Afghanistan

I understand that the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division has told the commander of the British special forces at the Kabul airport to cease operations beyond the airport perimeter.

Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army’s 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request.

The US embassy in Afghanistan has issued a security alert advising American citizens to avoid travelling to Kabul’s airport.

In its advisory on its website, the embassy warned of “potential security threats outside the gates” of the airport.

“We are advising US citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so,” it said.

Thought Joe had this under control?

When politicians and journalists talk about Afghanistan, most of them do not know what it really is. That is to say, they are distracted by the fact that it has had a flag, a territory, and a name, and until recently, its official representatives participated in a variety of international forums, such as the United Nations.

The rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s armed forces may have surprised President Biden but dozens of reports from a federal watchdog revealed how the U.S. bungled efforts to shore up the country.

From millions spent on military planes left rotting at Kabul’s international airport to the billions of dollars wasted trying and failing to eradicate the country’s opium crops, the dispatches from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Illustrated the fraud and abuse that derailed a $145 billion effort.

‘If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that could sustain itself and pose little threat to U.S. national security interests, the overall picture in Afghanistan is bleak,’ John Sopko concluded in his most report published this week.

“… The Afghan army didn’t “surrender”.

Its Pashtun members surrendered to the Taliban who are fellow Pashtuns. Hazaras fled to Iran and took our equipment with them for the benefit of Hezbollah, the Houthis, and any other Shiite terrorists. The Uzbeks fled to Uzbekistan.

There’s no Afghanistan. It’s a collection of tribes whose members are loyal to their own.”

One of the most insightful reports I’ve seen about the state of evacuation outside of a Clarissa Ward segment on CNN. David Fox works in Kabul, is married to an Afghan woman, and has a young son with her. One would think that would make them a priority for evacuation, but there’s a problem: The crowding outside Karzai International Airport is so chaotic that they simply can’t get to a gate to make contact with troops or diplomats within.

TALIBAN propaganda channels are showing brazen fanatics tooled up in the streets of Kabul in what appears to be stolen US-made military gear.

The ISIS-style video shows troops armed to the teeth with modern military equipment — rather than the militants’ signature AK-47 slung over the shoulder.