The Taliban is having fun on Twitter.

some great shots before the fall:


I doubt u will see shots like these in the country for a long time, if ever again:

Photographs by Tyler Hicks

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/worl ... P78pswx6vA

One Afghan's view but telling I think..

Former Afghan interpreter says ‘vast majority of Afghans’ view Taliban as ‘lesser of two evils’ compared to the US

An Afghan who served as an interpreter for the US during the war in Afghanistan in a Washington Post op-ed said America’s lack of knowledge about the culture of the country contributed heavily to its failures there.

“Many Americans have been asking … how could Afghanistan have collapsed so quickly? As a former combat interpreter who served alongside U.S. and Afghan Special Operations forces, I can tell you part of the answer – one that’s been missing from the conversation: culture,” wrote Baktash Ahadi, who served U.S. and Afghan special operations troops as a combat interpreter from 2010 to 2012.

“When comparing the Taliban with the United States and its Western allies, the vast majority of Afghans have always viewed the Taliban as the lesser of two evils. To many Americans, that may seem an outlandish claim,” Ahadi went on to say. “But the Americans also went straight to building roads, schools and governing institutions – in an effort to ‘win hearts and minds’ – without first figuring out what values animate those hearts and what ideas fill those minds. We thus wound up acting in ways that would ultimately alienate everyday Afghans.”

Ahadi emphasized that in most cases the only interactions Afghans had with the US and its allies “came via heavily armed and armored combat troops.”

He said the US mistook the Afghan countryside for a “theater of war” as opposed to a place where people “actually lived.”

Ahadi said America’s failure to take culture into account extends well beyond Afghanistan.

“When it comes to cultural illiteracy, America is a recidivist. We failed to understand Iraqi culture, too, so that now, many Iraqis see Iran as the lesser of two evils,” he said. “Before that, we failed to understand Vietnam. And so on. Wherever our relentless military adventurism takes us next, we must do better.”

Full: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ex-a ... -us-2021-9

....He said the US mistook the Afghan countryside for a “theater of war” as opposed to a place where people “actually lived.”

Isn't that true for France, Belgium , Germany, South sea islands ( in ww 1 & 2) ?
Vietnam 1963-1975
Iraq?
and every war fought on foreign soil?

Former Afghan interpreter says ‘vast majority of Afghans’ view Taliban as ‘lesser of two evils’ compared to the US

I find this comment hard to believe if you asked ANY afghan lady over 5, if she preferred the US to the Taliban they would choose the Taliban

Taliban is meming hard!

came across this old Michael Moore clip




and than this week:

Brilliant tactician, charismatic guerilla known as the Lion of the Panjshir, and wily survivor, Ahmad Shah Massoud an opponent of both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, was assassinated twenty years ago, September 9, 2001. A mythical figure, he was seen as the last hope by Afghans who were living under the Taliban regime.

The tables turned in a dramatic fashion when the Taliban regime fell shortly after they were attacked by American forces and their allies. The Northern Alliance, Massoud's army, guided the bombers as they pursued the Taliban fighters.

wonder if things would have been different if he had lived