Member Since: 30 Oct 2011
Location: plymouth
Posts: 6525
AFGANISTAN
WELL...where are we going from here... what a bloody mess....they have had 20 years to sort their selves out...amazed the airstrip has been left in.....rather than put out of action...whos going to fly in next
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6th Jul 2021 6:26 am
RogB
Member Since: 15 Jun 2018
Location: Mansfield
Posts: 1729
according to our beloved national media China are set to invest billions into the country, nothing to do with the vast mineral and other deposits and a move towards world communist domination via economic means though. 2011 D4 XS 305 MY12 - gone but not forgotten
6th Jul 2021 6:44 am
RRSTDV8
Member Since: 07 Apr 2014
Location: Here
Posts: 13550
The West could have invested in the country as a way to bring stability. Instead they used military might to kill and maim lots of people including many of their own. Total waste of life and resources for no nett gain. Today, the Taliban et al are still there and will be running the country. Of course, it was only ever a reprisal for the WTC attacks. No one gave a stuff about the country or the people living there.
But if you have a country that's strongly motivated by the needs of the MIC, what do you expect? The only people who benefitted from the US-led invasion are the US defence industry who have made sheds full of cash selling bombs and bullets to the West's military.Visiting from rrsport.co.uk
2012 RRS SDV6
2008 RRS TDV8
"When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill, until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: SIT DOWN AND TALK!"
6th Jul 2021 7:20 am
Oxford-boy
Member Since: 07 Sep 2015
Location: Oxford
Posts: 1111
I take it you have seen the film 'VICE'?
It's about Dick Cheny, the US Vice President around just the period we are discussing here.
If not may I recommend it. It'll boil your blood even more.....Jim
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A colleague of mine originated in Pakistan, coming over here in the 1980s. In the early seventies there were bus trips from Pakistan to Afghanistan so that people could marvel at the state-of-the-art hospitals and other facilities. The only long-term effect of the Russian invasion is that team GB have a few records where the Ruskies were banned from the Olympics.
That's the third time they've kicked us out.
It will balkanise and get even worse.
Heroin production will go through the roof - that and terrorism will bite the US, the UK and others in the bum.
The US left hundreds of armoured vehicles, etc., behind because they were too costly to take home. Where do you think they are going to go?! A total of 3.5 million items were abandoned.
The people that took the wages to work as Afghani Police / soldiers would (quite frankly) be stupid to continue to do so when they will be the number one targets of thousands of Taliban.
Of particular interest to the Chinese are the rare-earth materials. These are used in explosives and they already have what to all intents is a monopoly. Explosives and in batteries for cars. As in Africa, the Chinese turn up, give the money and get on with things. The money from the EU is so tied-up with environmental studies, etc., that it looks unattractive by comparison ("questions asked" vs "no questions asked").
As one US general said about five years ago, "it would have been cheaper to nuke the place and then pay compensation"
2015 Volvo V40
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well, Kabul is an international airport.. Ive been there several times with my work pulling the Brit Forces out. Its a busy little airport...Si
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7th Jul 2021 1:38 pm
ph1ll
Member Since: 15 May 2020
Location: Worcestershire
Posts: 51
Its been 10 years since I was there, but not shocked in the slightest.
7th Jul 2021 6:02 pm
RRSTDV8
Member Since: 07 Apr 2014
Location: Here
Posts: 13550
HWN wrote:
A colleague of mine originated in Pakistan, coming over here in the 1980s. In the early seventies there were bus trips from Pakistan to Afghanistan so that people could marvel at the state-of-the-art hospitals and other facilities. The only long-term effect of the Russian invasion is that team GB have a few records where the Ruskies were banned from the Olympics.
That's the third time they've kicked us out.
It will balkanise and get even worse.
Heroin production will go through the roof - that and terrorism will bite the US, the UK and others in the bum.
The US left hundreds of armoured vehicles, etc., behind because they were too costly to take home. Where do you think they are going to go?! A total of 3.5 million items were abandoned.
The people that took the wages to work as Afghani Police / soldiers would (quite frankly) be stupid to continue to do so when they will be the number one targets of thousands of Taliban.
Of particular interest to the Chinese are the rare-earth materials. These are used in explosives and they already have what to all intents is a monopoly. Explosives and in batteries for cars. As in Africa, the Chinese turn up, give the money and get on with things. The money from the EU is so tied-up with environmental studies, etc., that it looks unattractive by comparison ("questions asked" vs "no questions asked").
As one US general said about five years ago, "it would have been cheaper to nuke the place and then pay compensation"
Wot he said.Visiting from rrsport.co.uk
2012 RRS SDV6
2008 RRS TDV8
"When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill, until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: SIT DOWN AND TALK!"
7th Jul 2021 6:48 pm
Stevepd
Member Since: 06 Mar 2018
Location: Wiltshire
Posts: 392
I was there in 2006 and as above it’s just a question of when.visiting from www.rrsport.co.uk
Unbelievably, the film "Kajaki: The True Story" only made $34K at the box office. It documents only a single event that was a tiny, tiny, tiny part of the UK's involvement in Afghanistan but has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 100% and end credits that bring people to tears. Worth a watch on Netflix, etc.,
An ultimately pointless conflict that cost many lives on all sides. Everyone who served there, following orders despite a weak moral imperative, gets my total respect. A UK Vietnam without the conscription - and for the professionalism of British forces that made that unnecessary I (as a parent) am thankful.
2015 Volvo V40
2014 D4 HSE
2006 RRS - C'est mort. Fin... ...It's alive! Oh no, it's not - scrapped.
2019 Suzuki Kingquad 400
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7th Jul 2021 11:38 pm
RRSTDV8
Member Since: 07 Apr 2014
Location: Here
Posts: 13550
And the entirely obvious consequences are now playing out with the Taliban just reasserting their control of the country. They will doubtless take it back to the Middle Ages (but with guns and bombs) and human rights will be removed from most of the population.
The result will be another hard-line Islamic state that treats women and "non-believers"(*) as less than worthless.
The British Empire did some pretty shiity stuff to people around the world, but I can't help thinking that the US-led coalitions have been much worse because, after all, we live in a time where the idea of universal human rights exists - something that can't be said of much the Victorian period. To go in to countries, create war zones and then leave the inhabitants to pick up the pieces is no better than the stuff done by our ancestors.
(*) - non-believers being, in this case, those that don't believe in the Taliban's particular version of religion, even if they're both Muslims.Visiting from rrsport.co.uk
2012 RRS SDV6
2008 RRS TDV8
"When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill, until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: SIT DOWN AND TALK!"
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