BF2S Forums America has lost the war in Afghanistan

Some people get tired of apartments, neighborhoods, jerky neighbors, overbearing community rules and dream of the elbow room and/or not feeling obliged to maintain a military trim on their grass lawns. There is also that romanticized notion as well. And the thought of property as an investment.

I'd probably have a food garden with easy crops no larger than the time I'm willing to spend on it. An unattached garage and workshop would be pretty nifty as well, plus enough space in the house to dedicate an out-of-the-way room for various books and nerd kitsch (video game consoles, carts, discs) that would for once get to be visible outside of a cardboard packing box. I might would even contribute to the "post pictures of your gaming place" thread.

This is hinging on an ideal set of circumstances though that could very well not come to pass. A pipe dream even for a lot of boomers. The pandemic on top of everything else has done a real number on things, unless you're in the top wealth bracket that got richer.

On the bright side, I don't have to worry about the Taliban showing up to brutally execute me because I said they did Bad Things.

e: I did have a place possibly lined up once, but a prospector got to it and flipped for a ridiculous sum, rent or buy. Barely did any work to it. FrEe MaRkEt.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2021-08-15 01:39:14)

zero resistance. taliban just marched right into the halls of power and took it back.

that march into kabul must have come at the cost to the american taxpayer of about a billion dollars per yard.

gj!

in the latter case all they had to do was go sit on their home acres and count their rocks for about 15 years.

Unpopular opinion but the Taliban taking over the country so quickly is a godsend. If the war dragged out another half a decade or decade, the likelihood of us having to go back in would be much higher. The Taliban winning such a swift and overwhelming victory really dissipates any notion we would have a reason to be there.

I am skeptical of the criticism that Trump legitimized the Taliban by negotiating with them. I don't see the harm in attempting to negotiate with anyone who is willing to try to negotiate with us. There must have been Taliban hardliners who were angry leadership was negotiating with the "infidels". Don't fall into the "America fuck yeah" trap where you start to think people will grovel if we bomb them enough.

I saw the Taliban in the presidential office. At least they were smart enough not to be dressed like ISIS ninjas. They took over the broadcasting station and promised the people of Kabul there won't be any bloodshed and to please stay home while things get worked out. They haven't entered the last district where the embassies are. They also promised not to attack them. U.S. leadership met with the Taliban in Doha to warn them not to attack while we evacuate.

We just need to be hopeful the evacuation goes smooth and the Taliban keeps their promise to not allow AQ to set up bases. I would be unsurprised if the Taliban is reasonable to deal with once they feel comfortable in power. They aren't totally brain dead savages. Savages don't win wars as near bloodlessly and quick as they did.

I like the idea of partitioning "shit hole countries". Of course that runs into the major problem of population exchanges. Those rarely go smoothly. In the case of Afghanistan it wouldn't have made a difference unless foreign countries were given ethnic/religiously similar pieces of territory in order to create regional investment. The Taliban would have rolled a bunch of little states just as quickly once we left. Partitioning Iraq three ways would have been a major success I believe though.

I'm pretty sure the U.N. charter has language specifically against violent territorial expansion. So most of the world's borders are frozen. Of course it is easy to advocate people far away needing to give up their homes from the comfort of my bed in NJ.

This time we can have AI do it. Maybe Facebook can make an ethnic cleansing algorithm.

Biden currently looks like an empty grin, going for the soundbite of the '20 year war', now its an utter disaster

It would have been ideal to have maintained the status quo of US troops in Afghanistan to more or less do nothing but provide moral support to the Afghans and the fear of JDAMs to the Taliban for two reasons.

- It would have kept the Taliban out

- It would have kept goobers who just wanted free college out of the army, as there would be an ever present threat they might actually be rotated into an actual warzone

Would have had to be kept going for multiple generations, still better than the alternative.

Some time someone is going to have to take a hard look at Pakistan and all the support and money they've been given - which seems to have resulted in a relaxed and wealthy Taliban ready to operate at the drop of a hat.

These guys haven't been living in caves the last 20 years, they're fat and healthy.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2021-08-16 03:21:01)

Dilbert_X wrote:

Biden currently looks like an empty grin, going for the soundbite of the '20 year war', now its an utter disaster

It would have been ideal to have maintained the status quo of US troops in Afghanistan to more or less do nothing but provide moral support to the Afghans and the fear of JDAMs to the Taliban for two reasons.

- It would have kept the Taliban out

- It would have kept goobers who just wanted free college out of the army, as there would be an ever present threat they might actually be rotated into an actual warzone

Would have had to be kept going for multiple generations, still better than the alternative.

Some time someone is going to have to take a hard look at Pakistan and all the support and money they've been given - which seems to have resulted in a relaxed and wealthy Taliban ready to operate at the drop of a hat.

These guys haven't been living in caves the last 20 years, they're fat and healthy.

I mentioned before that the war was a continuing moral wound. "We can spend trillions on Afghanistan but can't have universal healthcare" etc.

The war was costing us $50 billion a year. That's basically covers the cost of the food stamp expansion yesterday. We can't stay there or elsewhere forever. What makes Afghanistan's people anymore special than say Haiti's people or Ethiopia's?

I was watching CNN this morning. The Taliban has been doing all of the right moves so far. They aren't attacking the airport. Civilians trying to flee breached it but no suicide bombers got through or attempted to. CNN has a lady reporter on the ground still going around doing interviews. The Taliban fighters were willing to be interviewed by the white woman. She said they seemed calm and friendly. The Taliban group was happy to be on camera. The reporter eventually had to leave once a hardliner showed up to complain about her being there. That's life for you. Always someone has to ruin it for everyone. That guy is also probably gay.

The Taliban spokesman gave an interview to CNN in English. He promised that there will be no attacks on people trying to flee. Again the right move. I am hopeful that the Taliban are reasonable to work with at the moment.

I am grateful this happened now instead of closer to the midterm elections. I think media people are being melodramatic about this. The comments on many conservative sites are supportive of the withdrawal. Eventually they will turn but I expect the vast majority of American voters are happy to wash their hands of Afghanistan.

Didn't Pakistan have to operate as go-between after the Taliban killed a bunch of Iranians, or am I remembering something else?

Anyway, Iran would probably be cool with Afghanistan being ruled by velociraptors so long as water is secure.

Non-stop flights like this. Saw one video of two people falling off of a plane while it was in the air. They held onto it until I guess they couldn't any longer and dropped. Pictures of their bodies are going around right now but I didn't click the link when I saw it. Not in the mood.

ISIS took credit for killing a Taliban commander. When the Taliban took control of a prison in Kabul, they sought out the former leader of ISIS who was imprisoned there and killed him. Somewhat comical the U.S. was only thing keeping that guy alive.

Other stuff
""Who is going to protect the childrens now...""
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout … drens_now/

"CNN reporter on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan: “They’re just chanting ‘Death to America,’ but they seem friendly at the same time.”"
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout … keover_in/

I watched that air live on CNN before they went to the welcome back commercial.

Last edited by SuperJail Warden (2021-08-16 15:39:01)

Public freakouts is such a rabbit hole. Clicked on one of mac's antivaxxer links, ended up seeing Taliban(?) guys using gym equipment wrongly: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout … the_first/

Comments on point as expected.

Fajitajitas
Great now they’ve discovered our secrets to 10 min abs

kookiemonsta420
What about 9 minute abs?

Fajitajitas
God help us if they find 8 min abs

Dry-Departure-7320
No not 7 minutes abs

NihilisticSquirrel
6 minute abs and it's game over.

Looks like the same stuff but with giant captions in the middle of the videos.