Bharat Rakshak

^
Pretty brutal details. Siddiqui, though slanted and sour on the issue of Kashmir, deserves respect for actually going to Afghanistan, and experiencing the reality of the Taliban. Unlike so many of Lutyens and left liberals, who constantly moan about the 'Hindu right' and the supposed loss of freedom in India, Siddiqui felt the difference and paid for it with his life. Do the Lutyens and left have the courage to go to Afghanistan, or to the LOC in Kashmir, and preach 'democracy, secularism and pluralism'. No, they don't. Danish Siddiqui at least made the journey.

Varoon Shekhar wrote:^
Pretty brutal details. Siddiqui, though slanted and sour on the issue of Kashmir, deserves respect for actually going to Afghanistan, and experiencing the reality of the Taliban. Unlike so many of Lutyens and left liberals, who constantly moan about the 'Hindu right' and the supposed loss of freedom in India, Siddiqui felt the difference and paid for it with his life. Do the Lutyens and left have the courage to go to Afghanistan, or to the LOC in Kashmir, and preach 'democracy, secularism and pluralism'. No, they don't. Danish Siddiqui at least made the journey.

Deserves respect for what saar? one needs not a trip to Afghanistan to know the reality of Taliban, you can just watch their videos on any gore website in 4k.

If Danish Siddiqui made the journey then it sure as hell wasn't to preach 'democracy, secularism and pluralism" there. With the US wanting to withdraw form Afghan, likely the report was going to be how Taliban is the second incarnate of Jesus, a la Laden's "Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace" story from 1993.

Lutyens, left liberals, Danish etc all know the difference already, they just consciously and willfully choose not to see/acknowledge it. Vultures who glee at the sights in shamshan ghats don't deserve any respect.

"Lutyens, left liberals, Danish etc all know the difference already, they just consciously and willfully choose not to see/acknowledge it. Vultures who glee at the sights in shamshan ghats don't deserve any respect."

Totally correct, they know the difference, just like they know the difference between the RSS and Al Qaeda( it's ridiculous to even refer to such a comparison, but Rahul Gandhi made it) . As one forum member put it, such comparisons also serve as empowerment mechanisms. Since these left and Lutyens can't do much about the Islamist terror in India and around the world, the "Hindu right' then serves as a vehicle to display their 'courage' and secular principles. They become tough guys for standing up to the Hindu groups, who in their eyes( or motivated narrative) are the cause of most of the problems in the first place.

Varoon Shekhar wrote:... As one forum member put it, such comparisons also serve as empowerment mechanisms. ...

That's interesting. Kinda like how the pakis are a-okay with the genocide of Uighurs and won't speak up against chinis but indian forces protecting the peace in Kashmir are somehow genocidal nazis.

Islamists and lefties are truly made for each other.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-ne ... 79016.html
Buoyed with US air strikes, Afghan security forces push back Taliban
excerpts

Bouyed by support from the international community and air strikes by the United States, the Afghanistan National Defence Security Forces (ANDSF) have begun the pushback against the Taliban with latest reports from ground indicating fierce fighting in 20 provinces including Ghazni, Takhar, Kandahar, Helmand and Baghlan. The Taliban with Pakistan fighters within ranks have suffered heavy casualties in these attacks.

and
[quote}
The ANDSF cleared several villages along the highway of insurgents and defused at least nine improvised explosive devices or IEDs according to inetlligence reports from Afghanistan. They also foiled an attack on India-built and funded Salma Dam in Herat, in which a number of Taliban fighters were killed and five others injured.[/quote]

and

The US forces, till the time they are in Afghanistan, are helping the ANDSF eliminate Taliban terrorists. A number of air strikes - both using manned and unmanned strike platforms - has killed key Taliban leaders, the highest (81) in Shiberghan. The US forces have conducted air strikes in Kandahar and Helmand.

The Taliban have condemned the US air strikes with their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warning of "consequences".

The Afghan security forces has also killed Pakistani military officials, which points to the fact that Pakistan is actively supporting the Taliban in their endeavours. According to Afghan Army 209 Corps, a Pakistan army officer named Javed was killed by intelligence agency officers. They said that Javed was leading the Taliban in Logar, Paktia, and Paktika provinces.

While this is good news, Taliban will once again resort to guerrilla tactics, IEDs and suicide bombings and we'll be back to dark ages.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/3 ... ers-501773
Complete disaster’: Inside the Biden team’s chaotic bid to evacuate Afghan interpreters
The Biden administration has expedited the process for a number of applicants who are in the final stages, but thousands are left waiting for answers.
ANDREW DESIDERIO and LARA SELIGMAN, 07/30/2021
President Joe Biden had just announced plans to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan in April when, during a classified briefing with top national security officials on Capitol Hill, one lawmaker stood up and asked a pointed question.
What was the Biden administration’s plan to evacuate the thousands of Afghan nationals who aided the U.S. war effort, and expedite their visas?
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin didn’t have an answer. “We’ll get back to you on that,” Austin said, according to two people in the room and a defense official familiar with the interaction. Austin’s response shocked them — and it foreshadowed what many members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, now see as a failure by the Biden administration to sufficiently prepare for the avalanche of visa applications and the need to quickly evacuate those Afghans from the country as the Taliban make steady territorial gains.
“It’s my view that the evacuations should have started right after the announcement of our withdrawal. That evacuation started too late,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, said in an interview. “But it started. And I appreciate the fact that it’s going, and that they’re doing it aggressively now.”
Biden’s decision to unconditionally withdraw U.S. troops and end the nearly 20-year war effort came under intense criticism from Republicans, but lawmakers from both parties agreed on the need to protect the Afghans who played indispensable roles as translators and interpreters for American forces. Biden and his national security team have been accused of abandoning those who risked their lives to help the U.S. military — and there are growing fears that once the final combat troops leave, those Afghans who are left behind will be tortured, killed or both.
.....
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/30/afg ... e-killings#
Afghanistan: Mounting Taliban Revenge Killing
July 30, 2021
(New York) – Taliban forces in Afghanistan are targeting known critics for attack despite claiming that they have ordered their fighters to act with restraint, Human Rights Watch said today. In Kandahar, the Taliban have been detaining and executing suspected members of the provincial government and security forces, and in some cases their relatives.
Among recent cases, the Taliban executed a popular Kandahari comedian, Nazar Mohammad, known as Khasha Zwan, who posted routines that included songs and jokes on TikTok. He had reportedly also worked with the local police. On July 22, 2021, Taliban fighters abducted Khasha Zwan from his home in southern Kandahar, beat him, and then shot him multiple times. After a video of two men slapping and abusing Khasha Zwan appeared on social media, the Taliban admitted that two of their fighters had killed him.
“Taliban forces apparently executed Khasha Zwan because he poked fun at Taliban leaders,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “His murder and other recent abuses demonstrate the willingness of Taliban commanders to violently crush even the tamest criticism or objection.”
Activists in Kandahar said that in villages surrounding the provincial capital, Taliban commanders have detained scores of people associated with the government or police. In one case, on July 16, Taliban fighters abducted two men whose brothers had worked with NDS 03, a CIA-backed strike force that has been responsible for summary executions and other abuses, from their homes in the Qasam Pol area, Dand district. Their relatives say that have not heard from the two men since.
Also in mid-July, a media report said, Taliban fighters detained Ahmadullah, a former police officer, in Spin Boldak. His family has not heard from him since. His uncle said that the Taliban had sent letters saying that anyone who had worked with the government or foreign forces would not be harmed so long as they reported to the Taliban leadership and “admitted their ‘crime.’”
.......
Gautam

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/ta ... ar-AAMKpYc

Ominous signs for all of Central Asia. Islamic fundamentalist in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan etc. now part of Taliban.
As I had written earlier, the current Taliban is a slightly different beast.
It even has Shia militants and is not exclusively a Sunni Pashtun movement. China too should be worried. If Taliban does capture all of Afghanistan and forms a Caliphet, than the central Asian republics will have trouble. Most of the central govt. are weak and would not be able to hold off a Taliban style assault, without Russian help.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/af ... d=msedgntp

Fierce fighting all around. Lot of reports of high Taliban losses over the past few days, however it is never certain as both sides have tended to exaggerate oppositions casualties.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/worl ... liban.html
As Fears Grip Afghanistan, Hundreds of Thousands Flee
With the Taliban sweeping across much of the country, at least 30,000 Afghans are leaving each week. Many more have been displaced within Afghanistan’s borders.
Christina Goldbaum and Fatima Faizi, July 31, 2021
KABUL, Afghanistan — Haji Sakhi decided to flee Afghanistan the night he saw two Taliban members drag a young woman from her home and lash her on the sidewalk. Terrified for his three daughters, he crammed his family into a car the next morning and barreled down winding dirt roads into Pakistan.
That was more than 20 years ago. They returned to Kabul, the capital, nearly a decade later after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. But now, with the Taliban sweeping across parts of the country as American forces withdraw, Mr. Sakhi, 68, fears a return of the violence he witnessed that night. This time, he says, his family is not waiting so long to leave. “I’m not scared of leaving belongings behind, I’m not scared of starting everything from scratch,” said Mr. Sakhi, who recently applied for Turkish visas for himself, his wife, their three daughters and one son. “What I’m scared of is the Taliban.”
Across Afghanistan, a mass exodus is unfolding as the Taliban press on in their brutal military campaign, which has captured more than half the country’s 400-odd districts, according to some assessments. And with that, fears of a harsh return to extremist rule or a bloody civil war between ethnically aligned militias have taken hold. So far this year around 330,000 Afghans have been displaced, more than half of them fleeing their homes since the United States began its withdrawal in May, according to the United Nations. Many have flooded into makeshift tent camps or crowded into relatives’ homes in cities, the last islands of government control in many provinces. Thousands more are trying to secure passports and visas to leave the country altogether. Others have crammed into smugglers’ pickup trucks in a desperate bid to slip illegally over the border.
In recent weeks, the number of Afghans crossing the border illegally shot up around 30 to 40 percent compared to the period before international troops began withdrawing in May, according to the International Organization for Migration. At least 30,000 people are now fleeing every week.
The sudden flight is an early sign of a looming refugee crisis, aid agencies warn, and has raised alarms in neighboring countries and Europe that the violence that has escalated since the start of the withdrawal is already spilling across the country’s borders.
“Afghanistan is on the brink of another humanitarian crisis,” Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said earlier this month. “A failure to reach a peace agreement in Afghanistan and stem the current violence will lead to further displacement.”
The sudden exodus harks back to earlier periods of heightened unrest: Millions poured out of Afghanistan in the years after the Soviets invaded in 1979. A decade later, more fled as the Soviets withdrew and the country fell into civil war. The exodus continued when the Taliban came to power in 1996.
Afghans currently account for one of the world’s largest populations of refugees and asylum seekers — around 3 million people — and represents the second highest number of asylum claims in Europe, after Syria.Now the country is at the precipice of another bloody chapter, but the new outpouring of Afghans comes as attitudes toward migrants have hardened around the world.
After forging a repatriation deal in 2016 to stem migration from war-afflicted countries, Europe has deported tens of thousands of Afghan migrants. Hundreds of thousands more are being forced back by Turkey as well as by neighboring Pakistan and Iran, which together host around 90 percent of displaced Afghans worldwide and have deported a record number of Afghans in recent years.
......
Gautam

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/worl ... r-gah.html
Key Afghan City in Danger of Falling to the Taliban
Government reinforcements arrived Saturday in Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand Province, but people were fleeing their homes and a hospital in the city had been bombed.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Taimoor Shah, July 31, 2021
KABUL, Afghanistan — An important city in Afghanistan’s south was in danger of falling to the Taliban on Saturday as their fighters pushed toward its center despite concerted American and Afghan airstrikes in recent days.
Reports from Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, a province where the Taliban already controlled much of the territory before their recent offensive, were dire: People were fleeing their homes, a hospital in the city had been bombed, and government reinforcements were only now arriving after days of delays.
“We are just waiting for the Taliban to arrive — there is no expectation that the government will be able to protect the city any more,” said Mohammadullah Barak, a resident.
What comes next in Lashkar Gah is anything but certain — the city has been on the brink of a Taliban takeover off and on for more than a decade. But if the insurgent group seizes the city this time it will be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since 2016.
The worsening situation in Lashkar Gah is a more acute version of what is happening in cities across the country after the Taliban seized around half of Afghanistan’s 400-odd districts since U.S. and international forces began withdrawing from the country in May.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded — the highest number recorded for the May-to-June period since the United Nations began monitoring these casualties in 2009. At least 100,000 more have been displaced from their homes.
On Saturday, fighting between insurgent and government forces around Herat city, a traditionally safe area in the country’s west, edged dangerously close to its periphery. Many shops were shuttered on Saturday and Herat’s airport remained closed to civilian travel for a third day. On Friday, a U.N. compound there was attacked, and one of its guards was killed.
Taliban fighters also remained entrenched in neighborhoods in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, in the country’s south. In Kunduz city, an economic hub on the Tajikistan border, efforts to root out the Taliban now garrisoned within its walls have stalled.
The government’s response to the insurgents’ recent victories has been piecemeal. Afghan forces have retaken some districts, but both the Afghan air force and its commando forces — which have been deployed to hold what territory remains as regular army and police units retreat, surrender or refuse to fight — are exhausted.
In the security forces’ stead, the government has once more looked to local militias to fill the gaps, a move reminiscent of the chaotic and ethnically divided civil war of the 1990s that many Afghans now fear will return.
.......
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021 ... fghanistan
A fog of uncertainty looms over Afghanistan
The people feel stuck between a corrupt government and a brutal, violent, oppressive Taliban that is gaining ground.
Ali M Latil 2021
Kabul, Afghanistan – A fog of uncertainty looms over Afghanistan.
Everywhere you go, from a sports lounge in the capital Kabul to a field in Logar province, everyone asks the same question: “What’s going to happen?”
People have tried to answer that question, but the sad, scary truth is, we simply will not know until we get there.
That lack of a clear answer haunts the population, who are afraid of any scenario that does not lead to a true peace.
The other night, a government official said something along the lines of: “There’s no reason for people to be hopeless, it’s become a buzz word.”
Sitting there on his patio, I looked back at my recent trips to Logar, Parwan, Herat and Nangarhar and said, “No, people are hopeless. They’re terrified.”
I was reminded of something my cousin’s nine-year-old daughter, a talented artist and BTS superfan, said in Pashto one night: “We’ll just stay here and die.”
She was born well after the Taliban were driven from power in a US-led military invasion in 2001.
She studies at a well-known private school her mother teaches at. By all accounts, she should be the literal poster child for the so-called “gains of the last 20 years”. And yet, even she feels an encroaching fear that politics has made her and her family helpless to escape.
Yes, war is sadly nothing to new generations of Afghans, but right now, people feel lost at sea. As if they, and the country, are drifting aimlessly. They do not know if they will drift towards a deep, dark abyss of further violence and war or some semblance of peace.
Those who have the means are choosing not to take the risk of waiting it out.
As one journalist friend said to a group of us: “I was here when the Soviet tanks came rolling in. I saw it myself. Why would I wait around to see if Kabul is taken over again, I have to get my family out now.”
Powerless
In recent weeks, I have had family and friends in Kabul and the United States call me to ask about the process of getting a Special Immigrant Visa that the United States is reportedly promising to journalists, prominent women and those who worked for the US.
Again, the only answer I can give them is: “I don’t know.”
I have not felt so powerless to help my people since I briefly lived in Turkey’s Istanbul (2016-2017), during which refugees from Nangarhar who had come to the country would call me asking for help as Ankara started to deport Afghans back to a war zone.
The truth is the country is not OK. The people feel stuck between a corrupt government that has largely failed to deliver much-needed basic services and a brutal, violent, oppressive Taliban.
That became clear to me after meeting with anti-Taliban uprising forces in Parwan, Logar and Herat over the last month. Those forces were fighting for a Republic, not necessarily the current leadership, and more importantly, against Talibanism.
........
Gautam

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/2 ... order-town
Taliban accused of ‘massacring civilians’ in Afghan border town
The US and the UK accuse the Taliban of killing dozens of civilians in possible ‘war crimes’ in Spin Boldak, south Afghanistan.
2 Aug 2021
Afghan forces battled to stop a first major city from falling to the Taliban as the United States and the United Kingdom accused the group of “massacring civilians” in a Kandahar town they recently captured near the Pakistan border.
“The Taliban massacred dozens of civilians in revenge killings. These murders could constitute war crimes,” the embassies of Washington and London said in separate tweets on Monday regarding the alleged atrocities committed in Spin Boldak.
“The Taliban’s leadership must be held responsible for the crimes of their fighters. If you cannot control your fighters now, you have no business in governance later.”
Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban negotiating team member based in Doha, told Reuters news agency that tweets containing the accusations were “baseless reports”.
The US and UK diplomatic condemnations come after Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission also said Taliban fighters had indulged in revenge killings in Spin Boldak. “After taking over Spin Boldak district, the Taliban chased and identified past and present government officials and killed these people who had no combat role in the conflict,” the group said, adding at least 40 people had been killed by the Taliban.
Meanwhile, Taliban fighters continued to assault at least three provincial capitals – Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat – after a weekend of heavy fighting that saw thousands of civilians flee. The war has intensified since early May, with the Taliban capitalising on the final stages of the withdrawal of the US-led foreign forces after almost 20 years in the country.
‘Relentless’ fighting
Fighting continued in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah overnight as Afghan forces beat back a fresh assault from the Taliban.
“Afghan forces on the ground and by air strikes repelled the attack,” the military in Helmand said.
Resident Hawa Malalai told the AFP news agency that there was a growing crisis in the city: “There is fighting, power cuts, sick people in hospital, the telecommunication networks are down. There are no medicines and pharmacies are closed.”
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said casualties were mounting in Lashkar Gah.
.......
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58051481
Afghanistan: Street fighting rages as Taliban attack key city
2 Aug 2021
Ferocious fighting is taking place in a major Afghan city, amid fears it could be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban.
Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province is under heavy assault from the militants, despite persistent US and Afghan air strikes.
The Taliban are said to have seized a TV station. Thousands of people fleeing rural areas took shelter in buildings.
"There is fighting all around," a doctor told the BBC from his hospital.
Hundreds of Afghan reinforcements have been deployed to battle the militants. The Taliban have made rapid advances in recent months as US forces have withdrawn after 20 years of military operations in the country.
Helmand was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign, and Taliban gains there would be a blow for the Afghan government.
If Lashkar Gah fell, it would be the first provincial capital won by the Taliban since 2016. It is one of three provincial capitals under attack.
An Afghan military commander in the city warned that a Taliban victory would have a "devastating effect on global security".
"This is not a war of Afghanistan, this is a war between liberty and totalitarianism," Maj Gen Sami Sadaat told the BBC.
On Monday, the Afghan information ministry announced that 11 radio and four television networks in Helmand province had stopped broadcasting due to what it described as Taliban "attacks and threats".
Attempts by the militants to capture Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, have continued after rocket strikes hit its airport on Sunday.
Seizing control of Kandahar would be a hugely symbolic victory for the Taliban, giving them a grip on the south of the country.
In a third besieged city, Herat, in the west, government commandos are battling the insurgents after days of fierce fighting. Government forces have taken back some areas after a UN compound was attacked on Friday.
Videos shared on social media appeared to show residents on the streets and rooftops of Herat shouting "Allahu akbar" ("God is greatest") in support of the government's gains.
......
Gautam

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/27/us-airs ... rawal.html
U.S. will conduct airstrikes in Afghanistan against the Taliban as foreign forces withdraw
Amanda Macias, Jul 27 2021
WASHINGTON – The United States will maintain a steady drumbeat of airstrikes in Afghanistan as foreign forces exit the country amid rapid battlefield advances by the Taliban.
“The United States has increased airstrikes in the support of Afghan forces over the last several days, and we’re prepared to continue this heightened level of support in the coming weeks if the Taliban continue their attacks,” wrote U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie in a statement.
Mckenzie, the combatant commander who oversees America’s wars in the Middle East, told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani over the weekend that the U.S. would continue to provide airstrikes but made no promise about what will happen after Aug. 31.
“I reassured the government that we are continuing to provide airstrikes in defense of ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] forces under attack by the Taliban, contract logistics support both here in Kabul and over-the-horizon in the region, funding for them, intelligence sharing and advising and assisting through security consultations at the strategic level,” McKenzie wrote.
Last week, the Pentagon confirmed media reports of overnight airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby would not provide further details about the attacks, including what type of aircraft was used.
The strikes reflect Washington’s intentions to continue supporting Afghan forces with combat aircraft until U.S. forces withdraw next month.
In April, President Joe Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, effectively ending America’s longest war. Earlier this month, Biden gave an updated timeline and said the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will end by Aug. 31.
Last week, the nation’s highest military officer told reporters that the U.S. has completed more than 95% of the massive withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Pentagon has airlifted more than 980 loads of equipment out of Afghanistan and handed over seven facilities to the Afghan Ministry of Defense, according to the latest update from Central Command.
......
Gautam

This whole business of inviting Taliban for talks over the past few years has actually revived them and gave them renewed visibility (to attract new adherents and funds) and credibility to challenge the elected Govt, however corrupt the latter may be.

Everyone mediating, including India, chickened from calling out Taliban for what it is: A rabid, regressive organisation that wants to take control by violent means and drive Afghanistan back into early islamic times.

The espousers of freedom, democracy, human (esp women's and children's rights), have all respectfully deferred to islamic fundamentalist Taliban who never said they would do anything different to last time, and pretended these were "moderate" Taliban. No one even dared to take a stand that there is no place for political violence in Afghanistan and if Taliban wants a say in the country, they need to disarm and fight elections. Instead they all talk about power sharing ! There cant be power sharing with evil, it only helps evil get stronger and snuff everyone else out. The west has forgotten history lessons from the appeasement of evil forces that ultimately they paid for in WW-II.

India is playing a mouse on the wall game, since the big cats have withdrawn from this viper's nest and are licking their wounds. I'm actually impressed US is still carrying out stand off air strikes. Are they killing Taliban fighters or starving donkeys, how much reliable humint they still have left its hard to tell.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/worl ... -2021.html
Afghan War Casualty Report: July 2021
At least 301 Afghan security forces and 171 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this month.
Fatima Faizi and Asadullah Timory, Updated July 30, 2021
The following report compiles all significant security incidents confirmed by New York Times reporters throughout Afghanistan for the month. It is necessarily incomplete as many local officials refuse to confirm casualty information. The report includes government claims of insurgent casualty figures, but in most cases these cannot be independently verified by The Times. Similarly, the reports do not include Taliban claims for their attacks on the government unless they can be verified. Both sides routinely inflate casualty totals for their opponents.
Analysis in previous reports refers to “pro-government forces” in order to include casualties for U.S. and coalition forces. Because America and NATO are withdrawing, The Times has stopped using this phrasing. It will continue to identify militias aligned with the security forces as “pro-government” to differentiate them from independent militias operating in Afghanistan.
July 24-30, 2021
At least 47 Afghan security forces and 28 civilians were killed in the past week. The deadliest recorded attack occurred in Herat, where two commandos, two soldiers and two pro-government militia members were killed and 22 others, including five police officers and five commandos, were wounded in a Taliban attack on security outposts in Gozara district, just south of the provincial capital. As of Thursday, the fighting was ongoing near the airport. Two outposts had fallen to the Taliban.
July 29 Herat Province: one civilian killed
A strike carried out by the Afghan air forces hit a Taliban gathering in Ghoryan district center, killing a civilian. Provincial officials claim that 47 Taliban fighters were also killed in the strike, but the group denied suffering heavy casualties.
......
Gautam

India should a couple of regiments of IPKF. I think it is time for it.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/afghan- ... ngtrending

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/07/worl ... istan.html
Taliban Take Second Afghan City in Two Days
Sheberghan, in Jowzjan Province, collapsed less than 24 hours after a provincial capital in southwestern Afghanistan had fallen to the Taliban.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fahim Abed and Sharif Hassan, Aug. 7, 2021
KABUL, Afghanistan — Another provincial capital, the second in two days, all but fell on Saturday in Afghanistan, officials said, this one in the country’s north, where a Taliban offensive has surrounded several cities since international forces began withdrawing in May.
The capital, Sheberghan, in Jowzjan Province, collapsed less than 24 hours after a provincial capital in southwestern Afghanistan was also taken over by the Taliban.
“The whole city has collapsed,” said Abdul Qader Malia, the deputy governor of Jowzjan. “Nothing is left.” On Saturday afternoon, government troops still controlled the airport and the army headquarters outside Sheberghan. Much of the province, though, which borders Turkmenistan, is now under Taliban control. The Taliban victories — and Afghan government defeats — come despite continued American air support and are the result of an insurgent strategy that has overstretched and exhausted Afghan government forces.
Sheberghan’s fall comes after the Taliban have seized — at times without firing a shot — about 200 of Afghanistan’s 400-odd districts in recent months. They have been pushing deep into the country’s north despite the region’s reputation for being an anti-Taliban stronghold and relatively secure.
The insurgents’ offensive has transformed into brutal urban combat as Taliban fighters have pushed into cities like Sheberghan and Kunduz in the north, Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south, and Herat in the west, leaving tens of thousands of civilians caught in the middle of a desperate struggle for control. Hundreds have been killed or wounded, and many more have been displaced.
On Friday, government forces in Sheberghan were thought to have beaten back the Taliban incursion, after insurgents entered the city and tried to overrun government buildings, like the Police Headquarters and the prison. The number of civilian casualties is unclear. “The situation is so scary in the city,” said Matin Raufi, a Sheberghan resident. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.” The Taliban returned on Saturday, pushing deep into the city despite the security forces’ desperate attempts to defend what remained theirs.
.....
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-urges-a ... mediately/
U.S. urges Americans in Afghanistan to leave immediately
Ahmad Mukhtar, Sarah Lynch Baldwin, August 7, 2021
The United States is urging Americans in Afghanistan to leave the country immediately, saying the ability of the U.S. embassy in Kabul to help them is "extremely limited" due to security conditions and reduced staffing.
The embassy issued a security alert on Saturday encouraging Americans to fly out on commercial flights and said it can provide repatriation loans for citizens who can't afford to buy tickets.
The alert comes months after the State Department ordered government employees at the U.S. embassy in Kabul to leave if they can work elsewhere. It also comes as Taliban militants are attacking Afghan cities.
On Friday, militants captured Zaranj, the capital of Afghanistan's Nimroz province. By Saturday, another province's capital city had fallen to the group.
"Sheberghan city has fallen to the Taliban completely," Babur Eshchi, head of Jowzjan's provincial council, told CBS News.
They took control of the city's police headquarters and intelligence agency building, as well as most government buildings, including the governor's office, said Halima Sadaf Karimi, a member of parliament from the Jowzjan province. Only a military base outside the city is under the control of the army, she said.
.......
Gautam

Cyrano wrote:This whole business of inviting Taliban for talks over the past few years has actually revived them and gave them renewed visibility (to attract new adherents and funds) and credibility to challenge the elected Govt, however corrupt the latter may be.

Everyone mediating, including India, chickened from calling out Taliban for what it is: A rabid, regressive organisation that wants to take control by violent means and drive Afghanistan back into early islamic times.

The espousers of freedom, democracy, human (esp women's and children's rights), have all respectfully deferred to islamic fundamentalist Taliban who never said they would do anything different to last time, and pretended these were "moderate" Taliban. No one even dared to take a stand that there is no place for political violence in Afghanistan and if Taliban wants a say in the country, they need to disarm and fight elections. Instead they all talk about power sharing ! There cant be power sharing with evil, it only helps evil get stronger and snuff everyone else out. The west has forgotten history lessons from the appeasement of evil forces that ultimately they paid for in WW-II.

India is playing a mouse on the wall game, since the big cats have withdrawn from this viper's nest and are licking their wounds. I'm actually impressed US is still carrying out stand off air strikes. Are they killing Taliban fighters or starving donkeys, how much reliable humint they still have left its hard to tell.

Its the plan of Zalmay Khalizad to give Takiban legitimacy by talking to them. US has hugh regard fir his skills.
How do you know amy Taliban are getting killed?
In Vietnam they rained bombs more rhan what was dropped on Nazi Germany.
We know how it ended!

Afghan govt says 572 Taliban killed.

https://twitter.com/MoDAfghanistan/stat ... 06208?s=19

I do not think this is Vietnam like situation. There is also not such a huge supply of ready and committed human resources. The Air to ground use of airpower has also improved substantially. There are also not many hiding places like in Vietnam with its forests etc. is a big hiding place suitable for gorillas.
.

The trick Taliban plays being a nebulous organisation is to claim victories openly, disclaim defeats and take off black turbans and dissolve into general population when things get too hot. Taquiyya in full flow. May be all these talks have resulted in bringing their important leaders out into the open. Now that they are identified, they can be picked off one by one. Was this a conscious strategy? Can't say.

From various reports, its clear that common Afghans have only fear and hatred for Taliban & Pakis. They provide shelter and resources to Taliban under the menace of a gun. No one wants to go back to Taliban rule. We have to find a way to tap into that.

Yagnasri wrote:I do not think this is Vietnam like situation. There is also not such a huge supply of ready and committed human resources. The Air to ground use of airpower has also improved substantially. There are also not many hiding places like in Vietnam with its forests etc. is a big hiding place suitable for gorillas.
.

Until they get resting place in pukitsan and possibly elements from pukistani army they will remain emboldened. They're far stretched but operations must be supported by puki army. pk army elements might be far greater in numbers than is known.

Samay wrote:

Yagnasri wrote:I do not think this is Vietnam like situation. There is also not such a huge supply of ready and committed human resources. The Air to ground use of airpower has also improved substantially. There are also not many hiding places like in Vietnam with its forests etc. is a big hiding place suitable for gorillas.
.

Until they get resting place in pukitsan and possibly elements from pukistani army they will remain emboldened. They're far stretched but operations must be supported by puki army. pk army elements might be far greater in numbers than is known.

Given the status-quo, I see this as a strategic deception of tactical withdrawal and psyops on the US part.

The Taliban will act as a deterrence against China’s BRI, so long as the US plays its cards correctly. The US so far has agreed at Doha that it will withdraw NATO and allied troops. It does not mean that there would be no PMCs. Air-Sea Battles will shape future wars. It is an integrated battle doctrine that was developed as a critical element of the military strategy of the United States. This way of thinking became official in February 2010 and was renamed to Joint Concept for Access and Maneuver in the Global Commons (JAM-GC). That is, whoever has control over and can maneuver Global Commons (whether it is in maritime, air, space, or cyber) will dominate the planet as a hyperpower. This integrated modern warfare concept will be facilitated by technological intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), which can be effective even without troops on the ground in Afghanistan since the US military can operate remotely. The US is still superior in all these domains, not Russia, China, or Iran. Suppose the US-led NATO withdrawal emboldens the Taliban fighters. In that case, they will most likely create an implacable enemy that would play a key role off stage in their destruction sooner or later. Watch this space!

source: https://projectofive.ca/2021/07/07/the- ... y-taliban/

The strike was very much required. Taliban should not be allowed to regain any ground. They are basically hardliners who in the name of their "Allah" would sympathize with fellow muslim...and then due to affinity and weakness of speaking the same language and following the same faith may invoke more decadence and cause more problems than solve them.

'War on Terror': Are big military deployments over?
https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/ ... 489095.amp

Western forces are racing to leave Afghanistan this month. France has signalled a significant scaling back of its military commitment in Mali. In Iraq, British and other Western forces no longer have any major combat role.

Twenty years after President George W Bush's so-called War on Terror, is the era of big "boots-on-the ground" military deployments to distant warzones coming to an end?

Not yet - there is still a substantial commitment to fighting jihadists in the Sahel - but there is now a radical rethink in how these missions are conducted.

Large-scale, long-term deployments have been hugely costly, in blood, in money and in political capital at home.

The US-led military presence in Afghanistan has cost more than $1tn (£724bn) and thousands of lives on all sides - Afghan forces, Afghan civilians, western forces as well as their insurgent foes.

At their peak in 2010, Western troop numbers topped 100,000. And yet now, after 20 years in the country, the few thousand remaining forces are leaving just as the Taliban looks set to take over more and more territory.

Achilles' heels

The longer and larger a military commitment is in fighting an insurgency, the more vulnerable it becomes to a variety of potential "Achilles' heels".

The most obvious of these is the casualty rate, a trend that can become seriously unpopular back home.

More than 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War and nearly 15,000 Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan - factors that hastened the end of those campaigns. France has lost just over 50 soldiers in Mali since 2013 and its mission there has largely lost its support at home.

Then there is the financial cost, which almost invariably exceeds expectations.

When Saudi Arabia began its intervention in Yemen's civil war in 2015 it never expected to be still fighting there six years later. Estimates of the running cost to the Saudi treasury to date range as high as $100bn (£72.4bn).

Concerns over human rights can also derail a military campaign when least expected.

US air strikes hitting Afghan wedding parties, Saudi air strikes killing civilians in Yemen and human rights abuses by the UAE's allies there have all carried a reputational cost for those countries.

In the case of the UAE, the stories emerging of prisoners being suffocated to death while locked inside shipping containers had a major influence in prompting it to withdraw from the Yemen war.

Then there is the possibility that the host government could end up sharing power with a hostile entity.

In Mali, reports that the government is engaged in secret talks with the jihadists were enough to cause President Emmanuel Macron to threaten to pull out French forces altogether.

In Iraq, says retired British Army Col James Cunliffe, "there is still a real concern about Iranian influence, especially when it comes to the Shi'a militias".

In Afghanistan, the Taliban, who were driven out of power in 2001, are expected to make a comeback. Western security officials say if they end up being a part of the government then all intelligence co-operation would cease.

The Future

So if big, open-ended military deployments are no longer going to be in vogue, then what replaces them?

One clue can be found in the speech delivered on 2 June at the Royal United Services Institute's Land Warfare Conference by the UK Chief of General Staff, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith.

Today's Army, he said, will be "more networked, more expeditionary and more rapidly deployed, more digitally connected, linking satellite to soldier and centred on a Special Operations Brigade".

Fewer boots on the ground inevitably means a greater reliance on cutting-edge digital technology, including artificial intelligence.

Trends emerging from recent conflicts have prompted a radical rethink in strategic priorities. The brief war in the Caucasus between Azerbaijan and Armenia saw the latter's tanks getting decimated by cheap, unmanned, armed drones supplied by Turkey and directed to their targets at almost no risk to the operators.

Mercenaries, once considered a throwback to a bygone era in Africa, have been making a comeback.

The most obvious example here is Russia's shadowy Wagner Group which has allowed Moscow "plausible deniability" while operating with few restrictions in conflict zones from Libya to West Africa to Mozambique. "A state-centric world order," says Dr Sean McFate, senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, "is giving way to a war without states."

None of this means an end to military missions overseas. In Mali and the Sahel the French may be winding up their single-nation Operation Barkhane and sending thousands of troops home. But the UN mission continues and the French are retaining a reduced force committed to a multinational counter-terrorism mission.

In Iraq, the Nato mission will continue to train local counter-insurgency forces and offer them technical support.

In Afghanistan however, the western military presence is disappearing over the horizon at the very time it may be needed most to confront a combined threat from the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

Well said—a new way of thinking on the changing military paradigms.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/08/us/p ... tates.html
As Taliban Capture Cities, U.S. Says Afghan Forces Must Fend for Themselves
The muted American response to the Taliban siege shows in no uncertain terms that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is over.
By Helene Cooper, Katie Rogers and Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Aug. 8, 2021
WASHINGTON — If the Taliban had seized three provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan a year ago, like they did on Sunday, the American response would most likely have been ferocious. Fighter jets and helicopter gunships would have responded in force, beating back the Islamist group or, at the very least, stalling its advance.
But these are different times. What aircraft the U.S. military could muster from hundreds of miles away struck a cache of weapons far from Kunduz, Taliqan or Sari-i-pol, the cities that already had been all but lost to the Taliban.
The muted American response on Sunday showed in no uncertain terms that America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan is over. The mismanaged and exhausted Afghan forces will have to retake the cities on their own, or leave them to the Taliban for good.
The recent string of Taliban military victories has not moved President Biden to reassess his decision to end the U.S. combat mission by the end of the month, senior administration officials said Sunday. But the violence shows just how difficult it will be for Mr. Biden to extract America from the war while insisting that he is not abandoning the country in the middle of a brutal Taliban offensive.
In a speech defending the U.S. withdrawal last month, Mr. Biden said the United States had done more than enough to empower the Afghan police and military to secure the future of their people. U.S. officials have acknowledged that those forces will struggle, but argue they must now fend for themselves.
So far, the administration’s sink-or-swim strategy has not shown promising results.
Over the past week, Taliban fighters have moved swiftly to retake cities around Afghanistan, assassinated government officials, and killed civilians in the process. Throughout this, American officials have publicly held out hope that Afghan forces have the resources and ability to fight back, while at the same time negotiating a peace deal with the Taliban that seems more unlikely by the day.
......
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://granthshala.com/the-propaganda- ... in-ground/
The Propaganda War Intensifies in Afghanistan as the Taliban Gain Ground
August 9, 2021
Efforts to quell panic and minimize damage have gained importance since the Taliban captured five provincial capitals.
Kabul, Afghanistan – First, a remote provincial capital in the southwest of Afghanistan fell. The next day, it was a city in the north of Afghanistan. By Sunday, Taliban fighters had captured three more cities, including their biggest prize to date, the major provincial capital of Kunduz.
Throughout, the Afghan central government has received little acceptance of this.
In three days, at least five provincial capitals have been captured by the Taliban, in a brutal land invasion that caused many local officials to abandon their positions and flee the cities they ran.
But the country’s government, still trying to promote the notion that it has the upper hand against the Taliban, has remained relatively silent on the huge losses suffered across the country. Instead of acknowledging that the cities had fallen, the government has only stated that Afghanistan’s brave security forces were fighting in several capitals across the country, and that many Taliban fighters were killed as a result of the airstrikes.
“The country’s security and defense forces are always ready to defend this land,” Afghan Defense Ministry tweeted Kunduz was under siege on Sunday. “People’s support and love for these forces amplify their motivation and efforts.”
With the fall of the cities and the US military campaign mostly coming to an end, the propaganda war in Afghanistan has grown in importance. For the Taliban, it is an attempt to communicate a drumbeat of victory, big or small, and create an air of inevitability about their return to power. For the government, it is an all-out effort to allay panic, boost morale and minimize losses.
In recent days, the Taliban have shared videos of welcoming crowds in the provinces (though some say Afghans are doing so only to avoid damage later by the Taliban). On social media, Taliban spokespersons have been accusing the Afghan government of causing civilian casualties and damaging infrastructure, rather than the group’s aggressive takeover of vast areas of the country.
His post calls on Afghan security forces to surrender, with the promise that they will be treated humanely, accompanied by confiscated weapons and photographs of security forces who have given up. Any mention of reconciliation with the government specifically missing from any message from the Taliban.
.....
Gautam

The real propaganda war is being fought in US. How come there is nothing about how the US has lost the war, what they should have done better, etc ? When they were on a roll, we were treated to so many videos of Apaches and F16s halaing the pigs. No editorial on why they lost or did they only "withdraw" the troops?

Looks like the contract is: military goes and fights wherever the administration tells them to go. In return, they get : huge budget for the shiny toys, immunity from warcrimes, govt paid college, show of respect on flights etc, post retirement job in police or in defence industry, and finally, no recriminations if they fail.

The last war that they didn't lose was the Kosovo war. It's been a series of disasters after that.

The American deep state will already have worked on ways to co-opt the talibunnies against the chinese a la the way the mujjies against the Soviets. Why risk doing dirty work yourself if you can just pay someone who will do it for much cheaper

One minor irritant is that unlike the old days which only had pliant MSM now there is a alternate media which can't be as easily controlled to set the narrative (hence the hard efforts in the last few years)

So they are just doing it in understated, clandestine ways using jargon like agile deployment and what-not and not via some new ' All American Maverick Herrow Senator' like Ole Charlie Wilson..

Tuan wrote:

Samay wrote: Until they get resting place in pukitsan and possibly elements from pukistani army they will remain emboldened. They're far stretched but operations must be supported by puki army. pk army elements might be far greater in numbers than is known.

Given the status-quo, I see this as a strategic deception of tactical withdrawal and psyops on the US part.

The Taliban will act as a deterrence against China’s BRI, so long as the US plays its cards correctly. The US so far has agreed at Doha that it will withdraw NATO and allied troops. It does not mean that there would be no PMCs. Air-Sea Battles will shape future wars. It is an integrated battle doctrine that was developed as a critical element of the military strategy of the United States. This way of thinking became official in February 2010 and was renamed to Joint Concept for Access and Maneuver in the Global Commons (JAM-GC). That is, whoever has control over and can maneuver Global Commons (whether it is in maritime, air, space, or cyber) will dominate the planet as a hyperpower. This integrated modern warfare concept will be facilitated by technological intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), which can be effective even without troops on the ground in Afghanistan since the US military can operate remotely. The US is still superior in all these domains, not Russia, China, or Iran. Suppose the US-led NATO withdrawal emboldens the Taliban fighters. In that case, they will most likely create an implacable enemy that would play a key role off stage in their destruction sooner or later. Watch this space!

source: https://projectofive.ca/2021/07/07/the- ... y-taliban/

The BRI is already finished. What it has morphed into is that even Russia fears . Taliban attempts to hit Indian investment is a signal. It is not a retreat but advance of chin.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... eam-report
Russia Says Afghan Taliban Offensive Running Out of Steam - Report
Reuters, Aug. 5, 2021
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Taliban offensive in Afghanistan is "gradually running out of steam" as the group lacks resources to take over major cities, Interfax news agency quoted a senior official at Russia's foreign ministry as saying on Thursday.
Alexander Vikantov, deputy head of information and press at the ministry, cited examples where Afghan government forces were able to retake some districts captured by the Taliban last month, although he added that insurgent activity was notable this month near big provincial centres.
"The Taliban lack the resources to take over and hold major cities including the capital, Kabul. Their offensive is gradually running out of steam," he said. Russia would continue to press for peace talks, he added.
The Taliban's rapid territorial gains in Afghanistan's rural areas over the last few months caught many off guard, particularly the Afghan government.
......
Gautam

In the absence of control over the hinterland. Control over cities is meaning less.

So in the short run even if the Taliban is not able to take any city. If they control the rural regions around the city. The continued retention of city will eventually became unviable.

They will follow Mao's dictum, "The side controlling the countryside after dusk will win the war"

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/worl ... dahar.html
On Afghanistan’s Front Line, There Are No Good Choices
For the past month, Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, has been under siege by Taliban fighters. Families stuck between them and government forces have almost nowhere to go.
Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Fahim Abed, Aug. 9, 2021
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — As the first chatter of gunfire began, a police unit tested its heavy machine gun. The gunner pointed the barrel in the vicinity of the Taliban front line and fired in an ear-shattering clap clap clap. Where the bullets landed was anyone’s guess.
The sun was just slipping behind the horizon and the call to prayer began to echo through Kandahar city. The police unit, embedded on the edge of a neighborhood made up of mostly tan, mud brick houses and low-slung shops, prepared for another long night.
At midnight, the 29-year-old police commander said, was when “the real game begins.”
Since the U.S. withdrawal began in May, the Taliban have captured more than half of Afghanistan’s 400-odd districts. And for the past month, Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan, has been under siege by Taliban fighters in what may be the most important fight for the country’s future so far.
Security forces have tried to hold them off as other provincial capitals have fallen elsewhere, including Kunduz, the largest city to be captured by the Taliban. In the last four days alone, insurgents seized six capitals, opening a bloody new chapter in the war and further revealing how little control the government has over the country without the backing of the American military.
The insurgents are desperate to capture Kandahar, as the Taliban first took root in its neighboring districts in the 1990s before seizing the city itself and announcing their emirate. And the government is desperate to defend Kandahar, a symbol of the state’s reach and an economic hub essential for trade to and from Pakistan through its checkpoints, bridges and highways. On a warm evening earlier this month, both Afghan and Taliban flags flew atop a nearby mountain, a Buddhist-turned-Islamic shrine cut into its side — the clearest marker of Kandahar’s western front line. To the east of the mountain, a mix of Afghan army, commando and special police units were desperately trying to hold the city, despite being exhausted, underfed and underequipped. The government’s front line begins in the neighborhood of Sarposa, where the Taliban are trying to seize a prison that they also attacked in 2008, in a raid that freed roughly 1,200 inmates.
Nearby, the bursts of gunfire and crump of explosions signal Raz Mohammed, 23, to begin his nightly routine of moving his four children to the basement. He turns on an aging floor fan to try and dim the sounds of war long enough for them to get a few hours of sleep. The rusty appliance is a tepid defense against the hellaciously loud firefights that have dragged on night after night in Kandahar. The fighting is especially fierce around Sarposa. There, the Taliban have dug in, using people’s homes and whatever terrain they can for cover. In the beginning, Mr. Mohammed’s sons and daughters screamed out in terror whenever the shooting began, but now the violence has become routine. Many of their neighbors have already fled for more secure parts of the city. But so far Mr. Mohammed has chosen to stay; his home has been in his family for 60 years.
......
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/09/asia/afg ... index.html
Things look grim in Afghanistan, even with US airpower. In 22 days, they could be much worse
Analysis by Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, August 9, 2021
Many thought it would happen like this. But to see it so fast, so stark, brings no comfort in the prediction. The last five days have brought Afghanistan to arguably the most perilous place in the last two decades.
At least five Afghan provincial capitals have fallen to the Taliban, including the major city of Kunduz, while another, Ghazni, is in peril. The US project and its Afghan allies have never seen territory fall to the Taliban so fast.
But there's been another casualty: the hope that the Taliban could be left to rage in rural Afghanistan, where they have more support, but be kept out of the cities, has for the most part evaporated.
Are these changes irreversible? Usually, the answer would be a swift "no," with US airpower sweeping in, and the insurgency being pushed out by pinpoint strikes from above and Afghan commandos on the ground. But it is harder to use airpower when fighting for cities brimming with civilians. And Afghan security forces -- or at least their reliable commandos -- are a limited asset. It must be hard for Afghanistan's generals to know which fires to put out.
There is another, pressing complication: the United States has made it clear that 22 days from now, when the withdrawal of all international troops is complete, the airstrikes that often hold the insurgency back will stop, and air power will be used in a limited capacity to hit terror-related targets. Absent a last-minute change, this slim advantage will vanish -- not that these strikes have particularly changed the direction of the past five days.
Even critics of the lackluster and fickle application of the US during its longest war should find no comfort in how the seemingly inevitable has come to pass. After 20 years, leaving was pretty much the only thing America had not tried; but it was foolish to think that something pleasant lurked under this Band-Aid as it was torn off. There was strategic courage in President Joe Biden's acceptance that the US should not indefinitely apply just enough force to hold the Taliban back. But that's the only real comfort many expected from his rapid, unconditional departure.
US diplomats continue to express hope that the peace process will bear fruit. That the Taliban representatives they are talking with in Doha -- an older, perhaps externally softer group of elders -- intend to alter the raging march to victory of their younger fighters. Critics have scorned this hope and dubbed the negotiations a sham, while some point out it remains wise to keep the door to talks open for any occasion down the line.
......
Gautam

News reports of Afghan helicopter pilots being killed in a carefully targeted Taliban operation when they are off base. Seven pilots have been killed so far. They want to deny the use of air assets to the afghan forces. Since they cant easily storm bases and destroy the helis, which include Blackhawk choppers, they have resorted to this tactic. Truly monstrous with no moral compulsions whatsoever.

https://www.rediff.com/news/report/indi ... 210810.htm
India urges its nationals to leave Afghanistan on special flight
Source: PTI - Edited By: Hemant Waje, August 10, 2021
India is evacuating its staff from its consulate in Afghanistan's Mazar-e-Sharif in view of the rapidly escalating violence by the Taliban around the capital city of Balkh province, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.
The Indian-based staff of the consulate and a number of Indians residing in Mazar-e-Sharif are being evacuated due to the deteriorating security scenario in the city as well as areas around it, they said.
It is learnt that a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force will evacuate the staff as well as the Indian citizens from the fourth-largest city of Afghanistan.
"A special flight is leaving from Mazar-e-Sharif to New Delhi. Any Indian nationals in and around Mazar-e-Sharif are requested to leave for India in the special flight scheduled to depart late today evening," the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif tweeted.
It asked Indian citizens who want to leave by the special flight to submit the details like their full name and passport number to the consulate immediately.
It is learnt that the consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif will continue to operate through the local staff members.
Last month India pulled out around 50 diplomats and security personnel from its consulate in Kandahar following intense clashes between Afghan forces and Taliban fighters around the city.
......
Gautam

The only way out is for the Afghan gov drop it's attempt to hold on to every part of the country. Pull back forces from the South and form a defensive line in the Northern regions. Use all the airpower at disposal.

Allow a corridor for any civilians from South, who wants to come in.

Let the South be like 6th century NWFP. PA knows ANA cannot be at all the places. So it is using numbers to attack multiple locations.

It is out stupidity to have agreed for a ceasefire on LoC, which allowed PA to divert men towards Afghanistan. Instead of day dreaming about sending boots and IAF to Afghanistan, we should have been lighting up LoC. The rag tag talib jokers are obviously led by PA officers.

Agreed. ANA should take a leaf out of the Syrian civil war and implement some of the strategies used by the Syrian forces to turnaround what once looked like a hopeless situation. At the height of the Syrian civil war, Damascus was within days of falling into the hands of ISIS, that's when Syria strategically pulled back , concentrated on holding the line south of homs and then put up a fierce defense to turnaround the situation. ANA is spread too thin, they don't have air support nor heavy artillery and are at mercy of local warlords for assistance. If the current situation prevails, Kabul will likely fall by end of September.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/worl ... istan.html
As U.S. Leaves Afghanistan, History Suggests It May Struggle to Stay Out
A decade ago, a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq opened the door for the Islamic State. Will the withdrawal from Afghanistan do the same for the Taliban?
Ben Hubbard, Aug. 10, 2021
BEIRUT, Lebanon — After grueling years of watching United States forces fight and die in a faraway land, the president appealed to growing war weariness among voters and brought the troops home.
Not long after, an extremist group stormed through areas the Americans had left, killing civilians, seizing power and sweeping away billions of dollars’ worth of American efforts to leave behind a stable nation.
That’s what happened after President Barack Obama withdrew American forces from Iraq in 2011: the jihadists of the Islamic State established an extremist emirate, prompting the United States to dispatch its military, yet again, to flush them out. It is also now a possible scenario in Afghanistan, where President Biden’s order to shut down America’s longest war has led to swift advances by the Taliban, the same extremist group the United States invaded Afghanistan to topple after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The challenge of achieving American interests in complex and distant societies like Afghanistan and Iraq has bedeviled policymakers from both parties since President George W. Bush declared the “war on terror” nearly two decades ago.
In the years since, even how those interests are defined has swung wildly, driven at some times by a desire to spread democracy and human rights and at others by exasperation that costly efforts by the United States have borne so little fruit. The result, according to some analysts and former United States officials, is a perception among both friends and enemies that you can never guarantee how long the United States will stick around.
“In my experience, we just have a lack of strategic patience as a nation and as a government,” said Ryan Crocker, a retired United States diplomat who served as ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan. “Sadly, in the region, our adversaries have come to count on us not staying the course.”
Mr. Biden has decided the time has come to leave Afghanistan, despite the risk that future developments could suck the United States back in.
In a speech last month defending his policy, Mr. Biden argued that it was not the United States’ job to fix the country.
“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s the right and the responsibility of Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country.” After two decades, he argued, keeping the troops deployed just a little longer was “not a solution, but a recipe for being there indefinitely.”
That policy has come under pressure in recent days, as Taliban forces seized six provincial capitals and exposed the weakness of the Afghan forces meant to take over after the United States completes its withdrawal at the end of the month. During their advance, the Taliban have been accused of using assassinations and bombings to subvert talks aimed at creating a power-sharing government. Rights activists fear they will reimpose restrictions on women, barring them for working and moving around independently. And security experts warn that terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State could use Afghanistan to plot new attacks abroad.
.......
Gautam

[/quote]

nam wrote:The only way out is for the Afghan gov drop it's attempt to hold on to every part of the country. Pull back forces from the South and form a defensive line in the Northern regions. Use all the airpower at disposal.

Allow a corridor for any civilians from South, who wants to come in.

Let the South be like 6th century NWFP. PA knows ANA cannot be at all the places. So it is using numbers to attack multiple locations.

It is out stupidity to have agreed for a ceasefire on LoC, which allowed PA to divert men towards Afghanistan. Instead of day dreaming about sending boots and IAF to Afghanistan, we should have been lighting up LoC. The rag tag talib jokers are obviously led by PA officers.

Should make it easier for the US to carpet bomb the Taliban areas using B52s as well, that is if they don't chicken out further.

The so called "taliban mujahideen" for all their bravado disappeared overnight from much of Afghanistan within days of NATO forces putting boots on the ground in 2001. The next 20 years their leadership hid in Pindi and Karachi while the jihadi canon fodder could only hit soft targets or setup IEDs instead of taking on the adversary in a full frontal attack. When the inevitable happens and they takeover Kabul what use will these unwashed cavemen have for the Qataris ? Atleast in the 90s they had the backing of the entire gulf shiekhdoms but now UAE, KSA and Bahrain want nothing to do with them. Iran considers them as a threat and an ideological enemy and the Chinese are not foolish enough to give them a single dime. So yes, after Kabul falls, carpet bombing the entire Afghanistan may not necessarily be a bad option.