[hibeejim21]

20 years all for nothing. A disaster.

Still if Biden can somehow extract liberal politics from the madness of these kind of interventions then it will be a good thing. I couldn't believe my ears hearing Labour politicians in the house attacking him from the right, how many more years do these bozos want ? The notion that we went in there for human and women's rights is risible. Anything along those lines that developed was a happy coincidence not due to us trying to create a democracy.

Biden will take a lot of flak but he is doing the right thing. I expect the US to concentrate more on china now, it does not have the same reliance on fossil fuels that it once had.

[0762]

One must still reflect back to the phoney war in Iraq created by "phoney" Tony Blair and President George W Bush - all interlinked to the events that eventually unfolded in their involvement in Afghanistan and all the usual bogus arguments that they were presenting at the time. I notice Blair being "rolled out" by Sky News last week to get his opinion and satisfy his craving to "get back in the spotlight" again. The short memory of most MS news agencies re Blair, the non-entity, is jaw dropping TBF! This man is a war criminal who has been involved in the deaths of far more people than the Taliban could ever compete with and yet he walks around free n easy as though nothing has ever happened and we, the tax payers, are still paying for his bodyguard protection. He has previously been informally arrested on a number of occasions as a deceitful war criminal by guys like Peter Tatchell and others who have never forgotten his blatant lies to parliament/gen public and bogus creation of anti-Iraq-Saddam political agenda to the gen public in the lead up to their secret plan to wage war on Iraq. They were pre-warned by protest groups up n down the country re the severe implications of activating terror groups targeting the UK - never listened because the "deal was already done" by two unscrupulous, shameless scumbags called Blair and Bush. Also the subject of expensive Black Hawk helicopters was previously mentioned. There's a worse case of incompetent spending during the Afghan war when the US spent about $500M on aircraft that were actually "out of date" and would be difficult to maintain in the long term - this whole raft of military airplanes were scrapped within five years, an absolute disgrace. Compare with America's military aircraft dealings with Israel and ponder why the Israeli govt never experienced such avoidable problems to their procurement of air and missile protection?????

[ritchiebaby]

I'd just like to congratulate the UK Armed Forces on getting 15,000 people out of Afghanistan in 2 weeks in what must have been extremely difficult circumstances. I appreciate there will still be thousands left behind, but I can only ask why many of these, if they felt their lives were in danger, didn't leave earlier when exits were easier. Biden had 11 September as the final withdrawal date as far back as April, bringing it forward to 31 August in early July. Given the potential Taliban advances a few months ago, I wouldn't have been leaving it to the last couple of weeks in trying to leave.

And it's not just the "official" Taliban Government we should be concerned about, it's the rag-tag tribal armies allied to the Taliban cause that will be controlling much of their "policy" towards women, human rights, etc. in outlying areas.

[0762]

The Taliban apparently comprises about 14 different factions throughout Afghanistan. Some of them despise the extreme religious elements of the Taliban, many of them being far more pragmatic in their views re their regard for women's rights etc. IMO it is a recipe for an eventual civil war/power struggle in the country unless a tough unifying leader takes control of the situation.

[0762]

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/le...hp&pc=U531

Raab exposed again and possibly "taking one for the team" in front of an investigative parliamentary committee?
Note the French govt began evacuating its local Afghan staff on 10 May 2021, incl cooks, drivers and cleaners. The aim was to only have French staff remaining by July, and indeed a final evacuation flight for non-essential staff took off on 17 July when the Taliban already controlled large parts of the country, four weeks before the fall of Kabul (ref Politico reports).
Where was the equivalent evacuation plan for the UK? IMO the failure of the Brit govt to act sooner is criminally incompetent in light of the Taliban's previous murderous behaviour to those suspected of aiding their enemies in killing many of their members. What were the UK's military, diplomatic and security advisors telling the government and when?
There are fools in charge of the UK whom we have to suffer time n again, but nothing like the suffering any abandoned Afghan allies will experience.