Whether they were always there is doubtful. But it's certainly true that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda had a some what cosy relationship with the Afghan leadership, mainly due to his supply and bank rolling of Afghan fighters during the war in the 80's.
I think it's safe to say that both he and members of Al Qaeda were in Afghanistan on numerous occasions and, in fact, the Taliban did offer to hand him over to a third party. Now, whether he was there when America bombed their way through the country is another story. But there's a pretty good chance that he'd already made his way to Pakistan before the first US troop even landed.
Seems to me the Afghan army rank and file and many officers were only in it for the pay all along. The army should be considered a non-combative branch of the Taliban. A huge failing of US intelligence not to have realised this.
There are still a lot of westerners who though they had a week or two to get out, not to mention western governments who thought thay had a little bit of time to get local allies like interpreters evacuated.
It's interesting to see in detail how wrong I've been in the past when I said the US should just withdraw all troops and leave the region be.
Reports of a "Peaceful handover of power being discussed" by the BBC. I would read that as essentially a conditional surrender.
Trick is, the Taliban might sign up to an agreement that hands over the remainder of the Afghan State to them peacefully and promises a safe and honorable end to the war for the losing side, only for them turn around once they have military control of the city and execute the lot of them. They probably won't tolerate any living member of the previous state to remain, and there would be no-one to stop them at that stage.
Congratulations on being one of the few posters to admit this.
If the US never went in, Afghanistan was always going to remain a brutal Islamic caliphate, now it's simply returning to that status quo, except worse, because they have the knowledge that the outside world will never dare try to uproot the Taliban. It will once again become a mecca for Islamic fundamentalism and a safe haven for extreme groups. Will be far-reaching repercussions from this.
,,...,
This time around things may be different, in the respect that the Taliban will be reluctant to harbour figures like Bin Laden and extreme terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, because of the future danger of foreign invasion. The Taliban are only interested in controlling Afghanistan. The extent of their international ambition is rather low.
That being said, it doesn't bode well for any Afghans that aren't sympathetic to their idea of Islamic law. However, outside intervention has been nothing but disastrous for the country.
But, while getting out of Afghanistan may prove to be tricky at some future date, I would still be broadly in favour of the US withdrawing from overseas in a major way.
It's probably the one thing I agree with Trump on.
Mission accomplished 😂😂
Foreign intervention has not been disastrous for the country, quite the opposite, it's the return to non-intervention status which will result in untold suffering for women and non hardline muslims.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/taliban-celebrating-resurgence-seizing-girls-24752882
Awful
Now that the Taliban are about to take complete power of the country, I assume governments around the world will be accepting Afghans under refugee status ? Seems quite alot of them want to flee the place in fear of being butchered. Reckon Ireland will take a few hundred in ?
This dates me, but I remember the US withdrawal from Saigon and the same sense of events spiralling out of control.
Canada have already said they will take 30,000 or something. No doubt we’ll end up doing the same
The difference is Vietnam ended up perfectly fine. I'm not sure that the same will happen in Afghanistan.
The EU countries that were directly involved can take them.
I can foresee a lot of NATO airstrikes continuing, but no foreign forces on the ground.
The consequences of Vietnam never followed them home either. The Americans found out 20 years ago that they can't simply pull up the drawbridge anymore.
All these news reports,
3 days ago, Taliban are within 7 miles of Kabul
1 day ago, Taliban are withing miles of Kabul
WHat are they on, drunken donkeys ? WTF So comical how they can't stop some bearded nutjobs on mules. So funny it's tragic .
They aren't trying to stop them.
Only one unsavoury aspect, for starters.
The A in NATO stands for Atlantic. I don't think Afghanistan quite fits the mission statement.
88 billion dollars to build Afghan army...money well spent.
Oh, but look! Does more war have to be the only option?
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1426895743344861185?s=19
They could of been in there 100 years and the Afghan's still wouldn't of got themselves together, clearly there is no appetite to sustain themselves and live in a moderate society, and it's obvious the Taliban have a lot of support, it's incredibly sad for women and young girls but at the end of the day, you can't change the nature of the world, these places are archaic at heart and you can't force civilization on savages.
More like a trillion overall.
Just think of the free minded individuals who will be stuck in Afghanistan now to live under a brutal cult. I read an article recently, believe it said the suicide rate was 95% female in Taliban controlled areas.
Given how quickly it collapsed, lots of people won't have the chance to get out. A US reporter was tweeting earlier that lots of Afghanis who helped the US haven't had their visa requests processed yet and the state department is incredibly slow to do this. Similar with the Brits. Thank you for your help, now bye. lambs to the slaughter. Disgusting but expected.
No Gary.....if the US had minded their own business, the world would be a different place today, but they could not resist poking Russia in the eye, payback time for the support the Russians gave Vietnam, which helped them to kick out the US. So they helped kick Russia out if Afghanistan,,Imagine, a Russia still bogged down in Afghanistan,,,
Looks to me like one big transfer of wealth out of state coffers on the US side.
They have not finished what they embarked on and left a **** show. Same as everywhere they go to really.
Seems that the Afghan president has left the country.
https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon/status/1426898451082657795?s=19
In fairness history suggests you are wrong that, indeed, repeated failures does not deter other countries from getting involved.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wb.vanillicon.com/v2/bed6f1d088326d5eb21c0139847332c7.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w3.vanillicon.com/v2/3bbdd61205e20788b7fbc213599bce97.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w9.vanillicon.com/v2/9429a6e87ca90295fb14e1083556c0c3.svg)