Taliban back brutal rule as they strike for power

[Rustyeye77]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58156772
The "ghanimat" or spoils of war they're showing off include a Humvee, two pick-up vans and a host of powerful machine guns. Ainuddin, a stony-faced former madrassa (religious school) student who's now a local military commander, stands at the centre of a heavily-armed crowd.

The insurgents have been capturing new territory on what seems like a daily basis as international troops have all but withdrawn. Caught in the middle is a terrified population.

Tens of thousands of ordinary Afghans have had to flee their homes - hundreds have been killed or injured in recent weeks.

snip

The day after we leave, reports emerge of a young woman being murdered because of her clothing. Haji Hekmat, though, rejects allegations Taliban members were responsible.
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Please dont respond....read and ignore

[Rustyeye77]

1. FWIW

Its no secret that I am clearly in the minority in the forum with re: Afghanistan.

And ive noticed that the power of the majority usually leads to alerts and posts removed.

So its just safer if i dont respond . Any minority view usually ends up with posts removed

" its a RW view."

And yes, I feel terrible for the Afghan people.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. My feelings are profoundly mixed

I supported continued U.S.military involvement in Afghanistan for far longer than almost anyone I am friends with. It is horrific how women in particular are treated by the Taliban. It is agonizing to face the fact that many Afghan citizens who have worked to establish a somewhat modern society in that country will now almost certainly face persecution or death.

I long felt that the U.S. needed the travel the extra mile and then some to help Afghans who allied with western values and who have fought so hard to bring a new age to their nation

But I am sobered by the fact that we have been training and arming Afghan government forces for nearly twenty years now, and have devoted billions upon billions to rebuilding that country. This is not the same as Post World War II Germany or Japan. Nor of post Korean War South Korea. Ten years after those conflicts there were relatively strong and cohesive governments in all of those countries that the U.S. helped to rebuild. Afghanistan still can not stand on it's own after twenty years. Germany, Japan, and South Korea became internally stable fairly quickly. The central Afghanistan government barely controlled half of the land mass of that nation before the recent Taliban offensive.

Horrors exist in many nations, like Yemen, Somalia, the Sudan and many many more. And that doesn't count nations like Saudi Arabia. We can not save a people who can not fight effectively for themselves even after receiving massive amounts of aid and training for over a full generation.

I feel differently about the capacity of the Kurds, as I did about Bosnians back in the 90's.

[Rustyeye77]

6. Thank you.

I understand.

[abqtommy]

3. It doesn't give me any comfort to know that ALL far-right persons and groups around the

world are FASCISTS. They rely primarily on two tactics: The Lie and Terrorism/Brutality. This is
what we're seeing and it's going to take a lot of effort to bring this to a productive resolution, both
locally and world-wide.

[Rustyeye77]

4. Does that include Religious fanatics?

[abqtommy]

5. Certainly. Any religious group correctly called "ultra-orthodox" are FASCISTS, regardless of

their faith or ethnicity.