When did the Taliban Make a Comeback???

originally posted by: MiddleInsite
If the people in Afghanistan won't fight for themselves, let the Taliban take over. So be it. WE ARE NOT THE GLOBAL POLICE. WE'VE BEEN THERE TWO DECADES AND SPENT TONS OF MONEY AND TRAINING FOR WHAT? NOT TOO MENTION THE LOSS OF LIFE. Let Russia take another crack at it. They failed too.

Not easy is it because of the World _____ Trade 🤣🤣🤣🤣

a reply to: xuenchen

Kabul is getting close to being captured.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Yes, good point. I stand corrected.

ETA - My original point still stands though. I actually should have written 10 years because I was going from the first landing of ground troops in March of '65, but I concede your point of earlier involvement by virtue of our role as 'advisers'.

originally posted by: ElGoobero

when did this happen?
were they always there? hibernating? waiting for US troops to leave?

I'm surprised--and a bit troubled--watching them taking over Afghanistan.

The Taliban did exactly the same with the Ruskies letting them take the cities while maintaining control over the countryside, all the time taking out a few foreigners here then a few foreigners there until the media got hold of the body bag news and pressure mounts on the government.

A Pakistanis friend of mine in Uk but of Kashmiri tribal descent always making jokes about the Pathans (main body of the Taliban) and says they just love fighting. They turned it on the Brits, then the Ruskies, now the Yanks. As soon as everyone is gone they turn the guns on their own and start an internal conflict, they just can't stop fighting and live for the fight and bear in mind that's coming from someone born with Pathans as their neighbour and who says all the other Pakistan / Afghanistan tribes are pretty much peace loving folk and good neighbours. He calls the Pathans totally insane!

a reply to: EvanB
Heard on the radio on my way home from work a statement a Taliban told a reporter. It went like this........... You Americans have the watches but we have the time, we'll just wait you out.

originally posted by: ElGoobero
I thought the Taliban was old news / dustbin of history.
now they seem to be capturing capitals and stuff every week.

when did this happen?
were they always there? hibernating? waiting for US troops to leave?

I'm surprised--and a bit troubled--watching them taking over Afghanistan.

are any Caliphate guys still around in Iraq?

The Taliban disappeared like snow when Bush went out. ISIS appeared out of nowhere when Obama came in , no one had ever heard from them and one of the first news items about their existence was that they had a billion dollars in funds.

Obama pretended to fight ISIS for 8 years but never managed to remove them from the scene. Then Tump became president and after some time he made them disappear.

Biden is president , Taliban is being brought back out of the closet.

doesn't say much for the Afghan military that the USA is barely out the door and they're getting steamrolled.

I'm old enough to remember the same in VietNam.

hard to get motivated to fight fanatics.

originally posted by: ElGoobero
I read somewhere, nobody has ever been able to fully pacify Afghanistan. Not the Persians, not the Romans, not the Brits.

hill people that do their own thing. sort of West Virginia on steroids.

are they still funded by selling poppy / opium I wonder?

They call it the nation where empires go to die with reason

originally posted by: EvanB
The taliiban never went away

They were just waiting for us to leave

Bingo. It's obvious they were keeping themselves submerged below the surface until the American forces departed.

Now they're trying to get embassy people and families out of there before the Taliban decides to do them harm.

They came back when the US most needed an excuse to stay.

a reply to: everyone

Then Tump became president and after some time he made them disappear.

well that's not quite right, true trump opened a can of whoop ass, but he didn't remove them completely. last i read there are at least 10,000 active terrorist left fighting in iraq and syria.

i can't find that aricle about the number but here are a few others.

from Sept of last year,

During the quarter, independent experts and researchers offered differing assessments of ISIS’s level of resurgence, with some saying the uptick in ISIS activity signified the group is growing stronger. One research organization’s assessment in May said that the spike in ISIS attacks in the first half of the quarter had “raised new fears about the revival of the group,” and appeared to be “early signs of an ISIS recovery.” The assessment said that the increase in attacks correlated with a weakening of sustained military pressure against the group in both countries. The report said that in Syria, ISIS benefited from the “chaos” that followed Turkey’s October 2019 incursion into Syria and the U.S. troop redeployment. In Iraq, ISIS benefited from sustained mass protests and the ensuing political paralysis. The report said that without renewed counter-ISIS operations, the group could gain a firm foothold that would allow it to carry out frequent, large-scale attacks in both countries.

Additionally, researchers claimed that ISIS was taking advantage of COVID-19 in both Iraq and Syria. One research institute analyst assessed that ISIS benefited from a security vacuum left by the various military forces reducing activity due to COVID-19… A counterterrorism researcher told the press that ISIS was indeed trying to make the most of the pandemic by unleashing a “wave of attacks” that also coincided with Ramadan.
The Real World Capabilities of ISIS: The Threat Continues

found the 10,000 article, from aug of last year

The militants' ranks could swell even further under the wrong circumstances. As the DoD OIG has previously warned, some 10,000 ISIS fighters are currently lurking in deteriorating Syrian Democratic Forces-run detention facilities where, according to CJTF-OIR, “the risk of a mass breakout cannot be discounted.”
Nearly two years after ISIS’s defeat, more than 10,000 fighters are still active in Iraq and Syria

now the DOD reports say they are not resurging compared year to year, but they are still attacking.
but if you recall the taliban had been reduced and were quieted down somewhat, look at them now.
dollars to doughnuts before IsIs will have bases in Afghanistan and attacking all over the world.

i still say the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.

originally posted by: ElGoobero
I thought the Taliban was old news / dustbin of history.
now they seem to be capturing capitals and stuff every week.

when did this happen?
were they always there? hibernating? waiting for US troops to leave?

I'm surprised--and a bit troubled--watching them taking over Afghanistan.

are any Caliphate guys still around in Iraq?

It began on Jan 20, 2020.....

originally posted by: gortex

originally posted by: xuenchen
Since last Nov 3rd 💡

Except the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was Trump's , Biden is continuing what Trump started.

An interview with K.T. McFarland today solidified that. When she was asked what Trump would have done different, she said, basically nothing, besides not advertise when they were leaving. The Taliban was just waiting for us to leave as EvanB said.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

She said she was told that from Taliban leaders 15 years ago. It's what they did when Russia left, When we left, and after China does it's time, likely the same when they leave. That way of life is what these people know. We aren't going to change it.

But since Biden is at the helm, it's his baby. To the victor go the spoils.

originally posted by: Tarzan the apeman.
a reply to: EvanB
Heard on the radio on my way home from work a statement a Taliban told a reporter. It went like this........... You Americans have the watches but we have the time, we'll just wait you out.

Yup, same interview. Much like Vietnam, this was preordained.

originally posted by: MiddleInsite
If the people in Afghanistan won't fight for themselves, let the Taliban take over. So be it. WE ARE NOT THE GLOBAL POLICE. WE'VE BEEN THERE TWO DECADES AND SPENT TONS OF MONEY AND TRAINING FOR WHAT? NOT TOO MENTION THE LOSS OF LIFE. Let Russia take another crack at it. They failed too.

OK, this is getting weird. That's twice now. Stop it.

originally posted by: gortex

originally posted by: xuenchen
Since last Nov 3rd 💡

Except the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was Trump's , Biden is continuing what Trump started.

Biden scrapped Trump's actual withdrawl plan and seems to have moved forward with the withdrawl itself but absent any sort of actual plan. Mark Esper's entire blueprint was clearly ripped up when Lloyd Austin was confirmed for Sec. of Defense and I have to wonder exactly WTF the man has done in the role since being confirmed... Oh well, those of us too young to have witnessed the fall of Saigon get the distinct privilege of watching the Pentagon soil themselves in public like they did 46 years ago.

They never went away, they won the war - they've controlled over 50% of districts in Afghanistan throughout the conflict and Trump's peace deal was negotiated with the Taliban not the Afghan government so it was always going to happen.

The main problem now is the coalition decimated traditional opposition to the Taliban such as the Northern Alliance - In the 2001 invasion the US teamed up with all the major drug lords and war lords as they controlled essential border crossings. It's an open secret that the Afghan Army use their military planes to smuggle opium and hash and the US-imposed puppet government are even more corrupt than the Taliban

The US and UK only ever really captured Kabul and parts of Helmand- outside of that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and regularly killed any girls attending school, people voting and anyone breaking their militant interpretation of Islam.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Well of course there will always be some remains. I never tried to pretend none remained at all but 10.000 of them is nearly nothing of course. But let it me put it this way. Under Bush we had islamic terror attacks. Under Obama we had way more of them. Under Trump we had none all of a sudden.

a reply to: everyone

There were multiple ISIL and Al Qu'eda attacks - The Taliban aren't either of those groups though.

Al Qu'eda relocated to the Maghreb in Africa in the Trump years and the US engaged in a massive shaddow war running over 100 operations a day across Africa with 10,000s airstrikes.

The wars against Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Al Qu'eda in Islamic Maghreb and Islamic State were renamed 'areas of enhanced conflict' to cover it up and play into his false claims of not starting any wars.

Biden: 'It Is Not Inevitable' That Taliban Takes Over Afghanistan -- July 8, 2021

In response to reporter questions about the Taliban’s future in Afghanistan, President Biden said, “I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more competent in terms of conducting war.”

🤔