Afghanistan - an end in sight?

[Doc67]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/16/trump-t ... istan.html

It seems like Trump might be able to deliver an election pledge to remove troops from Afghanistan before the 2020 election.

This is also worth a read:

From Vietnam to Afghanistan: America’s losing gambler syndrome

https://capx.co/from-vietnam-to-afghani ... -241803361

[frank lee bent]

But who will protect the crops then?

[Doc67]

The Poppy Crops?

Don't the Taliban have the franchise for them?

Maybe, with their new found freedom and wealth, they will want to be seed capital investors for Trump's plan to buy Greenland!

[frank lee bent]

The Taliban closed opium production entirely prior to the entry of the USA into the country.

A great deal of it goes to Iran which has one of the highest addiction rates on the planet.

Trump canceled his visit to Denmark today after he learned Greenland is not for sale.

His petulant and juvenile response was the cause of great hilarity in the media.

His crackpot idea has eroded his base even further.

Every day seems to bring another example of his derangement.

[Clutch Cargo]

The middle kingdom shares a small border... maybe they will fill the void. The Brits, Ruskies and yanks all had a go, maybe it's their turn..

[frank lee bent]

" an easy place to March into, a hard place to March out of"
Alexander

[Spigzy]

The middle kingdom shares a small border... maybe they will fill the void. The Brits, Ruskies and yanks all had a go, maybe it's their turn..

Perhaps controversial, but I'm starting to think that nobody should have a go. Just let them duke it out internally like the European countries did centuries ago.

It reminds me when two Khmers get in a fight and a foreigner tries to intervene to quell the situation, the foreigner ends up being the common enemy and the two Khmers remember to kill their fellow countryman with the 'Khmer stare & pointing' another day instead ... Better leave them to it.

[Kuroneko]

Ah Afghanistan, a case of - "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Edmund Burke (1729-1797)



What we have learned from... Retreat from Kabul, 1842

In 1839 the British invaded Afghanistan, aiming to replace a Russian-leaning emir with one more amenable to Crown interests in India. That August the British-Indian Army of the Indus entered Kabul and put a puppet ruler on the throne. Declaring victory and withdrawing most of their army, the British ignored Afghans’ resentment toward both the emir and the occupiers..........

On Nov. 2, 1841 a mob stormed the Kabul house of the British deputy envoy and killed him, while 4,500 nearby soldiers failed to intervene. Emboldened by British passivity, the mob looted the supply depot. While Elphinstone pondered his options, the rebels cut his supply line to India and attacked isolated outposts. In late November a British detachment tried in vain to push rebel snipers off the surrounding hills, leaving behind their dead, their wounded and their honor..............

On Jan. 6, 1842, a column of 16,500 soldiers and civilians marched from the cantonment in deep snow and subzero temperatures. Afghan tribesman immediately attacked the rear guard and looted the supply train. The column covered scarcely 6 miles the first two days, many perishing from enemy fire or the cold. The few organized armed units were unable to mount a defense, as civilians clogged the route. On the third day the British entered a narrow 4-mile pass and suffered some 3,000 casualties as tribesmen sniped from above. Lacking tents, food or fuel, the column became a mob. Over the next two days scores of British officers and their families surrendered, while the Afghans ruthlessly slew their sepoy servants. Elphinstone himself was seized while seeking to negotiate safe passage...................

Within six days of leaving Kabul most of the 12,000 civilians and 4,500 soldiers had perished. On January 13 a single exhausted horseman—Assistant Surgeon William Brydon—rode into the British garrison at Jalalabad. Questioned about the fate of the army, he is said to have replied, “I am the army.”
https://www.historynet.com/learned-retr ... rne-jr.htm

[Spigzy]

Ah Afghanistan, a case of - "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." Edmund Burke (1729-1797)



What we have learned from... Retreat from Kabul, 1842

In 1839 the British invaded Afghanistan, aiming to replace a Russian-leaning emir with one more amenable to Crown interests in India. That August the British-Indian Army of the Indus entered Kabul and put a puppet ruler on the throne. Declaring victory and withdrawing most of their army, the British ignored Afghans’ resentment toward both the emir and the occupiers..........

On Nov. 2, 1841 a mob stormed the Kabul house of the British deputy envoy and killed him, while 4,500 nearby soldiers failed to intervene. Emboldened by British passivity, the mob looted the supply depot. While Elphinstone pondered his options, the rebels cut his supply line to India and attacked isolated outposts. In late November a British detachment tried in vain to push rebel snipers off the surrounding hills, leaving behind their dead, their wounded and their honor..............

On Jan. 6, 1842, a column of 16,500 soldiers and civilians marched from the cantonment in deep snow and subzero temperatures. Afghan tribesman immediately attacked the rear guard and looted the supply train. The column covered scarcely 6 miles the first two days, many perishing from enemy fire or the cold. The few organized armed units were unable to mount a defense, as civilians clogged the route. On the third day the British entered a narrow 4-mile pass and suffered some 3,000 casualties as tribesmen sniped from above. Lacking tents, food or fuel, the column became a mob. Over the next two days scores of British officers and their families surrendered, while the Afghans ruthlessly slew their sepoy servants. Elphinstone himself was seized while seeking to negotiate safe passage...................

Within six days of leaving Kabul most of the 12,000 civilians and 4,500 soldiers had perished. On January 13 a single exhausted horseman—Assistant Surgeon William Brydon—rode into the British garrison at Jalalabad. Questioned about the fate of the army, he is said to have replied, “I am the army.”
https://www.historynet.com/learned-retr ... rne-jr.htm

Also read that account, it is quite astounding.

[Kuroneko]

This is a good read on the subject, if you have not already read it:



he Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road—both powers scrambling to control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to twenty miles at some points.