What is going on in Afghanistan? The Taliban has taken back Afghanistan, after their lightning quick offensive, which began on May 1st. What will the future hold for Afghanistan? What about the Afghani women? This episode explains the potential future of the former American Satellite State.
Includes stories of an American soldier and stories of Afghan refugees.
What is going on in Afghanistan? The Taliban has taken back Afghanistan, after their lightning quick offensive, which began on May 1st. What will the future hold for Afghanistan? What about the Afghani women? This episode explains the potential future of the former American Satellite State.
Includes stories of an American soldier and stories of Afghan refugees.
The Taliban and the future of Afghanistan UPDATE
The Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has fled Afghanistan, handing over power to the Taliban. The US originally assumed their satellite Afghan government would fall after their withdrawal but placed its survival, quite optimistically at 2 years after US and Nato forces withdrew. By July as US and NATO forces began exiting the country the Taliban rapidly retook many parts of the country. The US changed their prediction to 6 months.
This seems to have also been a gross exaggeration as less than a month after that prediction President Ghani fled the country.
INSERT KABUL AIRPORT RUSH
Citizens of Afghanistan are fleeing to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul to escape the country. Chaos has erupted as the Taliban enterted Kabul the final city of the Islamic republic of Afghanistan. Soon it would be changed to the IEA or Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban.
Gunshots can be heard as the Taliban encroaches upon the remaining strongholds of US, NATO and Afghan government forces.
President Biden rushed 5,000 troops to Kabul to evacuate the remaining American citizens and allies, many have been calling this a SAIGON moment. As of now taliban forces have entered the presidential palace. Expecting a transition of power from the former western puppet state. It is unclear what the future holds for the newly declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
One of the lucky people to escape landed in New Dehli and had this to say
INSERT AFGHAN DEHLI WOMAN
The Taliban was never put down, after the US invaded in 2001. They quiickyl were defeated and fled back in to the mountains to resume what they were best at. Ghostlike Geurilla warfare.
I covered this in my previous episode , The Taliban iN Afghanistan, go and check it out as I give a more detailed account of the history of the Talbian, their creation, and the history of moder Afghanistan
The US attempted to nation build, and spent years pouring money into Afghanistan to reshape the society, it failed because the US had no clear sight or plan for Afghanistan. Pouring so much money into Afghanistan led to Widespread corruption emerging all over the country which created a gangrenous wound.
The US’ main failure came with their 2003 Iraq invasion, The Taliban had been gravely wounded around this time but the US decided to refocus their efforts on Saddam Husseins WMD’s and pulled their vital resources out of Afghanistan. The Taliban began rebuilding and by 2009 they were once again a formidable force.
They also gained mass support from the civilians of Afghanistan who saw the corruption and decadence of the Western puppet Afghan goernent, and the corruption and brutality of the Afghani backed warlords that we allied with against the Taliban.
Take this soldiers story on the matter
-INSERT SOLDIER IN AFGHANISTAN ABOUT NOBODY TO FIGHT
Starting on May 1st 2021, as US and Allied troops withdrew from Afghanistan the 2021 Taliban offensive began.
Within 3 month the Taliban controlled a significant portion of the country and by August 6th they controlled 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals. by 10 August, the Taliban controlled 65% of the country's area.
The US for a final time grossly underestimated the Taliban by declaring on August 10th that Kabul could now fall between 30 – 90 days. IT lasted another 5.
As of August 15th the Taliban had reached the presidential palace and were awaiting a transfer of power
As the world panics over Afghanistan and more specifically its women, it should be noted that The US enforcing a western culture on the tribal Islamic Afghan people would be just as bizarre and unwanted as if Saudia Arabia came to America and forced their culture on us. Its common to see stories all over social media about the brutal treatment Afghan women will soon experience. While this is true again there are things of all cultures that can be seen as brutal to others. While Afghan women do experience honor killings and oppression.
85% of women in Sierra Leone have undergone Female Genital Mutilation in order to keep them more pure. Something that is not covered in the news.
IF you think these brutal cultural acts are related to poverty, you can take the oil rich Saudia Arabia, where women just got the right to vote in the 2015 elections. And got the right to drive in 2018. Saudia Arabias Purchasing power parity is close to that of the USA.
WHO are the taliban
The Taliban or Students/ Seekers see themselves as the rightful rulers of Afghanistan. Before the US invasion of 2001 they controlled 3/4s of the country and ruled with Sharia Law, or Islamic law. This law is seen as brutal by outsiders, and it can be (for example public behedings and the subjugation of women) however many preferred it to the warlords who ruled the other ¼ of Afghanistan under arbitrary law. They aer estimated to have 200,000 fighters as of 2021.
The Taliban places vast restrictions on the multi ethnic state of Afghanistan peoples to express themselves.
While the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, they banned activities and media including paintings,[75] photography,[76] and movies if they showed people or other living things,[77] and prohibited music using instruments.[78] The Taliban prevented women from attending school,[79] banned women from working jobs outside of healthcare (male doctors were prohibited from seeing women),[80] and required that women were accompanied by a male relative and wear a burqa at all times when in public.[81] If women broke certain rules, they were publicly whipped or executed.[82] Religious and ethnic minorities were heavily discriminated against during Taliban rule. According to the United Nations, the Taliban and their allies were responsible for 76% of Afghan civilian casualties in 2010, and 80% in 2011 and 2012.[83][84][85][86][87][88] The Taliban also engaged in cultural genocide, destroying numerous monuments including the famous 1500-year old Buddhas of Bamiyan.
The civilian populace was the Taliban.’
Even more shocking than the final helicopter leaving Saigon was the many Afghani civilians who stormed the tarmac and grabbed on to the final airplanes as they lifted off. Video can be seen of Afghani citizens grabbing onto the planes, many of whom fell to their death shortly after. The ones who didn’t were sure to die from exposure to the elements which could be -50 farenheit. Or lack of oxygen at those heights. Those people clearly saw it as preferable to life under the Taliban
Arafi flight
Late Monday night, hundreds of people remained trapped between American forces trying to push them out of the airport and Taliban forces trying to keep them in, witnesses said. An Associated Press journalist also saw what appeared to be an airstrike target two vehicles near the airport.
Shafi Arifi, who had a ticket to travel to Uzbekistan on Sunday, was unable to board his plane because it was packed with people who had raced across the tarmac and climbed aboard, with no police or airport staff in sight.
“There was no room for us to stand,” said the 24-year-old. “Children were crying, women were shouting, young and old men were so angry and upset, no one could hear each other. There was no oxygen to breathe.”
After a woman fainted and was carried off the plane, Arifi gave up and returned home.
The Future of Afghanistan
The Future of Afghanistan is uncertain, however many are overexaggerating the depravity of the Taliban. They are not ISIS, They are not Al-Queda. They do not want a complete destruction of non muslims. They are a government formed around an islamist doctrine similar to Saudia Arabia (perhaps with a few more battle scars.
Women will surely be subjugated under their strict indoctrination of Sharia law, but Sharia law is preferable to now law or arbitrary warlord law as seen in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over when the Mujahideen tribal warlords ruled the country.
The Taliban is allowing foreigners to leave the country, they have allowed the Americans and NATO forces to leave the country. What they want is to rule Afghanistan with their interpretation of the Quaran.
To those who are now fleeing Afghanistan as refugees…
Pakistan, Iran and Turkey are the main areas for them to go.
Pakistans 2nd largest ethnic group is the largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, The Pashtun, who ironically makeup the majority of the Taliban and are the reason for the Taliban’s existence.
This common shared culture has caused Pakistan to host the majority of Afghani refugees, over 1.4 million. Many of them were born and raised in Pakistan since the Soviet Afghan war nearly 40 years before.
After the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001, around 4.4 million Afghans were repatriated through the UNHCR from Pakistan to Afghanistan.[42] Members of the Taliban insurgents and their family reside among the Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
The north of Afghanistan is virtually impossible to cross due to the massive Himalayan mountain range, limiting refugees from escaping
In Iran, as of 2020, there were nearly 800,000 Afghan refugees and Asylum seekers. Over 2 million undocumented Afghans are assumed to be in Iran.
Iran has long been used by Afghans to reach Turkey and then the European Union where they apply for political asylum.[30][31][32]
Erdogan and Afghanistan
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/afghan-refugees-turkey/
Turkey hosts the worlds largest refugee population due to its proximity to Europe and and government policies. Hosting 4 million refugees, (including 3.5 million Syrians)
The Erdogan government of Turkey invited mass Syrian refugees into his country for numerous reasons, which I cover in a podcast series I did on the Syrian Civil war. But two of the reasons are for economic aid given by the west and for his own selfish purposes of mixing down Kurdish groups (the kurds constitute 20-25% of the Turkish population and have always tried to establish their own state.)
Allegedly Erdogan of Turkey has gone into talks with President Biden over accepting more Afghan refugees.
Many afghan refugees find themselves trekking to Turkey to escape the Taliban
A trek of roughly 3,000 kilometeres and across the country of Iran. Many border guards In Iran and Turkey will beat Afghan refugees if found.
To be smuggled across this distance costs approximately 1,000 dollars.
The European migrant crisis has been stabilized in the last 5 years, however Afghans who constitute the 3rd largest refugee group into Europe could create a new Reffugee Crisis in Europe. Destablizing countries and leading to far right nationalistic electoral victories.
Reddit guy
"This is not Saigon" - USA Secretary of State.
You are correct sir. This is much worse.
Blame should be placed on the Afghan government forces, ???