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

20 years is some wait though especially when you think there was no guarantee that the children in 2001 were going to follow you as adults when you decide to rise up in 2020

Maybe it's this bit of the Taliban statement that means they now will enjoy some acceptance from the US:

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is not interested in anyone's private property, (not in anyone's cars, not in anyone's land and houses, not in anyone's markets and shops), rather it considers protection of lives and properties of the nation its primary responsibility.

Private Property being the foremost right in the eyes of the US

Their slogan being Tiocfaidh Allah!😛

Option B, in most cases, but there's always that one guy who said he'd been in the forces or whatever. Anyway, this situation has been played out before. How much military resistance did the Taliban put up to the initial U.S. invasion? Very little, really, and the country was under U.S. control within 2 months. Were Taliban fighters cowards for running away or defecting? Same thing with the Saddam's Republican Guard. The amount of actual resistance they put up was pathetic in comparison to how much they had been bigged-up over the years. They all pretty much ran off as well.

The problem is, I think, is that most people on the ground in Afghanistan never believed in the project that was the central Afghan government under the U.S.A. To them, it was just the administrative puppet of a foreign occupier and certainly not something they were prepared to lay down their lives for.

I agree with the idea of leaving Afghanistan to its own devices. So long as the Taliban don't allow the country to become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism, no-one really cares what they do, and even if they do let training camps be set up, there's always drones to make them think twice.

Yup, and its exactly whats happening today with the Afghan military. What most people dont understand about that ( and other ) part of the world, is that for the majority of the population, each day is a struggle for survival. The rains dont come, the harvest is bad, the Cow dies, food is scarce, its a hard life. No job? No money..no money -no food,, Family suffers. Its that basic. And in Afghanistan, most of the population is rural based, and not in the cities. Cultivating the poppy is a major ( and sometimes the only ) income generating source. So for many, a job in the military ( even Taliban) is not borne out of a particular wish to serve or defend the country, its a way of earning money. And is definitely not in the plan to die ( and therefore leave the family with out a breadwinner )

Well an estimated 60K Afghani soldiers have died battling militants over the last 20 years so I don't know is it that simple. Though I suppose those soldiers probably behave very differently when they've got US commanders on the ground 'motivating' them

I do get why the ANA collapsed completely without offering any resistance, incredible and all as it is and hard to believe. I don't quite get how there was essentially zero opposition to the Taliban from any other local warlords and their militias.

Homeland Season 8, set amid discussions between the Afghan Govt and Taliban, was released last year and although fiction it's fascinating and impressive how closely it was mirroring developments at the time - even long after it had wrapped up filming.

I feel really sorry for women and minorities under the new rulers and think there are questions to answer about the chaotic manner of the US exit but overall think it was inevitable.

I remember the same sort of people saying all the Syrians fleeing should be sent back to fight etc. It's such an inhumane attitude from people who are living in safety and really bugs me.

What the Afghans needed was someone like your namesake from The Boys! I think maybe the American army is just very bad at training foreign soldiers as they were in south Vietnam and Iraq or maybe they suspected some of the recruits were actually Taliban so were actually trained a lot of their enemy. I don't think the Afghan army could fight the Taliban in the same way the US could, it would just be too expensive for a small poor country, even if they had an airforce, bombs cost a lot of money.

They're on the one road

I believe about 50% of the Afghan population has been living in territories either controlled by, or contested by the Taliban for a good while now, unfortunately for a lot of them this day was coming. The speed with which the Afghan military collapsed is astounding, but something that should have been factored in to the scenario analysis.

Yes, let them enjoy while they can...All I can see is two bumpers with Taliban in them ( maybe there's more ) first time in their Lives probably, and same with the Gym,,,,another first, What did surprise me was a Talib taking pic's......thats a new one!!! There was nothing like this last time,,,basically any form of enjoyment was forbidden, and there was certainly no spare electricity for Bumpers.Taliban economics quickly ground everything down to zero.....no maintenance, machinery broke down.Electrical infrastructure, Water pumping stations etc all failed for the same reason,

I'd say there will be some interesting conversations going on in the US administration about the quality of their intelligence gathering. I'd imagine they wouldn't have ended up in this chaotic situation if their information had told them the Afghan army would collapse in a few days. It's strange they didn't plan for that as a worst case scenario though.

Showing my age here, but after 9/11 there was an Internet meme floating round of "Afghanistan TV listings". The only one I can remember is 'Tallytubbies"