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Taliban captures most of Helmand province’s capital in southern Afghanistan
LA Times ^ | 8/3/2021 | TAMEEM AKHGAR AND RAHIM FAIEZ

Posted on 08/03/2021 10:40:21 AM PDT by Vlad0

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban furthered its advances in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, capturing nine out of 10 districts of Helmand province’s capital, Lashkar Gah, residents and officials said. Afghan government forces launched airstrikes, backed by the U.S., in a desperate effort to defend the city.

The fall of Lashkar Gah would be a major turning point in the offensive that the Taliban has waged over recent months as U.S. and NATO forces complete their pullout from the war-torn country. It would also be the first provincial capital captured by the Taliban in years.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; islam; taliban; terrorism; war
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The Afghan Army is so desperate they are bombing their own city, even though it's full of their own non-combatant citizens. It's hard to take their complaints about the Taliban "war crimes" too seriously, given their own actions. The fact that the USA is participating in this is problematical. Look, when you withdraw, WITHDRAW.

Biden has made a blood soaked disaster of Afghanistan, and it's almost impossible to imagine that Trump would not have done a much better job. (On all parts of the withdrawl).

Trump was successfully negotiating with the Taliban. When Biden unilaterally violated to main term of the agreement, moving the withdrawal date back by months, well how can you expect your adversary to continue negotiating when you have show such bad faith.

So, obviously, they decided to forgo more negotiation and take matters into their own hands, militarily.

1 posted on 08/03/2021 10:40:22 AM PDT by Vlad0
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To: Vlad0

Don’t care anymore. Afghanistan had twenty years to figure it out.

Not my circus, not my monkeys.


2 posted on 08/03/2021 10:41:53 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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Prayers up for the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
War is Hell, I hope it ends quickly.


3 posted on 08/03/2021 10:41:59 AM PDT by Vlad0
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To: Vlad0

The name of the Cloward-Piven game is chaos.

It’s all good.


4 posted on 08/03/2021 10:42:55 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." ― Mao Zedong)
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To: Vlad0

> Trump was successfully negotiating with the Taliban. <

Okay, but the end result would have been just the same. The Taliban wants the whole country, and they will take the whole country. Then bloody revenge killings of “collaborators” will follow.

I don’t blame Biden, Trump, or Obama much here. All three were just playing the bad hand they were dealt. This fiasco is all on George W. Bush.


5 posted on 08/03/2021 10:47:33 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: Vlad0

Well... Darn.


6 posted on 08/03/2021 10:48:14 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Vlad0

We made a horrific strategic mistake in supporting the Afghans when the Soviets invaded in 1979. We should’ve left that issue to that side of the world.


7 posted on 08/03/2021 10:48:20 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Enough. Divide the country.. now. )
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To: Vlad0
'Trump was successfully negotiating with the Taliban. '

Define success, define what was being negotiated that would have been different. We are leaving, just as Trump wanted.

8 posted on 08/03/2021 10:52:09 AM PDT by Theoria
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To: ScottinVA

Yep.


9 posted on 08/03/2021 10:52:52 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

But our dead and our treasure.


10 posted on 08/03/2021 10:55:39 AM PDT by SkyDancer (I Identify As Vaccinated - non-injected.)
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To: SkyDancer

Sunk costs now.


11 posted on 08/03/2021 10:56:47 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Could not agree more! This is a tribal society that wants to fight and kill each other. It’s not a real country. Somebody just drew lines on a map and said “this here is Afghanistan!”

We should have gone in, crushed the Taliban, found and killed bin Laden, and gotten back out. The idea that we were going to build a functioning society out of that backward stone age junkyard was always pure fantasy and a waste of taxpayer money.


12 posted on 08/03/2021 10:59:25 AM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

And the thing is, when we finally get Bin Laden, it was in Pock-Ee-Stan, not Afghanistan.


13 posted on 08/03/2021 11:00:02 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ScottinVA

Hindsight is easy. At the time, that campaign was brutally effective at hurting the Soviets both in terms of their financials and their morale. Both of those were key components to beating them.

Was it a perfect strategy? Clearly not, and we should have planned for what came next. But we didn’t.


14 posted on 08/03/2021 11:02:19 AM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: dfwgator

There goes our supply of mayonaise!

https://www.hellmanns.com/us/en/products/mayonnaise/real-mayonnaise.html

Biden’s fault!


15 posted on 08/03/2021 11:04:37 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie (When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest
Somebody just drew lines on a map and said “this here is Afghanistan!”

It's what the British couldn't conquer once they took everything up to the Khyber Pass. The Russians and Persians didn't go there, either. It's basically a bunch of tribes who hate each other but hate any invader even more.

16 posted on 08/03/2021 11:13:55 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: dfwgator

No, that raid was BS, I think you know that.


17 posted on 08/03/2021 11:21:49 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: colorado tanker

It’s exactly that. That’s also Iraq, Pakistan, and much of Sub-Saharan Africa. All these colonies where somebody drew lines that made sense for the empire; not so much for the people living there. Ideally, those lines would simply get re-drawn so that people who haven’t been mortal enemies for 1,000 years aren’t forced to share power in a government or kill each other for control.


18 posted on 08/03/2021 11:23:37 AM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: Bulwyf

I don’t believe that Tora Bora nonsense.


19 posted on 08/03/2021 11:24:01 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

Fair enough, but..... never again.


20 posted on 08/03/2021 11:25:02 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Enough. Divide the country.. now. )
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