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

No the vast majority of Afghans do not support the Taliban,,,,if they did, they would have been back in power 10-15 years ago by popular demand. And when they left after sept 11th, lots of them didn't make it. The road to Kandahar was was littered with burned out and crashed Taliban vehicles, and plenty of dead Talibs as the Afghan population took revenge for the misery inflicted on them during their reign..and now they are back, and people are afraid, very afraid, and they are right. This takeover happened with lightening speed, but if it had been slowed down a bit, thousand and thousands more Afghans would have escaped. And in fact many thousands did get out, the ones who could see what was coming. Now, you will have public displays of seemingly smiling happy Afghans, delighted to see their "old Friends " back. Sure, their Nrs have increased, when it became clear that they faced no opposition, thats been normal behaviour since time began,people will side with the winners. Road to Damascus conversions.

and thats only the US cost. I assume they account for ~70% of total. so add on another ~126m per day.

apparently UK officials went to moscow before this looking for advice, the report goes the russians just laughed at the folly.

One person who was at the meeting recalled: "When the Russians stopped laughing they told us: 'You will make the same bad choice we did, you will go in, you will lose, many of you will die and then you'll be forced to retreat, which will be good for us. How can we help?'"

https://news.sky.com/story/events-in-afghanistan-could-hardly-have-played-out-in-a-better-way-for-russia-12383629

Voting and tacit support are different things. Into the bargain there was an incredibly low turnout rate for 2019 and 2018. Less than 2 million out of 9 million registered voters in a country of 38 million. In the election Abdullah accused Ghani of rigging it. Whether there's any truth to that is lost forever.

In any case, what I DO know is that a few thousand men don't take over a large country like Afghanistan unless there is support of some kind. That just does not happen. There were even guys taking selfies with Taliban fighters as they rolled into town.

Were they though?

I know we disagree here, but the late 90's was the only period in Afghan history of the last 40 years where they weren't either at all out war or under foreign occupation. I can't see them being "ousted" domestically at that time.

If that was the case that the Afghans hated the Taliban to a man, then they would have been toast within the last 20 years. I cannot imagine a scenario whereby you have a group like that hiding out unless there's support for them somewhere.

US Govt deleting what it can from the internet that may endanger our allies in Afghanistan

Well of course, they never subdued the NA, but on the rest of the population, they kept a murderous grip ( literally ) and first thng they did afer "restoring the peace" was a countrywide drive collecting weapons ( has started already here and now) So an unarmed population is basically helpless. But like I said earlier, if they had that kind of support, they would not have spent 20 years in the wilderness, They would have been back in power a long time ago. Yes there was support for them, but not in Afghanistan. Pakistan being the main suspect, but also others...who had it in for the US, ? and did not want a strong independent Afghanistan?

If they want to keep power they will have to be on their best behaviour

all i can say about this is for those in the left wing extremist media "simping" for Joe Biden since even before he won the election, the shitshow of a pull out from Afghanistan is all on those lot. For example, even here in ireland Pat Kenny spent an inordinate amount of time giving out about trump(i guess, you to turn him on, pat just waffeled orange man bad, turn him off. that was my last 4 years of morning radio on newstalk). has he spent the same time calling out Biden's now 2 humaitarian crises? his weirdo pervert criminal son?

These "journalists" worldwide but particularly in the USA itself have emboldened Biden to make such a catastrophic mess of their exit from Afghanistan. He hasn't got even handed questioning, simply got an easy ride from all except Fox and i bet he felt he could do what he liked without any bad press. it won't last long though, it won't be long before the US government turns their military attention to their own citizens

who cares really though? we, in the west, are ok with the treastment of women in the middle east, the treatment of minorities in china etc. we send them our money and they send us their cheap oil and knock off products.

hell, we didn't even force the catholic church to reform after all their recent scandals!

it's all about the money, power and control, morals and whats right be damned

Apologies but I'm getting an error when I try to post the link.

I've cropped the screenshot and hopefully it's a little clearer.