Afghanistan 2021 Onwards
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I see there are plans being pushed around to form an Afghan Regiment in the British Army using Afghan Special Forces we helped train, makes sense if the budgets there, they would I assume be similar to the Gurkhas. It would create jobs and help fill the recruiting shortages.
https://www.forces.net/news/afghan-s...-army-regiment
https://www.forces.net/news/afghan-s...-army-regiment
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Azmat Khan
@AzmatZahra
1. They may not be on your TV screens right now, but there’s a generation of Afghan youth in rural areas whose lives over the last 20 years were forever changed by the war playing out directly in front of them—when the American public was not watching as they are now.
4:42 PM · Aug 23, 2021
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I don't really understand anyone in the media calling the evacuation a "disaster". It was a highly successful operation spun up in just a couple of days and sustained for a fortnight, and largely met its objectives (in fact I bet it exceeded what the planners thought was possible). Everyone involved should feel very proud. If they mean needing to perform the evacuation is a disaster, fair enough, but I wish they'd choose their words more carefully.
I can see why the press are calling it in parts a disaster, this should have started happening months ago, the Civilians should have been evacuated before the troops left, not the other way round where you have to bring the troops back in.
If they had then Kabul would not have yet fallen and an orderly evacuation could have taken place, however, some of those you needed to evacuate would still be in positions required to be working, military, embassy staff etc. .
It should have been planned to leave during the quiet season in the first place, and that goes way back to the negotiations.
Plans should have been put in place to destroy records at short notice etc too.
Think about the numbers compared to the last mass evacuation.
Kabul 100500 people approximately evacuated.
Dunkirk 338000 approximately evacuated
However those from Dunkirk needed moving about 40
miles, Kabul to Ramstien is a 2800 mile trip.
a superb effort by all involved.
..
Last edited by NutLoose; 30th Aug 2021 at 13:20.
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The Times:
Getting all the troops home takes some fancy footwork
US military commanders at Kabul airport are engaged in an elaborate choreography to complete America’s final troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by midnight tomorrow (Michael Evans writes).
The priority had been to keep hundreds of marines, soldiers and special operations troops in place for as long as possible to ensure safe evacuation of the last Americans and Afghans with immigration visas.
At the same time they have had to put enough troops on the planes starting at least 48 hours before the deadline is reached to guarantee that all the 4,000 service personnel who were there at the end of last week are removed on time.
US defence officials have acknowledged that it may be impossible to remove all the helicopters and other equipment on the remaining flights because of the space they will take up.
The US military has already destroyed a large amount of assault rifles and ammunition supplied to the Afghan national security forces. The CIA has demolished a building outside the airport used for training Afghan intelligence agencies in counterterrorism. It contained sensitive equipment.
However, there is no evidence that the US has yet had to destroy or disable any helicopters, all of which have been vital to the evacuation.
At least a dozen Chinook, Black Hawk, Apache and special operations-adapted Little Bird helicopters are on the list for withdrawal but some may have to be left behind. US defence officials have indicated they may be destroyed in an airstrike before the midnight deadline.
However, those used by the US Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, can be flown out of Kabul individually because they have air-refuelling capability.
For the troop airlift choreography, the commanders have had to draw up flight manifests based on the requirement to continue checking visas of Afghans and securing the airport. The 5,800 troop total was cut to 4,000, helped by a decision to close some of the airport entry gates and all the roads around the perimeter.
This enabled marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU) and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, both responsible for perimeter security and checkpoints, to start withdrawing.
The 2,000 Marines from the 24th MEU had originally been airlifted from ships in an amphibious-ready group in the Gulf to Kuwait before being flown to Kabul. They will return to their ships via Kuwait although, sadly, without 11 of their comrades, who were killed in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport.
Among the last to leave Kabul will be several hundred US special operations troops who are expected to be on the final flights out in the hours before midnight tomorrow.
They will be accompanied by the last remaining CIA paramilitary officers. Green beret soldiers of the US Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and CIA members of the intelligence agency’s special activities division were the first to arrive, covertly, in Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.
The first in, they will now be the last out when the final chapter of America’s campaign in Afghanistan comes to an end tomorrow.
Getting all the troops home takes some fancy footwork
US military commanders at Kabul airport are engaged in an elaborate choreography to complete America’s final troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by midnight tomorrow (Michael Evans writes).
The priority had been to keep hundreds of marines, soldiers and special operations troops in place for as long as possible to ensure safe evacuation of the last Americans and Afghans with immigration visas.
At the same time they have had to put enough troops on the planes starting at least 48 hours before the deadline is reached to guarantee that all the 4,000 service personnel who were there at the end of last week are removed on time.
US defence officials have acknowledged that it may be impossible to remove all the helicopters and other equipment on the remaining flights because of the space they will take up.
The US military has already destroyed a large amount of assault rifles and ammunition supplied to the Afghan national security forces. The CIA has demolished a building outside the airport used for training Afghan intelligence agencies in counterterrorism. It contained sensitive equipment.
However, there is no evidence that the US has yet had to destroy or disable any helicopters, all of which have been vital to the evacuation.
At least a dozen Chinook, Black Hawk, Apache and special operations-adapted Little Bird helicopters are on the list for withdrawal but some may have to be left behind. US defence officials have indicated they may be destroyed in an airstrike before the midnight deadline.
However, those used by the US Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, can be flown out of Kabul individually because they have air-refuelling capability.
For the troop airlift choreography, the commanders have had to draw up flight manifests based on the requirement to continue checking visas of Afghans and securing the airport. The 5,800 troop total was cut to 4,000, helped by a decision to close some of the airport entry gates and all the roads around the perimeter.
This enabled marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (24th MEU) and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, both responsible for perimeter security and checkpoints, to start withdrawing.
The 2,000 Marines from the 24th MEU had originally been airlifted from ships in an amphibious-ready group in the Gulf to Kuwait before being flown to Kabul. They will return to their ships via Kuwait although, sadly, without 11 of their comrades, who were killed in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport.
Among the last to leave Kabul will be several hundred US special operations troops who are expected to be on the final flights out in the hours before midnight tomorrow.
They will be accompanied by the last remaining CIA paramilitary officers. Green beret soldiers of the US Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and CIA members of the intelligence agency’s special activities division were the first to arrive, covertly, in Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.
The first in, they will now be the last out when the final chapter of America’s campaign in Afghanistan comes to an end tomorrow.
And the longer we had stayed the more this would have become the norm as those set in their ways would die off to be replaced by new generations with the same values these under twenty year olds had been brought up with, where for one women were not treated as dirt etc.
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I was referring to the main cities, sorry I should have put that in.
Nightstalker receives Norwegian medal,
In better news, a Nightstalker MH-47G pilot has received Norwegian medal, a first for a non Norwegian since WW2. It was for 2019 mission to rescue Norwegian special forces in Afghanistan
https://theaviationist.com/2021/08/2...5O1-JjT_U79TIc
Cheers
https://theaviationist.com/2021/08/2...5O1-JjT_U79TIc
Cheers
The sleeve on that uniform tells the tale for those in the "know" of what those wee small stripes indicate.
That he is a CW5 with long service with TF 160 also reminds us of how far the US Army has come over the years.
Well Done those guys....and as Edwards tells it....it is a team effort.
That he is a CW5 with long service with TF 160 also reminds us of how far the US Army has come over the years.
Well Done those guys....and as Edwards tells it....it is a team effort.
Yes, it's not our place to decide for them. Yes, you just can't foist democracy on a society that's never had it. But I really, really feel for all the women and girls in Afghanistan. Their future is utterly dire now.
If you want democracy to stick. (My point of reference is South Korea).
Democracy needs to grow from the ground up and even then it can be a fragile thing.
Does that work in "reverse" in converting from a democratic capitalist system to a communist system?
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Un resolution on Afghanistan…. Give me a break, a lot of well paid people sitting around a table totally devoid of real life producing toilet paper with no teeth to do squat, hot air personified.
Taliban SF now having a video opportunity with the abandoned US Dept of State special CH-46 Sea Knight / "Phrog" fleet
Jason Brodsky on Twitter: "Surreal video. https://t.co/hZkWmRyzLc" / Twitter
Jason Brodsky on Twitter: "Surreal video. https://t.co/hZkWmRyzLc" / Twitter
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I agree it does not say much if that is disabled, I expected heaps of smouldering ash.
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Such a sad day, but couldn’t they muster a fleet of hearse, a transit van seem so impersonal.