Posted on 08/12/2021 8:37:06 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement that U.S. troops will be gone from Afghanistan by Aug. 31 will remove the most formidable obstacle to total Taliban takeover of the country. The Taliban claim they already control as much as 85 percent of Afghan territory. In the absolute best-case scenario, the Afghan government and the Taliban might share power, but that seems increasingly like wishful thinking.
Amid all of this regional angst, China is quietly attempting to secure its interests in post-U.S. Afghanistan. Beijing has reportedly been actively engaging with Kabul on construction of the Peshawar-Kabul motorway, which would connect Pakistan to Afghanistan and make Kabul a participant in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Once completed, these projects should enable Beijing to pursue its goals of increased trade with the region and natural resource extraction in Afghanistan. Afghanistan may possess nearly a trillion dollars’ worth of extractable rare-earth metals within its mountains.
With a Taliban takeover looming, China received some good news two weeks ago: Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said in an interview that “China is a friendly country and we welcome it for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan … if [the Chinese] have investments, of course we will ensure their safety.” On the sensitive issue of whether the Taliban might support alleged Uyghur militants against China in neighboring Xinjiang, Shaheen noted, “We care about the oppression of Muslims, be it in Palestine, in Myanmar, or in China, and we care about the oppression of non-Muslims anywhere in the world. But what we are not going to do is interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
For its part, while Beijing officially supports Afghan national reconciliation, it is also sending strong signals that it plans to treat the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan should such a moment come to pass.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
This will not end well for China.
It has the appearance of another piece put in place for the apocalypse.
How do you say “Me love you long time” in Pashtun?
The Taliban are a creation of Pakistani military intelligence some 30 years ago and Pakistan is allied with Communist China.
Our war in Afghanistan was doomed from the start. We watched the Soviet Union try for years to tame the place and we chuckled as they failed. The people who live there are for the most part unhappy. We are not going to free them unless we are prepared to kill massive numbers of people. And it would help if we legalized opium because of the fact that it is their cashiest of cash crops. Illegal opium is their main export.
At any rate, Iraq was easy by comparison. Lumping Iraq with Afghanistan was a colossal mistake, or else part of a very clever plan. I am inclined to think plan. A sink for conservative young men, perhaps. Or a place to test weapons.
They are psychotic 7th century Muhammad nuts. No chance of change
The white race is doomed . Whether it be in Africa , Europe , America ...The PLAN is to rid the world of as many white people as possible .
Big win for China’s drug road.
I don’t think the Belt and Road blackmail will work with these guys.
Bide is handing Afghanistan over to China and the Taliban
د پیسو لپاره ډیری جنسیت
This is actually positive.
China will not tolerate Muslim attacks on Han Chinese.
The Russians won’t want China in their backyard.
The Taliban would use the money and not grow opium.
The losers will be the ordinary Afghani people.
What exactly is this "white race"? Caucasians? If yes, then Caucasians are from a span from South Indian Tamils through Iranians, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Sicilians, through to the Irish and the Norwegians.
That's about 3 billion people - nearly 40% of the world's population.
Far, far from "doomed".
#2. Exactly the opposite. It will end in disaster for the Taliban. The Red Chinese have no qualms about leveling city blocks or who cities if they want to defeat their enemies. As the No. Vietnamese during their war with Red China in the 80’s.
In a war between the Red Chinese imperialists and the Taliban goat-humpers, my money is on Peking.
The Russians were the same way, as were the Brits back in the day.
The reason why the Russians lost is because we backed the Mujahideen with, among other things, Stinger missiles. Before that, they were winning.
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