country could potentially jeopardize nearly two decades of progress for Afghan women.

But it was the security of Americans that Esper sought to highlight in Kabul on Saturday.

The defense secretary issued a message of thanks to the almost 800,000 U.S. troops that have served in Afghanistan since the war began. And he cautioned that it will take “many months” to withdraw fully. “Your mission is far from over,” he said, adding that there are still terror groups in Afghanistan.

“Your number one priority remains the protection of our people ... stay vigilant,” Esper said.

Saphora Smith and Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Doha, Dan De Luce from Washington and Ahmed Mengli from Kabul.

Get the Morning Rundown

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

As a part of the 2020 Doha deal, Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo made an agreement with the Taliban
to lift sanctions against the group and have 5,000 Taliban prisoners released in exchange for a 3-month cease-fire.
Those 5,000 prisoners now control Afghanistan.

From Biden’s statement on Afghanistan. Interesting that he reminds us Trump and Pompeo invited the Taliban to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11
to give concessions.

The 300,000 man Afghan Army crumbled to dust despite 20 years of American/UK/Canadian/NATO training and $2 Trillion in American spending.
They also had an Air Force and were well equiped to engage in full war.

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

Top Taliban leaders are among the 5000 that Trump released last year over everyone's objections

One year ago, the Donald released 5000 Taliban fighters in exchange for a cease-fire to help his flailing presidential campaign, despite strenuous objections from both the Pentagon and the Afghan government. President Ashraf Ghani warned that their release would be a “danger to the world.”

We are finding out that many of these fighters entering Kabul, such as Mawlavi Talib, are top Taliban commanders who oversaw the assaults of the key cities this week. And they go up from there.

Why did Trump do something like that? Why does Trump do anything—it’s about himself:

Worse, the Taliban leader who is set to taking over Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has Trump to thank for his release.

The disaster unfolding in Afghanistan came from the deal that Trump made a year ago, except he wanted it to happen sooner—by Christmas of last year. He postponed it after his loss for Biden to deal with it in May. The Pentagon asked for more time, so Biden pushed it to the end of August. This enraged conservatives for delaying the withdrawal.

Keep in mind that Donald J. Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David the week of September 11 to strike what was essentially a surrender deal, but cancelled after the obvious backlash of hosting the Taliban on 9/11. Instead, he sent Pompeo to Qatar to sign the deal with the Taliban, and announced that he had given the Taliban everything they asked for because “everyone is tired of war.”

"[It’s] time for someone else to do that work and it will be the Taliban and it could be surrounding countries".

Trump even had private discussions with the top Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. I could only imagine what was said and promised. Not only did Trump cave to the Taliban by giving them everything they asked for, but no members of the Afghan government were present. None. Trump completely cut them out of the deal.

“We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they’re looking to get this ended. The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah.” --Trump in Feb 2020 after telling the Taliban he will remove all US troops.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker, who was appointed under George W. Bush, blames Trump’s “peace” deal with what is happening now because Trump would only work with the Taliban and completely delegitimized the Afghan government.
To be clear, Trump’s deal was a complete disgrace that diminished our allies and strengthened the enemy. Trump reinforced the Taliban with their top fighters, and promised a quick retreat of American forces.

This essentially would establish the Taliban as the defacto regime once US forces left. Trump is now lying, to no one’s surprise, saying that the peace accord he signed was “conditions-based.” It wasn’t.

You can read it yourself:

Afghanistan - America- Chaos E82jEOAXoAYeO4I?format=jpg

Afghanistan - America- Chaos E82jEOAXoAYeO4I?format=jpg

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Mon Aug 16, 2021 3:12 am

Joe Biden’s Surrender Is an Ugly, Needless Disaster
Matt Lewis, The Daily Beast
Sun, August 15, 2021, 4:02 PM

With the Taliban retaking Afghanistan amid a frenzied U.S. exit, I am reminded that Robert Gates, Barack Obama’s defense secretary, famously said that Joe Biden has “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” That isn’t an exaggeration.

Biden opposed the Persian Gulf War (later, reversing his decision and saying George H.W. Bush should have gone all the way to Baghdad) and supported the Iraq War, before opposing the surge in Iraq (not to mention famously wanting to partition Iraq into three countries). As vice president, he opposed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

This brings us to Afghanistan. As recently as a month ago, Biden denied a Taliban takeover was inevitable. Everyone knew that was wrong. Everyone except Biden, I suppose. Based on his horrible track record, we can assume he was being sincere. If he wasn’t, he would have demanded a more responsible exit plan before proceeding.

Biden inherited an Afghanistan where Americans were suffering few casualties, and where a small residual force was seemingly maintaining some semblance of order (not to mention preventing the country from once again being used as a staging ground for international terrorists to launch attacks against the U.S.). With his what-could-go-wrong withdrawal, he has managed to turn it into the tragic debacle that is happening now in front of our eyes.

To be sure, Biden didn’t do it alone. His predecessor, Donald Trump, deserves much of the blame. Biden claims that, by withdrawing forces, he’s honoring his predecessor’s commitment. But he has reversed lots of other Trump policies, didn’t adhere to Trump’s May 1 deadline for withdrawal, and could have easily cited examples of the Taliban not living up to their side of the agreement as reason enough to scuttle the deal.

The point is that Biden was not locked in to following through with Trump’s unwise “America First” policy. As much as Trump deserves blame for this situation (and so much more), the fall of Afghanistan is happening on Biden’s watch. This is his rodeo. This is, if not his Vietnam, his fall of Saigon.

Now, Biden is rushing troops back into Afghanistan to try and end or at least mitigate the optics of a desperate evacuation that leaves translators and other allies and Afghans who’d depended on us behind. But it’s already terribly late, as the civilians waiting for flights that may never come can vouch.

Some people believe that Biden’s real problem was his execution. For example, why would he refuse to leave a residual force behind, and why would he time his withdrawal for the summer fighting season? With more prudent logistics and better timing, Biden might have bought a cushion of time between the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban takeover. That would have resulted in better PR for Biden, but the fundamental problem was the decision to withdraw U.S. troops without leaving a residual force behind—not the hamfisted way he did it.

It could have been even worse. Biden originally had this insane idea of linking the Afghanistan withdrawal to September 11, and that may be why he couldn’t wait for the fighting season to end before giving in. In his mind, he somehow thought that ending a 20-year war on this particular date would be romantic and symbolic. And it would. For the Taliban!

In this pathetic departure, with American arms again ending up with our enemies as they did in Iraq, Biden is reinforcing the notion that our enemies can simply outlast us. Likewise, he is demonstrating (as Trump before him did with the Kurds) that putting your neck on the line for this nation is a fool’s errand. These decisions will make any future military interventions that more difficult.

This naivete is on full display with the anemic threats the U.S. is now issuing. Their behavior could lead to “international isolation.” Executions, our embassy warns, show a lack of “human rights.” It’s not a perfect analogy, but I am reminded of Die Hard, when John McClane tries to use a police radio to report a terrorist attack and is threatened with an FCC violation: “Fine, report me. Come the fuck down here and arrest me!” The Taliban are pillaging, executing and pressing 15-year-old girls into “service” as Taliban brides while we are threatening to, what, ruin their reputation in the international community?

In short, it’s a shit show. If you had told me 10 ten years ago that Biden would be elected president to clean up after Trump, I would have worried about precisely this kind of mess. Trump was so chaotic and dangerous that Biden, who (aside from his track record of bad foreign policy calls) had been a handsy gaffe machine, looked like Abe Lincoln by comparison. Today, however, we are witnessing the one-two punch of the Trump-Biden era. The scene unfolding in Afghanistan is exactly what you might expect from a policy that both men endorsed.

Regular Member Posts : 5789 Join date : 2017-05-22

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Mon Aug 16, 2021 9:58 am

Photos and videos appear to show Afghans trying to flee the Taliban falling out of planes as they leave Kabul airport
Tom Porter, Business Insider
Mon, August 16, 2021, 7:07 AM

People clinging to jets leaving Kabul airport have fallen to their deaths, local media reported.

There were scenes of chaos at Kabul airport as crowds stormed the runaway and tried to enter planes.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in a rapid effort that overwhelmed Afghan forces.

People have fallen to their deaths after clinging to C-17 jets as they took off from Kabul airport, in an attempt to flee the Taliban in Afghanistan, local media reported.

Footage posted on Twitter by the Afghan news agency Aśvaka appeared to show a person falling from a plane as it took off from the airport.

More story, photos, and videos at https://news.yahoo.com/photos-videos-appear-show-afghans-130713678.html

Posts : 429 Join date : 2018-12-29

BREAKING NEWS:
Former President Donald J Trump has been out of office for EIGHT months. All calls are now made by the Democrat owned Senate, House and White House.
How much clearer can it get?

Inco cho owns this Kabul fiasco lock stock and barrel.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:13 pm

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

louie wrote:: BREAKING NEWS:
Former President Donald J Trump has been out of office for EIGHT months. All calls are now made by the Democrat owned Senate, House and White House.
How much clearer can it get?

Inco cho owns this Kabul fiasco lock stock and barrel.

1st--Biden was honoring the peace treaty trump made,
he was forced to do so. it was a signed treaty via trump...

2nd-
20yrs- 300,000 troops were trained-an army created
in special ops- airforce pilots, armed with
high graded weapons to fight the Taliban for freedom.
And 300,000 soldiers all surrendered--
they did not fight,
they surrendered and the Taliban was
given all the American equipment to fight a war.
The Taliban went forward and the Afgan army
surrendered and gave up their arms,
territory after territory- they surrendered.

fuck the Afganastan army --
they did not fight the Taliban
as they were trained to do for 20yrs.
They didn't stand to protect Kabul
they simply surrendered..

Taliban 75,000- Afganastan 300,000..
what the fuck-

years back-
The British tried, the Russians tried, they pulled out
then America goes in, the same crap..

You can not win an extreme religious war-
a culture war, it will not happen.

15 years ago we should have gotten out..
Afghanistan will be a Taliban religious state
for a 100 yrs to come.
No force will take their religion and culture away..
Not in Afganastan..

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Mon Aug 16, 2021 10:11 pm

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

Under Trump's agreement, the US had to be out
of Afghanistan by May 1,
and Biden renegotiated this deal for August.

"Furthermore, Team Trump also agreed to the
release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, many of whom
immediately rejoined the fight,"

"The former president also
negotiated the release of Taliban co-founder
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
from a Pakistan prison three years ago, believing Baradar
could help broker peace with the Taliban.
Baradar, is now poised to be
the new leader of Afghanistan."
and--
Under Donald Trump's presidency,
a peace agreement was negotiated between
the United States and the Taliban
that many within the Republican Party called "historic"
at the time.

However, the GOP has now deleted the page
from its website in which it praised Trump's
withdrawal plan.

Here is the page that the page just deleted'

Afghanistan - America- Chaos E83KBiuVgAEQ5DX?format=jpg&

Afghanistan - America- Chaos E83KBiuVgAEQ5DX?format=jpg&

((again; Under Trump's treaty/agreement,
the USA had to be out of Afghanistan by May 1,
and Biden renegotiated this deal for August....
get out or go to full-blown war..
the 2 choices.))

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Tue Aug 17, 2021 5:16 am

Temple wrote:: ///

((again; Under Trump's treaty/agreement,
the USA had to be out of Afghanistan by May 1,
and Biden renegotiated this deal for August....
get out or go to full-blown war..
the 2 choices.))

So, Biden's plan is for a full out war. Swell.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Tue Aug 17, 2021 7:34 am

This picture is of the Afghan Taliban as they are taking over the country.

All aspects of this photo REQUIRE CRITICAL THINKING. How observant are you? Can you apply logic to certain aspects and situations around which this picture revolves?

Think for yourself. But yes, the first obvious thing is there is a MAGA hat displayed at Taliban headquarters.

Begin asking WHY. That is only the first and simplest question.

Afghanistan - America- Chaos 58234_1v4jeah2jqjjjxd_full

Afghanistan - America- Chaos 58234_1v4jeah2jqjjjxd_full

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

Temple wrote:: ///

((again; Under Trump's treaty/agreement,
the USA had to be out of Afghanistan by May 1,
and Biden renegotiated this deal for Augustrenegotiated this deal for August this deal for August....
get out or go to full-blown war..
the 2 choices.))

So, Biden's plan is for a full out war. Swell.

No- Biden honored trumps treaty for a full pullout
by May 1st--
But- Biden renegotiated the pull-out date for August..
Same trump treaty for full-pull-out as signed trump/word treaty.

Biden just renegotiated trumps deal for August ..
(3-month extension)

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Tue Aug 17, 2021 9:03 pm

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

8-15-2021

Biden administration freezes billions of dollars in Afghan reserves, depriving Taliban of cash
The move comes as the White House has scrambled to redraw its Afghanistan policies.

The Afghanistan central bank held $9.4 billion in reserve assets as of April, according to the International Monetary Fund.
That amounts to roughly one-third of the country’s annual economic output. The vast majority of those reserves are not currently held in Afghanistan, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
Among those, billions of dollars are kept in the United States, although the precise amount is unclear.

The United States did not need any new authority to freeze the reserves, because the Taliban was already facing sanctions under an executive order approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said Adam M. Smith, who served on the National Security Council and as senior adviser to the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control during the Obama administration.

Beyond the reserves, the United States also sends roughly $3 billion per year in support for the Afghan military, or roughly 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The funding can only be spent if the secretary of defense “certifies to Congress that the Afghan forces are controlled by a civilian, representative government that is committed to protecting human rights and women’s rights,” according to a congressional summary of the legislation.

About 80 percent of Afghanistan’s budget is funded by the United States and other international donors, John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told Reuters in the spring.

A spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget declined to comment
on the status of congressionally approved funding
for Afghanistan.
[the Afghan government] will not be able to control this country for a very long period of time. I can’t see us spending money on the Taliban.”

This is far from the first time the United States has cut off foreign governments from its assets, approving similar moves against Venezuela and Libya after leaders hostile to Washington gained power in those countries as well.

The Taliban staged a rapid advance on Kabul and other cities in recent days, prompting the Afghan government and security forces to surrender or collapse.
Mark Sobel, who previously served as deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy at the Treasury Department, said restricting the funding could at a minimum be used
as “leverage on the Taliban to behave better.”

There are questions about whether the successor government is internationally recognized,” Sobel said. “This move makes sense.”

The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said Monday that half of Afghanistan’s total population required humanitarian assistance in 2021, a sixfold increase from four years ago, citing U.N. statistics.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference Tuesday that NATO has suspended aid to the Afghan government as well.

“We have of course suspended all support, financial and other kinds of support, to the Afghan government, because there is no Afghan government for NATO to support,” Stoltenberg said.
“No money is transferred; no support is provided.”

International powers may also entertain new sanctions against Afghanistan, a suggestion already made by Britain’s foreign minister earlier this week. Sanctions can help force foreign adversaries to adopt U.S. policy by penalizing their trade partners. However, they can also exact brutal humanitarian tolls on civilian populations.

Daniel Glaser, who served as assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said cutting Afghanistan off from the reserve funds is the obvious first move.

“It’s the least they could do. I, personally, would not trust the Taliban to be responsible custodians of Afghanistan’s reserves,” Glaser said.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Wed Aug 18, 2021 3:47 am

Taliban collect ammo guns from civilians after takeover: report
The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan force
By Edmund DeMarche | Fox News | published 2 hours ago

Vowing that they will not "harm innocent civilians," the Taliban have started to collect guns and ammunition from Afghan civilians in Kabul, a report said.

Reuters, citing a Taliban official, reported that the group said people in the city will no longer need to hold onto their weapons because they no longer need personal protection.

"They can now feel safe," the official told the outlet.

Reuters spoke to one business owner who said Taliban fighters already visited his workplace to inquire about where his security team keeps its weapons.

Spike Cohen, the 2020 vice-presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, retweeted the headline and posted, "’Give us your guns. We will protect you’ –Every government that is about to commit mass murder ever."

The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centers.

Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Wed Aug 18, 2021 7:51 am

Biden approval drops to lowest level this year after Taliban takeover
Tue, August 17, 2021, 2:47 PM·4 min read

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's approval rating dropped by 7 percentage points and hit its lowest level so far as the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed over the weekend in an upheaval that sent thousands of civilians and Afghan military allies fleeing for their safety, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The national opinion poll, conducted on Monday, found that 46% of American adults approved of Biden's performance in office, the lowest recorded in weekly polls that started when Biden took office in January.

It is also down from the 53% who felt the same way in a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll that ran on Friday.

Biden's popularity dropped as the Taliban entered the capital, Kabul, wiping away two decades of U.S. military presence that cost nearly 1 trillion taxpayer dollars and thousands of American lives.

However, a majority of both Republican and Democratic voters said the chaos was a sign that the United States should leave.

A separate Ipsos snap poll, also conducted on Monday, found that fewer than half of Americans liked the way Biden has steered the U.S. military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan this year. The president, who just last month praised Afghan forces for being "as well-equipped as any in the world," was rated worse than the other three presidents who presided over the United States' longest war.

The United States and Western allies continued to evacuate diplomats and civilians on Tuesday, one day after Afghans crowded into Kabul airport in a desperate attempt to flee the Taliban regime.

Americans expressed a variety of opinions that may still be evolving as the Taliban completes its takeover of the country.

The Ipsos poll found that 75% of Americans supported the decision to send in additional troops to secure key facilities in Afghanistan until the withdrawal is complete, and about the same number supported the evacuation of Afghans who helped U.S. forces in the country.

Yet Americans appeared to be largely unsettled on what to think of the war, with majorities expressing somewhat contradictory views about what the U.S. military should have done.

For example, a majority of the 18-to-65-year-olds who took the Ipsos survey - 68% - agreed that the war “was going to end badly, no matter when the U.S. left,” and 61% wanted the United States to complete its withdrawal of troops on schedule.

Yet a smaller majority - 51% - also agreed that “it would have been worth it for the United States to leave troops in Afghanistan another year,” and 50% wanted to send troops back into the country to fight the Taliban.

In many cases, Republicans and Democrats appeared to share the same outlook on the war: six in 10 Republicans and seven in 10 Democrats agreed, for example, that the swift capitulation of the Afghan government “is evidence why the U.S. should get out of the conflict.”

About 44% of respondents said they thought Biden has done a “good job” in Afghanistan. In comparison, 51% praised the way former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama handled the war.

Approval of Biden's handling of Afghanistan is even lower than that of former President George W. Bush, who ordered the Afghanistan invasion and entrenched the United States in the costly and ultimately futile effort to foster new leadership in the country.

About 47% of Americans felt that Bush did a good job in Afghanistan.

To be sure, the latest polling should be viewed so far as just a one-week drop: it is still far too early to say how the Taliban takeover will affect Biden politically.

Forty percent of registered voters said in the Reuters/Ipsos poll that they would vote for a Democrat in next year's congressional elections, while 37% said they would back a Republican.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 947 American adults, including 403 Democrats and 350 Republicans. The results have a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.

The Ipsos online snap poll gathered responses from 1,000 people, including 443 Democrats and 247 Republicans. It has a credibility interval of about 4 percentage points.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Wed Aug 18, 2021 2:39 pm

Afghanistan has 22 tons of gold in a New York vault. The Taliban can’t touch it.
By Samanth Subramanian
Published 3 hours ago

The Biden administration has frozen the Afghanistan government’s holdings in US banks, preventing the Taliban from accessing billions of dollars—a major, if indeterminate, part of the country’s foreign reserves.

Among the assets trapped in this freeze is a stash of gold bars deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to figures published by Afghanistan’s central bank, the deposit amounted to roughly 22 tons of gold as of December 2020, the most recent date for which this data is available. At current prices benchmarked by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), the gold is worth around $1.25 billion.

The gold represents more than a tenth of the reserves the Afghanistan government holds, in banks at home as well as in various countries including the US. The central bank, named Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), owned around $10 billion in reserve assets as of June, according to data published by the bank. In relative terms, this is a very significant figure for Afghanistan. By comparison, the country’s GDP in 2020 was roughly $20 billion, according to the World Bank.

US freezes Afghanistan’s assets

Most of this $10 billion in reserves is parked overseas, although certainly the DAB’s own vaults hold at least $160 million in commercial gold and silver, as well as a treasury of ancient gold ornaments that are part of the so-called Bactrian Treasure, recovered from 2,000-year-old burial sites. Roughly $9.5 billion of the DAB’s holdings are international reserves, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which estimated in June that these reserves could pay for Afghanistan’s imports for 15 months.

It isn’t clear precisely what proportion of these international reserves resides in US bank accounts in particular. But roughly $4.2 billion of the DAB’s $9.5 billion in international reserves are held in the form of US treasury bonds, treasury bills, and US dollar-denominated government bonds.

The US had frozen Afghanistan’s assets back in 1999 as well, three years after the Taliban first took control of the country. In January 2002, after the US military overturned the Taliban’s government, the assets were thawed, releasing roughly $193 million in gold and $24 million in other assets held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Wed Aug 18, 2021 10:48 pm

Biden's speech on Afghanistan fact-checked
By Reality Check team
BBC News
17 August 2021

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58243158.amp

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Thu Aug 19, 2021 3:14 pm

Giant Hurricane Forms Over Washington From White House Spinning Afghanistan Story.

Afghanistan - America- Chaos 18417_ci83kbvte1tsljv_full

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

Biden is trying to do the trump/republican dirt spin-
but-
doing so just is not Biden doable, but he gave it try..
It's solely a trump and Republican corrupt talent.
It was interesting to watch but again, it's just in the man to do.
Nonetheless; Biden will honestly prevail, in the end.

Subject: Re: Afghanistan - America- Chaos Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:02 pm

Taliban mocks America in a propaganda video that shows its fighters dressed up in US Army uniforms and gear
Alia Shoaib
Sat, August 21, 2021, 4:00 AM

The Taliban have released a propaganda video featuring its fighters wearing US uniforms and gear.

The insurgents have captured billions of dollars worth of US equipment left behind by fleeing Afghan soldiers.

Khalil Haqqani, a designated global terrorist, gave a sermon in Kabul while carrying a US assault rifle.

See more story, pics, and video at https://news.yahoo.com/taliban-mocks-america-propaganda-video-100031519.html

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

Ahha haa! Afghan soldiers.. only 20% of the 3000,000
were actually in the army fto fight the others were in for the pay..
Yes they got paid, as ours..
There never was an actual army, nope, it was simply work and $$ for them..
Britain gave it try- it was a lost cause and pulled out their army.
Russia gave it try and pulled its 2000,000 soldiers..
Now, it was our turn to pull out...
Afghanistan is a lost cause- always has been always will be.
After our mission for going in was achieved Bush should have pulled us out..
We would have been out in 2 years if he had done that..
Imagin;
If the trillion dollar that would have been spent here-
it would have been amazing what could have been accomplished here.
A fukin waste of money, the way I see it.

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

____this is good____

8-21-2021

Armed Afghans push out Taliban from 3 districts in first local assault against the militant group, according to reports.

Afghan fighters expelled the Taliban from three Afghanistan districts on Friday, according to reports from journalists and provinces in the country.

Friday's assault against the Taliban marks the first time this year that Afghans fought and successfully took back part of the country from the militant group, which took over the Afghanistan government over the course of just 10 days.

Ahead of President Joe Biden's initial August 31 deadline to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban swept the country, culminating in a complete takeover by mid-August. Just days before the Taliban began its takeover, Biden said in a press briefing that "the likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely."

But as the Taliban encroached on the capital city of Kabul, the situation quickly evolved into a crisis. Photos and videos showed Afghans scrambling to leave the country and packing into cargo planes. Some footage showed Afghans clinging to and falling from a moving plane at the Kabul airport.

In its takeover, the Taliban declared the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, reverting back to the same name used in 1996 when the regime last took power.

Groups of Afghan fighters, however, are fighting back, according to Kabul-based independent network TOLO News. They drove out Taliban rulers in three northern districts in the Baghlan province of Afghanistan, just about 100 miles north of Kabul. The anti-Taliban groups say they killed dozens of Taliban fighters and captured about 20 others in the defeat.

"Pul-e-Hesar district was taken back from the #Taliban and fighting is raging in Deh-e-Salah and Banu districts," a Twitter account that appears to be for the country's Panjshir Province posted on Friday. "Local sources say the Taliban have been attacked from several areas and suffered heavy casualties."

A London-based journalist said on Twitter that Afghan government officials told him "that local resistances forces in Baghlan province have recaptured Banu and Pol-e-Hesar districts from the Taliban."

An Afghan news agency posted a video on the ground featuring anti-Taliban fighters carrying rifles and hanging up the red, green, and black Afghan national flag.

Throughout the takeover, Afghans have been openly defiant of the Taliban. Women, for example, protested in the streets of Kabul and demanded that their rights be preserved under Taliban rule.

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