Afghanistan

The ANA were never really trained, saw this on twitter and do nt know if genuine but heard similar stories so adds up!-

I deployed on HERRICK VI in a role which involved training the Afghan National Army.

I knew almost instantly that the UK - and the US - were not serious about investing in the Afghan Army when I walked into the Camp. All we had done was simply take our respective Armies Basic Training Packages and delivered them, lesson for lesson - in the Pashtun language.

Day One and I walked past an earnest British CSgt giving a Brecon standard lesson on how to build a basha in a woodblock to some ANA Recruits - “Make sure you find 4 equally spaced trees, lads” before coming round a corner to find an equally hard charging US SNCO delivering a Basic Hygine lesson, demonstrating with misplaced enthusiasm how to correctly floss teeth.

The fact there was a lack of trees - and indeed a lack of teeth - in the area seemed irrelevant, as long as we could honestly report that they had all recieved NATO standard training.

The ANA - a mixture of grizzled mountain men, older Mujahideen fighters and raw recruits, spent their months looking at us like we were cnuts.

And rightly so.

Can anyone explain why there are almost no women in those airport scenes ? Have the been taken / hidden already ?

Pissedoffwithinfluencers said:

Can anyone explain why there are almost no women in those airport scenes ? Have the been taken / hidden already ?

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I think a lot of women are not out at all as they dont have hijabs etc so arent allowed out. it is stillso unfair though, objectively whoever you are women will be the worst affected by the Taliban

Pissedoffwithinfluencers said:

Can anyone explain why there are almost no women in those airport scenes ? Have the been taken / hidden already ?

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Because in a country like Afghanistan women face the choice of repression (the just fallen government) or extreme repression (the Taliban). It’s not the system of government at fault, it’s the interpretation of a religion which does not recognise women as the equals of men.

In short the Afghan women are where they have always been, strictly controlled at home, covered from head to toe, and under the “care” of their male relatives.

Pissedoffwithinfluencers said:

Can anyone explain why there are almost no women in those airport scenes ? Have the been taken / hidden already ?

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It’s terribly sad Afghan women don’t have the freedom to go and run like the men do. Some have managed to escape if you zoom in on these photos you can see there are quite a few women and children on the plane it looks male dominated but if you zoom in and look closely you can make out women and baby’s and children. There’s also a picture of a woman (in blue head scarf) holding her baby while these men try and help her toddler to try and escape also. It’s so horrific and unthinkable what could happen to all of these people

Notgonnalie said:

I don’t think it’s fair to call anyone on that plane a coward. They’re all petrified as I’m sure anyone would be if they spent 5 minutes in their position. Their people clung on to a plane that was taking off knowing there was no chance of survival but they’d rather be dead than live through that. There’s are women and children on that plane too. They’re all fleeing from the worst atrocities beyond imaginable.

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Good job our heroes fought better for their country or we would all be speaking German. The young there have had 20 years to train up to be prepared with state of the art equipment bought for them, only to surrender at the first sign of trouble.

AllSeeingEye123 said:

Good job our heroes fought better for their country or we would all be speaking German. The young there have had 20 years to train up to be prepared with state of the art equipment bought for them, only to surrender at the first sign of trouble.

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It’s not really comparable. Have you read the accounts of their training from the soldiers who trained them?

69000 Afghan soldiers died fighting against the taliban these people are not cowards by any stretch of the imagination we cannot rewrite history.

Notgonnalie said:

It’s terribly sad Afghan women don’t have the freedom to go and run like the men do. Some have managed to escape if you zoom in on these photos you can see there are quite a few women and children on the plane it looks male dominated but if you zoom in and look closely you can make out women and baby’s and children. There’s also a picture of a woman (in blue head scarf) holding her baby while these men try and help her toddler to try and escape also. It’s so horrific and unthinkable what could happen to all of these people View attachment 716276View attachment 716277

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This is horrific. There are honestly no words. It's so, so incredibly sad

Wind Fish said:

I knew almost instantly that the UK - and the US - were not serious about investing in the Afghan Army when I walked into the Camp. All we had done was simply take our respective Armies Basic Training Packages and delivered them, lesson for lesson - in the Pashtun language.

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I suspected this. Thank you for confirming.

A trained army my ass.

NeverEnough said:

Because in a country like Afghanistan women face the choice of repression (the just fallen government) or extreme repression (the Taliban). It’s not the system of government at fault, it’s the interpretation of a religion which does not recognise women as the equals of men.

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Is it the interpretation of a religion? We never had that religion in the UK but I wouldn't have wanted to be a woman in the Middle Ages. I think it's more to do with the fact male physical strength can only be managed by an effective state. Don't get me wrong I don't like big states, but a night watchman state is essential to preserve law and order.

I lived in the Emirates for a while and was surprised to find the police extremely honest and the system pretty fair. Nothing like I'd read about Arab countries and nothing like the deeply corrupt police and system in Thailand which is where I'd been before. But the Emiratis have strong and fair leadership.

As someone said earlier, some of these countries do better under a strongman leader or a king. Thailand did relatively well under their old king, whatever he was.

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The other problem is the Islamic countries and the Islamists look and our weird ass culture with trans dominance and sex education for six year olds, and constant lesbian sex on mainstream tv or whatever and they're horrified. We are everything they fear and I don't really blame them. Before the second war we had an admirable and free society, which maintained its Christian ethics, and so Britain could reasonably sell its culture as something to aspire to. Now we are a joke and our enemies will say 'well slippery slope. We could have told you the culture wars were coming'.

mcfeez said:

They spent trillions over there building an army, creating infrastructure and installing a government - how is that not nation building! The only 'winner' in this entire debacle is the US military industrial complex - stronger than ever.

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Troops didn't fully leave Germany until last year. So 20 years is nothing. You can see it's not enough time. Wait and see what happens now. it's not going to be pretty and IMO it's deliberate, they know what is now going to happen. Another war on terror.

Purrrrrrr said:

Troops didn't fully leave Germany until last year. So 20 years is nothing. You can see it's not enough time. Wait and see what happens now. it's not going to be pretty and IMO it's deliberate, they know what is now going to happen. Another war on terror.

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Another world war.

I can see it. The taliban will rally the other Islamic groups and rise against the west. Hopefully china and Russia will stay on our side.

I feel so deflated off late.

I don't think there's been much talk of how technology has changed in 20 years.

Facial recognition and algorithms have advanced so much in recent years. So maybe there's an argument that more surveillance on home soil is a better use of money? What they can do now with tech is somewhat terrifying. But at the same time with enough cameras and an algorithm something like the Manchester arena bomber would send red alerts and be neutralised quickly.

But at the same time maybe terrorists tech has improved? Smart ground to air missiles with a long range could make air travel unsafe in the future?

rosewinner said:

The other problem is the Islamic countries and the Islamists look and our weird ass culture with trans dominance and sex education for six year olds, and constant lesbian sex on mainstream tv or whatever and they're horrified. We are everything they fear and I don't really blame them. Before the second war we had an admirable and free society, which maintained its Christian ethics, and so Britain could reasonably sell its culture as something to aspire to. Now we are a joke and our enemies will say 'well slippery slope. We could have told you the culture wars were coming'.

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Whilst I agree that WOKE thought is utter BS, I still think people should be free to do what they want with their lives - as long as they aren't deliberately getting in other people's faces about it, harming others, or demanding special priviledges because they feel they should be entitled to them.

IngressUK said:

Whilst I agree that WOKE thought is utter BS, I still think people should be free to do what they want with their lives - as long as they aren't deliberately getting in other people's faces about it, harming others, or demanding special priviledges because they feel they should be entitled to them.

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I agree except they are and always will if you let them. That's the problem with shame-based identities. They have an inner psychic structure that needs external validation and 'rights' because on some level they know they're broken. That's the problem with your liberalism. You assume everyone is as sane and balanced as you.

Lanie said:

Another world war.

I can see it. The taliban will rally the other Islamic groups and rise against the west. Hopefully china and Russia will stay on our side.

I feel so deflated off late.

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That's exactly how I feel about where we're headed - another world war or in the very least another huge surge of terrorist attacks across the world.

I'm so relieved that I don't have kids.

I may be the only one who doesn't see another world war coming. I did last summer briefly when BLM were on the rampage and divisions were being stoked, but I just think we're too much a world of Netflix and chill. The Taliban won't be the same. I can't tell you what they'll be but it will be different somehow. They'll find it impossible not to be plugged in and connected. Even my students in the Emirates were obsessed with k-pop. K-pop has defined a generation of Arab school kids. Afghanistan won't be able to keep global culture out in the same way as they once did, unless they can somehow turn into North Korea. I don't think they can. They need to be engaged with China and Russia and Pakistan.

I don't see another war coming. The world's is always absolutely filled with conflict. Comparatively compared with the history of humanity we live in times that are very peaceful.

Pinkii said:

Well shows how close minded you are, just because you see it as oppression doesn’t mean it is,majority of the women in western countries choose to wear it as they want to. I’m a muslim who chooses not wear a headscarf, i have many friends who do, we are all free to make our own choices here. You choose not to see it as a beautiful thing, but those muslim women do see it as a beautiful thing.

I just can’t understand why so many people get triggered by the hijab, just because its something they can’t comprehend it automatically means its wrong or People have no choice in the matter.

On the topic of afghanistan, breaks my heart to see whats happening there, i’m so sick of men and their ego’s and the need for power, thats what it essentially comes down to.

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Also traditional Christians and Jews are supposed to cover their heads. Christians are also not supposed to drink alcohol. I have Christian friends who do not drink because of their faith. The religions are so often so sensible.

Plus I'd rather see a head covering than a face full of cleavage to be honest.

Nothing to do with men though. Men are no better or worse than women.

Yel said:

I don't see another war coming. The world's is always absolutely filled with conflict. Comparatively we live in times that are very peaceful.

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I remember being told that the vast majority of major conflicts and wars are caused by disputes over religion.

Far from being the 'source of peace' it claims to be, it has caused untold damage across the world.

In fact, I would say religion is one of the worst things we have in this world, or was ever introduced. The world would be a far more pleasant and peaceful place without it.

IngressUK said:

I remember being told that the vast majority of major conflicts and wars are caused by disputes over religion.

Far from being the 'source of peace' it claims to be, it has caused untold damage across the world.

In fact, I would say religion is one of the worst things we have in this world, or was ever introduced. The world would be a far more pleasant and peaceful place without it.

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I hear this argument so often from every second Bob and Steve dawwwn da pub.

Religion has never caused war, land has never caused wars, resources have never caused wars. It's human ego that causes war.

There is no evidence that any apparently religion-based wars were actually about religion and not about resources or land or something else.

The world would be a degenerate place without spiritual values. The British Empire and European Enlightenment were founded on a solid bed of Christianity. Our legal systems, great works of art and architecture, our moral civilisation, grew from a religious soil.