Taliban take 10th Afghan provincial capital, squeezing Kabul

apnews.com ^ | August 12, 2021 | TAMEEM AKHGAR, RAHIM FAIEZ and JON GAMBRELL

[Berlin_Freeper]

The Taliban captured a strategic provincial capital near Kabul on Thursday, the 10th the insurgents have taken in a weeklong sweep across Afghanistan just weeks before the end of the American military mission there.

Seizing Ghazni cuts off a crucial highway linking the Afghan capital with the country’s southern provinces, which similarly find themselves under assault as part of an insurgent push some 20 years after the foreign troops arrived to oust the Taliban government.

While Kabul itself isn’t directly under threat, the loss of Ghazni tightens the grip of a resurgent Taliban estimated to now hold some two-thirds of the nation, and thousands of people have fled their homes.

The latest U.S. military intelligence assessment suggests Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days and that, if current trends hold, the Taliban could gain full control of the country within a few months. The Afghan government may eventually be forced to pull back to defend the capital and just a few other cities.

[glimmerman70]

Everything we did and they are still going to fight. We have a weak leader and he is weakening our military. Get them all out and back home.

[ArcadeQuarters]

Good riddance to that useless government. We can only prop up a dead body for so long.

[JonPreston]

We need a new round of neocon Republicans who refuse to quit on useless, endless war.

[Lurker]

20 years, a trillion dollars, thousands of dead and wounded Americans, and these useless cowardly muzzie scum still won’t fight.

What an effing waste.

L

[RockyTx]

leave

[Theoria]

[Wallace T.]

This morning, I listened to Liz Cheney (Asst. D, WY) decry the withdrawal on the Hugh Hewitt show. She said that the war was justified because it prevented the Taliban and other terrorists from using Afghanistan as a safe haven. She said it was an open invitation for China, Russia, and Iran to intervene and that it sent a message that the U.S. is unreliable.

I would not disagree with Cheney's statement about American unreliability. However, that has to be weighed against the enormous cost, loss of life, and the absence of any semblance of liberal (in the Lockean or Jeffersonian sense) sentiment conducive to a society built on objective, rational law and limited government.

[PTBAA]

But, but, but, ... nation building! FU George Bush.