Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 20, 2019 Author Share Posted September 20, 2019 (edited) This article, from 'Military Times' (who IMHO should know better) is a complete & utter basket-case: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/09/19/why-failure-to-reintegrate-tens-of-thousands-of-ex-taliban-fighters-is-dangerous/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB 09.20.19&utm_term=Editorial - Military - Early Bird Brief Apparently SIGAR is somehow hoping to persuade 60 thousand plus Taliban to 'reintegrate'.....With the losing side! Utterly delusional! Edited September 20, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 7 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: ...persuade 60 thousand plus Taliban to 'reintegrate'.....With the losing side! Utterly delusional! Sounds like a typical immigration challenge everywhere. If you can't get people from the same country to integrate (with their own countrymen), how can one expect people from another country to do so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 (edited) This article, ironically from the same source, seems a lot more realistic: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/09/18/former-seal-socom-boss-mcraven-says-were-going-to-be-in-afghanistan-for-a-very-long-time/ It's an absolutely terrible idea of course, but it's still a lot more realistic than 'reintegrating' sixty thousand Taliban. Edited September 21, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 23, 2019 Author Share Posted September 23, 2019 & some stone cold facts: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2019/09/taliban-supplies-al-qaeda-with-explosives-for-attacks-in-major-afghan-cities.php Even this somewhat underplays the bond between Al Qaeda & the Taliban, which grew and literally intermarried after the events of 2001. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 Well, at least someone is being honest about their position: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/01/taliban-admits-peace-negotiations-with-u-s-are-merely-means-to-withdrawal-foreign-forces.php Poor bloody Afghanistan. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Combatintman Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 On 1/21/2020 at 11:07 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said: Well, at least someone is being honest about their position: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/01/taliban-admits-peace-negotiations-with-u-s-are-merely-means-to-withdrawal-foreign-forces.php Poor bloody Afghanistan. It has been their position pretty much from the get-go - no surprises there really. I will probably have some vaguely interesting days at the office this year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 23, 2020 Author Share Posted January 23, 2020 3 hours ago, Combatintman said: I will probably have some vaguely interesting days at the office this year. Take care man. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 Hey SS, I forget, is "Heart of Darkness" one of your CMSF1 campaigns? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 23, 2020 Author Share Posted January 23, 2020 Nope.....I believe that one may be down to @dragonwynn. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) Ok thanks. Since one cannot load CMSF1 save games into CMSF2 am trying to finish some of the longer CMSF1 campaigns I was in the middle or near the end of before I permanently go over to CMSF2. Having a lot of trouble with Mission 13 from the otherwise xnt "Road to Dinas" ( by Paper Tiger I think). Edited January 24, 2020 by Erwin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Combatintman Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 22 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: Take care man. I'm down to single figures (7 days and a wakey) now for this rotation ... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 The UN has some doubts about the Taliban's commitment to the 'peace deal': https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/06/u-n-taliban-regularly-consulted-with-al-qaeda-throughout-negotiations-with-u-s.php 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 Not current, but well worth a look: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HUSKER2142 Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 I wonder what ordinary people and soldier in west think about Afghan campaign in which NATO has been participating for 19 years. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 (edited) On 10/9/2020 at 12:56 AM, HUSKER2142 said: I wonder what ordinary people and soldier in west think about Afghan campaign in which NATO has been participating for 19 years. TBH I doubt the former give it very much thought at all, unless of course they are related to one of the latter. The sheer level of 'denial' around the abject failure of the Afghanistan mission is truly remarkable: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/09/analysis-dont-trust-estimates-of-al-qaedas-strength-in-afghanistan.php The only thing that it has achieved is permanently to intertwine Al Qaedea & the Taliban and to ensure that imported anti-western Wahabbi Islam remains the dominant religious force in the country for the forseeable future! Go USA! Edited October 11, 2020 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 (edited) I suspect Afghan women were an awful lot happier before we decided to 'help', by importing Saudi religious fundamentalism and a s**tload of guns; 1970s: 2020s: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/05/asia/gallery/afghan-women-past-present/index.html We wilfully made this mess for the Afghan people, all of it.....But they adapted to it, grew stronger and then turned it back against us. And they beat us. Edited October 11, 2020 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted October 11, 2020 Share Posted October 11, 2020 One could also show similar pics depicting life in Iran in the 70's under the "benevolent" Pahlavi regime. It was the "common people" who ended that and brought fundamentalism and Khomeini there. One wonders if some societies are simply not ready for liberalization. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 If you believe the Shah's regime was either 'benevolent' or 'liberal', I've got some beachfront property in Birmingham that might interest you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 (edited) I forgot that sarcasm often doesn't work in e-mails... My point was that it's not always the US' fault. Fanatic populations also have a say. Edited October 12, 2020 by Erwin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 You are aware who put the Pahlavis back on the throne? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG TOW Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 On 10/11/2020 at 8:34 AM, Sgt.Squarehead said: I suspect Afghan women were an awful lot happier before we decided to 'help', by importing Saudi religious fundamentalism and a s**tload of guns; We wilfully made this mess for the Afghan people, all of it.....But they adapted to it, grew stronger and then turned it back against us. And they beat us. Interesting how women are fighting to wear the Burka in western countries where it was banned by law. Not sure if that is what you meant. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 What? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG TOW Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 I was referring to the mentioned fundamentalism and the before/after pictures above of the women in western and religious garb. Some western governments have banned the wearing of Burkas in certain areas and have been taken to court by women who wish to wear them. Sorry maybe out of the context, western values seem to have a reciprocal effect even at home so they may not be embraced abroad. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 TBH there's always been a huge difference between the big Afghan cities and the tribal areas (everywhere else), even in the 1970s. From what I can make out, 'native' Afghan fundamentalism (Deobandism?), while still not exactly kind to women, was a hell of a lot easier going overall than the Wahabbi variety imported with all the Saudi money & guns. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 (edited) The Young Lion has arisen: "In 1998, when I was 9 years old, my father, the mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, gathered his soldiers in a cave in the Panjshir Valley of northern Afghanistan. They sat and listened as my father’s friend, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, addressed them. “When you fight for your freedom,” Lévy said, “you fight also for our freedom.” My father never forgot this as he fought against the Taliban regime. Up until the moment he was assassinated on Sept. 9, 2001, at the behest of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, he was fighting for the fate of Afghanistan but also for the West. Now this common struggle is more essential than ever in these dark, tense hours for my homeland. I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban. We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time, because we knew this day might come. We also have the weapons carried by the Afghans who, over the past 72 hours, have responded to my appeal to join the resistance in Panjshir. We have soldiers from the Afghan regular army who were disgusted by the surrender of their commanders and are now making their way to the hills of Panjshir with their equipment. Former members of the Afghan Special Forces have also joined our struggle. But that is not enough. If Taliban warlords launch an assault, they will of course face staunch resistance from us. The flag of the National Resistance Front will fly over every position that they attempt to take, as the National United Front flag flew 20 years ago. Yet we know that our military forces and logistics will not be sufficient. They will be rapidly depleted unless our friends in the West can find a way to supply us without delay. The United States and its allies have left the battlefield, but America can still be a “great arsenal of democracy,” as Franklin D. Roosevelt said when coming to the aid of the beleaguered British before the U.S. entry into World War II. To that end, I entreat Afghanistan’s friends in the West to intercede for us in Washington and in New York, with Congress and with the Biden administration. Intercede for us in London, where I completed my studies, and in Paris, where my father’s memory was honored this spring by the naming of a pathway for him in the Champs-Élysées gardens. Know that millions of Afghans share your values. We have fought for so long to have an open society, one where girls could become doctors, our press could report freely, our young people could dance and listen to music or attend soccer matches in the stadiums that were once used by the Taliban for public executions — and may soon be again. The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again. No matter what happens, my mujahideen fighters and I will defend Panjshir as the last bastion of Afghan freedom. Our morale is intact. We know from experience what awaits us. But we need more weapons, more ammunition and more supplies. America and its democratic allies do not just have the fight against terrorism in common with Afghans. We now have a long history made up of shared ideals and struggles. There is still much that you can do to aid the cause of freedom. You are our only remaining hope." I think it must be said...He is most definitely his father's son...The sheer guts of the man to call ettention to himself now! https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/18/mujahideen-resistance-taliban-ahmad-massoud/ Once again, The Northern Alliance is still standing up to Taliban, even when all seems lost! Edited August 21, 2021 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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