Afghanistan

One thing that is at play here is that it is setting up the next migrant wave to Europe. And unfortunately the young uneducated males from Afghanistan have the least in common with European values of anyone on earth - which will be problematic.

So Europe has quite a lot at stake - and there will be the next populist pushback happening shortly in European politics.

It certainly will become a hideaway for Islamic extremists - it was where Al Qaeda was based after all.

I am less convinced than Nody that it is an "eternally hopeless" place - as Nody himself mentions the paedophilia/rape stuff happens in Pakistan & India - and those are sufficiently state like and if Afghanistan ended up like that, it would be a result. Furthermore until Russia intervened in Afghanistan, it did have a state.

So yes there has been a failure- but it was not inevitable- although a durable result would have needed input from Iran, Pakistan and Russia.

Why werent the Taliban destroyed in the nearly 20 year campaign against them? Why do the US still do business with Saudi Arabia, one of the primary sources of financial and ideological support to the Taliban?

Do you think there was too much money to be made by dragging it out and maintaining status quos? and if the Afghans love freedom so much, why did the Taliban find it so easy to assume power?

We may never know.

You can't destroy organisations like the Taliban by just killing them or occupation. Their mindset is like a virus that spreads to new generations so it becomes a complicated issue.

The only way to pacify the situation is help build a stable nation in which terrorist dissenters are scorned and not tolerated.i.e they can defend themselves have an army.

Like if the US actually cared for Afghan people why didn't they help train a militia and give them units to establish some stability. They spent billions playing a waiting game.

As another poster says they will invariably have to sort it out themselves buy we should be helping them as much as we can in doing so. Other wise we will have an influx of new asylum seekers ill suited to our society and the potential issues that that can bring. Would like to see Europe do more here.

The current situation has had plenty of input from Iran, Pakistan and Russia. The supply of training, equipment and logistics has been flowing to the Taliban from these 3 for years.

The asylum seekers would be coming here whether there had been intervention or not. The west needs to learn to stay out of the business if other nations. Not everyone wants democracy, not everyone is suited to it. Some nations just aren't mature enough for it.

It's not called the graveyard of empires for nothing. The Taliban were always going to come back into the picture as we're talking about a country that's not just years and decades behind, but probably centuries. The attempt to modernise it externally by imposing foreign values was never going to succeed. A country can only properly do that when there is a will from within.

It was an experiment doomed to fail, and the only question was how long American governments were willing to put up with it. The manner of the withdrawal looks haphazard and dangerous, so I'm sure they could have handled it better. But there were no easy answers to this mess.

Taliban takeover isn't great for the economy. It will be difficult for Europe to keep them out - once here, they can't be deported ( you can't send them back to the Taliban) and Europe's borders are long and if thousands are massing and breaking through the fences, what do you do? Start machine gunning?

Well, the situation playing out in Afgahistan is the least surprising news of the centur.

As the Taliban said 20 years ago to the US: "You can never win and for one simple reason- you will eventually have to go home. We will just scatter to the mountains and come out when ready." Going into Afghanistan and bombing it in 2001/2002 was the easy part. No problem rearranging the rubble.

Biden's decision is 'couregous'. He knows full well that it makes absolutely eff all difference if the US stay there another 6mts, 5 years or 50 years. May as well cut your losses and leg it. Utterly pointless staying there a minute longerr. Pointless war with a whole pile of pointless deaths but at least the US war machine got richer.

I find the pearl clutching and faux outrage from world leaders quite hilarious. If they are that up in arms then go on then- you go in a sort it out.

Afghanistan is a primatve backward shithole. Let them at it.

NZ are sending an airforce plane and some crew for A MONTH, to help get its citizens and local helpers out. I'm not quite sure how they think it's going to remain viable for that long to just waltz in and out as they please when Kabul has already fallen to the Taliban.

Like everyone else I'm appalled at the images coming out of Afghanistan.

The numbers of Taliban fighters seem relatively small how is it possible for them to over run a country if there is not significant popular support.

I'll admit I don't know enough about the country that's why I'm asking the question here rather than other forums to avoid the blatantly racist answers.

So what sort of support will the Taliban receive from the people, will it be purely based on fear and oppression.

Is there a possibility that the new Taliban regime will be less cruel than previous.

This is obviously a disaster for many especially Women, but is there any hope of even a Saudi style country emerging. Small consolation I know.

Bitter Lake by Adam Curtis is an eye-opening watch on the plight of Afghanistan through the last 80 years or so. Not an easy watch for most people like the majority of his stuff, but well worth it.