PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Afghanistan 2021 Onwards
View Single Post
Old 11th Aug 2021, 10:09
  #73 (permalink)  
skridlov
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: sussex
Age: 75
Posts: 192
Received 2 Likes on 1 Post
There's a great deal that could be said about Pakistan's involvement - but seldom is, at least as far as news coverage is concerned. The US government also continues its fan dance where Pakistan (ISI) culpability is concerned. Given that the Taliban's activity has now expanded into large scale conventional unit operations the sheer scale of munitions required to sustain it has grown massively. And yet I don't recall a single news item or documentary that attempts to account for the source, scale or routes of the related supply chain. Its source is Pakistan of course, notionally a US ally...

Up to the last week or so I assumed that the Tajiks would hold out, at least in the Panjshir, as they did last time the Taliban were in Kabul. But news reports suggest that some Tajik units are going over to the Taliban - and of course sealing the border into Tajikistan cuts off that source of support. There's a similar situation in western Afghanistan where the border crossing at Islam Quala was quickly taken and nearby Herat is probably soon to fall. At the moment Mazar is surrounded too. I wonder where General Abdul Rashid Dostum is these days? He was famous for running tanks over captured Talibs or cooking them in transport containers, so I doubt that they're going to welcome him if he decides to perform one of his about-face moves.

The parallels with the US withdrawal from Vietnam are remarkable. US troops withdraw leaving a "well equipped national army" to defend the state. Which army collapses in a matter of weeks.

AlJazeera is the only broadcast channel giving serious coverage to the situation with a few journalists still on the ground there.
skridlov is offline