It doesn’t look like Trump’s ‘deal’ with the Taliban, or Biden’s view on the withdrawal is going to age very well. To paraphrase…
Opera Tonight. The damnation of Faust. Man makes a deal with the devil. All ends in tears, these arrangements usually do
I can understand the reticence of western electorates to intervene; but Afghanistan is going to be back in the Middle Ages by the end of next year.
I see they’ve had to re send UK troops to bring home UK nationals. Really not work out well at all. All those people killed and injured on all sides, and for what.
Would US troops staying for another 1/5/10 years have made any difference though, or just delay what is happening now by 1/5/10 years 
I honestly want to cry for all of those innocent victims 
For absolutely nothing. Vietnam will prove a ‘success’ by comparison.
I’m not surprised. Was not Tony Blair’s argument on invading Iraq ultimately reduced to the question, ‘yes, but is Saddam a bad man?’ Despite every expert telling him invading was a baaaaddddd idea 
This is a good podcast (from a US perspective) on the march to the invasion of Iraq
I think Russia’s experience in Afghanistan should have given a heads-up on how things were likely to go, although the Taliban did have Rambo fighting for them in those days 
Any commentary on those Cheese eating surrender monkeys
Ftfy
Well yes; Saddam was a very different situation though. He was the lid on the pressure cooker and for that reason alone it was a stupid idea. The US only went back in, because the Bush family had a score to settle imho. Oh, and oil.
I was working in HQ in 2002 and could see it coming coming down the pipes; I was shaking my head even then.
I don’t understand how we have invested the time, money and personnel to train and support the Afghan forces over the last decade, for them to be so comprehensively routed in a matter of weeks.
You can bet you last £ that there will be plenty of people made plenty of money out of it over the years. People without regard for the human cost.
A combination of corruption, low pay and resultant poor motivation.
That and that they’re absolutely shit at what they do. You can’t teach people to give a fuck, unfortunately so it looks like they’d rather live under barbarian rule than defend their families.
For this to work, we had to commit to securing the peace for as long as it took, maybe a hundred years, there could not be a time limit.
I’m sure if they hadn’t given a safe haven to Bin Laden and his crew the West would have just let them get on with it and apart from the occasional documentary showing how horrible it was there the rest of the world would have paid them no interest.
Give it a couple of years and as long as they keep things within their borders we’ll all have forgotten about them again
Isn’t it also one of the most hotly contested and turbulent parts of the world period. Like going back hundreds and hundreds of years, and nobody ever properly conquered the area. (may have misremembered the article I read ages ago, but it was along those lines)
No one cared about them running round killing each other and their women and children. It was mainly when they started blowing up Buddha statues and other antiquities that the press started to suggest what a bunch of fruitcakes they were leading to support for the invasion.
I guess there and Jerusalem 
… Alexander the Great even invaded didn’t he? They must be pretty fed up by now
I think so, yeah. Genghis Khan, the Persians etc.