US and Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan...- threadbanned users in OP

I would say there are some ambitious PLA officers that are tweaking plans as we speak.

Yeah. I was thinking that too. A lot of allies in precarious situations feeling worried today.

Well I know the consequences of the Taliban getting IN to power so I dont know why they got such a welcome. The US kept them at bay at least.

Neither fighting the Taliban or welcoming the Taliban seem great, yet the Afghans immediately gave up.

That's intended for US domestic consumption to excuse the failure of foreign intervention (See Samantha Power and RTP), it is out of touch with the reality and fails to acknowledge the reality of the lives of people who live in Afghanistan whose per capita income is estimated at something like $2,000. When you are dirt poor survival matters more than freedom and democracy.

As a tangent a more interesting understanding of what the region is conservative may come from the parasite-stress theory that disease shapes human behaviour and that liberal freedom and democracy as we understand it only came about through the control of disease. Recently discussed by Dr. Randy Thornhill in an interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson.

Venezuela could be a candidate?

Could certainly see the Japanese scrapping article nine of their constitution in the near future.

It makes perfect sense Afghanistan is a patchwork of different ethnic communities, and their only loyalty is to their clans and then their ethnic group. The "leadership" structure inserted by the US were in it for dollars, backed up by US military fire power and paid for by borrowing dollars (i.e. reducing future consumption of anyone who uses the dollar and currencies tied to it). The leaders no power outside areas close to US military bases. Removing the dollars and the US military and they collapsed like a house of cards and all the ethnic groups that make up the army retreat to their enclaves, the concept of defending corrupt state leaders when you can't feed your family is not very appealing.

they were trained for 20 years, given millions in cash and weapons. surely the time for them to stand on their own 2 feet? some cultures just haven't got the fight in them. that's why they get ruled.

Course there are consequences. same as there are consequences of running away and jumping on the wheels of a military plane as its about to take off.

Currently the US federal apparatus is focused inwards there is significant disagreement within its domestic population on multiple issues (economic lock-downs, border control, debt, taxation) to start any more wars to "unify the population". Based on history they did not bother doing much for a decade after Vietnam (Grenada, Panama) before they launched the new world order on Iraq nearly 2 decades afterwards.

The US military even though it consumes much resources is not currently capable of fighting a major conflict, they can do some damage by standing offshore and firing missiles from a distance, but substantial boots on the ground is not possible. One of the reasons being the experience of the multiple tours forced on them during the second Iraq war and no war pay, you had to become a contractor to earn the big bucks. A substantial number of essential people like doctors left the military service. In addition they wore down much of their equipment over the course of 2 decades. Politically the Pentagon is more focused on being woke while the money keeps on rolling in.

You say that the tactics of the Afghan army are modelled after the US one, where air support provides a pivotal role, so why then would you omit the 8k air force personnel in your total afghan army figures? The only purpose would be to minimize the number of personnel.

Infact, the agreement is the US would continue to provide air support to the Afghan army after withdrawal.

Additionally, if we tally up the advanced weaponry the Afghan army had at their disposal, i'm sure it would exceed the wildest dreams of any insurgent group.

It doesn’t matter. In a week the US media will have forgotten about this and long term most American voters will be happy that they are no longer involved. Republicans will continue to try and use it as a stick to beat Biden with but there isn’t much political capital to made there. The American public doesn’t care about the plight of normal Afghans and they won’t have to take in any refugees.

Is it just the Yanks that we should be banning? We've had military flights from Saudi Arabia and China land, both having questionable human rights records.