The Fall Of Kabul To The Taliban

[MajorHoople]

I don't know about discriminatory, but a lot of translators and other helpers that our vets want out are men, so that's a factor.

You're right they were translators, but I still wouldn't trust them.

 

[dotr]

US Deployed Helicopters To Rescue 169 Americans In Kabul Operation

''The US military in Afghanistan sent helicopters to rescue over 150 Americans unable to reach the Kabul airport gates, an official said Friday, in the first evidence that US forces were willing and able to go beyond the US-secured compound to help people seeking evacuation.

The news came as American officials confirmed evacuation operations from Afghanistan stalled for about seven hours Friday, because the receiving base in Qatar was overflowing and could not take in evacuees.

That left thousands more Afghans already cleared to leave their country for the United States waiting at the Kabul airport.''

''They were very close to the perimeter of the airport. Very close," he said, adding later that they had been airlifted from the Baron hotel, near the airport, by three US Chinook helicopters.''

 

[LadyL]

Live Updates: Amid Desperation at Kabul Airport, Evacuation Picks Up Pace

 

[dotr]

rbbm. Aug 20 2021
WARMINGTON: Terps being whipped by Taliban, but good news is coming | Toronto Sun

This image taken by Omar Kaidiri and made available to AFP on August 20 shows a US Marine grabbing an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. Photo by Omar HAIDIRI /via AFP/Getty Images
''But how to get on the other side of that wall, dubbed The Gates of Hell, is the life and death dilemma?

As I write this my interpreter in 2011 is huddled in the dark with his family breaking the Taliban curfew, hoping someone let him inside.
No luck so far.''

''He has been hit by Taliban guard with the butt of a rifle. Another guard swung a belt towards his wife and small children.''

''It’s horrifying, but the reality of trying to escape Afghanistan.

My friend, who helped Canada for a decade and was both late greats Christie Blatchford and Matthew Fisher’s translator and fixer, will be executed if those Taliban thugs figure out who he is.''

''Meanwhile for my guy, taking the risk to get into the airport was his only move.

He did his part by getting there, which was no easy task.

Now he needs some help from the inside.

I am calling in every favour I can think of.''

''The bottleneck is the entry to the airport but the hope is with special forces there, the juggernaut will be softened.''

 

[neesaki]

Afghanistan: Taliban fighters 'set woman on fire for bad cooking' | Daily Mail Online


Women are being burned to death, forced to marry Taliban fighters and also shipped overseas in coffins to be used as sex slaves in the latest horrors to unfold in Afghanistan after just five days of Taliban rule, it has been claimed.

One woman was set alight by Taliban fighters on Thursday in the north of the country because they didn't like the food they forced her to cook for them, according to Najla Ayoubi - a former Afghan judge who now lives in the US.

Still more women are being packed into coffins and shipped abroad so they can be used as sex slaves while young girls are being forced to marry Taliban fighters, she told Sky News.

It comes after videos emerged of gun-wielding Islamists beating people with rifles, confiscating Afghan national flags and shooting a police chief to death, along with reports that minorities are being tortured to death with muscles carved from their bodies by vengeful jihadis.

On Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid had vowed there would be no revenge attacks and that the rights of women and minorities would be respected under a new and more-moderate version of the Islamist regime which ran the country in the 1990s.

But almost all of those pledges now appeared broken just over 48 hours later, after a separate UN report warned that Taliban fighters are going house-to-house looking for western collaborators to kill.

I’m not saying I don’t bereave this report, but I sincerely pray it’s not true. If so it’s beyond horrific.

 

[neesaki]

“Am I My Brother’s Keeper”

In the 20 years we have poured our all into that country they have been unable to form some kind of government.

I listened to President Biden today. We have spent trillions supporting them through four presidents.

What we are seeing today is heartbreaking but how long could we continue on?

Everything must have a beginning and an end.

But what’s the excuse for not getting our American citizens out, as well as the Afghans who were working with us , such as translators and interpreters.... before withdrawing?
And why did they leave all the weapons behind.... humvees, helicopters, machine guns, etc..... for the Taliban to use for their cause? Things don’t add up. IMO

 

[Vern]

"mostly men - will reach Germany"

I guess this comment will be unpopular because it's discriminatory but if it were up to me,

I would only allow girls and women refugee status. I would not allow any male entry into the country.

I would - there are thousands of men there who've spent up to two decades working as our Allies on ground and serving NATO literally saving Allied lives with their work ... they've done their bit to assist us and for their country. They all should have been here ... months ago.

 

[Vern]

But what’s the excuse for not getting our American citizens out, as well as the Afghans who were working with us , such as translators and interpreters.... before withdrawing?
And why did they leave all the weapons behind.... humvees, helicopters, machine guns, etc..... for the Taliban to use for their cause? Things don’t add up. IMO

Because there was ZERO plan.

The above doesn't happen when one has a Plan A, a Plan B (in case A goes to hell), a Plan C (etc etc) and another contingency plan for every scenario. Clearly, this gong show was not war gamed <--- not that I believe that it's not been, but clearly if it were the politicians who cll the shots ignored that war-gaming.

 

[Betty P]

But what’s the excuse for not getting our American citizens out, as well as the Afghans who were working with us , such as translators and interpreters.... before withdrawing?
And why did they leave all the weapons behind.... humvees, helicopters, machine guns, etc..... for the Taliban to use for their cause? Things don’t add up. IMO

I haven't been following closely, but from what I've read, there were some major mistakes in US intelligence reports. Apparently, they gave the military very bad information about the risks.

 

[nightowl1975]

The Taliban capitalized on the uncertainty caused by the February 2020 agreement reached in Doha, Qatar, between the militant group and the U.S. calling for a full American withdrawal…

"They saw that document as the end," the officer said, referring to the majority of Afghans aligned with the government. "The day the deal was signed we saw the change. Everyone was just looking out for himself. It was like [the U.S.] left us to fail."

Yet a full 18 months later, there were still tens of thousands remaining in Afghanistan who now suddenly desperately want out. It defies all logic that so many remained, though I’m sure they had their reasons. I suppose 20 years is a long time to forget what life was like under Taliban rule. Perhaps some didn’t think it would actually come to this.

 

[nightowl1975]

But what’s the excuse for not getting our American citizens out, as well as the Afghans who were working with us , such as translators and interpreters.... before withdrawing?
And why did they leave all the weapons behind.... humvees, helicopters, machine guns, etc..... for the Taliban to use for their cause? Things don’t add up. IMO

I believe the weapons and supplies were left under the assumption that the Afghan army that we spent the last 20 years and billions of dollars training would actually use the stuff to fight the Taliban themselves.

The only reasonable reason I can think of for American citizens to have stayed there despite clear warnings to get out ASAP would be if their family members there don’t also have US citizenship, weren’t well enough to travel, or perhaps they didn’t have the money to travel out of the country or any place in the US to go. I’m baffled at the sheer number of US citizens that are still there.

 

[HayLouise]

Greece builds 40km fence to stop Afghan asylum seekers from entering Europe

 

[HayLouise]

A Marine assigned to the 24th MEU calms an infant during an evacuation at #HKIA Kabul, Aug 20.

U.S. service members and coalition partners are assisting the @StateDept with a Non-combatant Evacuation Operation in #Afghanistan.

@USMARCENT @CENTCOM
#Marines



https://twitter.com/usmc/status/1428764261346684940?s=21

 

[Skigh]

Our boys' last stand in Kabul: British paratroopers desperately hold the line in Afghanistan | Daily Mail Online


Ministers warned there may be just four more days to evacuate Brits and their allies: Thousands of Afghans face being left behind as Brit stranded in Kabul reveals he's planning to BREAK INTO airport

• The UK is urging Joe Biden to delay withdrawing US forces to help with the airlifting of 6,000 Brits and locals
• As pictures showed airport being surrounded by scenes of anarchy, the Paras mounted a frantic last stand
• Women and children were crushed in a stampede as huge crowds tried to escape the Afghan capital of Kabul
• US President Joe Biden has said that he could not guarantee what the 'final outcome' would be from the crisis
• Boris Johnson said Britain was having to 'manage the consequences' of decision by the US to withdraw troops

 

[dotr]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/afghanistan-kabul-1.6148674
Aug 21, 2021 3:30 AM ET rbbm.
''The Gulf nation of Bahrain on Saturday announced it was allowing flights to use its transit facilities for the evacuation, an option that should ease pressure after the U.S. faced issues Friday with its facilities at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar rapidly filling up. The backlog forced flights from the Kabul international airport to stop for several hours.

The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said Saturday it would host up to 5,000 Afghans "prior to their departure to other countries."

''On Friday, a defence official said about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, were flown out of Kabul aboard 16 C-17 transport planes, guarded by a temporary U.S. military deployment that's building to 6,000 troops. On each of the previous two days, about 2,000 people were airlifted.

Officials also confirmed that U.S. military helicopters flew beyond the Kabul airport to scoop up 169 Americans seeking to evacuate. No one knows how many U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan, but estimates have ranged as high as 15,000.''

''But the growing question for many other Afghans is, where will they finally call home? Already, European leaders who fear a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis are signalling that fleeing Afghans who didn't help Western forces during the war should stay in neighbouring countries instead. The desperate scenes of people clinging to aircraft taking off from Kabul's airport have only deepened Europe's anxiety.''

 

[dotr]

rbbm.
The Latest: Italy says evacuates 1,000 Afghans from Kabul
''MILAN — Italy says its military has evacuated nearly 1,000 Afghan citizens out of Kabul over the last five days.

The Defense Ministry said that two flights carrying 207 Afghans arrived Saturday in Rome from Kuwait, which Italy is using as a staging ground for the Kabul evacuations.''

''Italy has deployed more than 1,500 servicemen and women to operate an airbridge from Kabul to Kuwait aboard four C130J aircraft, and to ferry evacuees to safety in Italy aboard four KC767s.

Italy began what it has dubbed Operation Aquila Omnia in June, bringing to safety 1,532 Afghan citizens to date. Eighty, including 33 women, arrived on Saturday at a base in South Tyrol, northern Italy, for a 10-day COVID quarantine.''

In a video distributed by the ministry, an Afghan man who was brought to the base thanked “the Italian armed forces, who didn’t leave us alone in Afghanistan. With all the difficulty, they brought us away.” Speaking with his back to the camera, he said the journey took two days. “We are tired. We are happy. We are now in a safe country,’’ he said, expressing also hope that one day “if Afghanistan becomes safe, we can return to our country.”

 

[bears10]

Thanks. I saw that photo and couldn't see anyone obviously American. And I'm not counting American "journalists" in with American citizens who are currently in Afghanistan. The journalists, including Clarissa, obviously have been in close proximity to the airport at all times and don't have any problems with access to flights out like Americans having to get past the Taliban to do so. It's nice that they can get Afghan kids out though. I wonder if there are any American kids stuck there.

not every american has white skin and wears jeans and t-shirts.

 

[bears10]

Americans could well be people of Afghan descent, so we may have seen them in photos.

This obviously makes far more sense than thousands of Americans of European descent vacationing at one of Afghanistan’s many 5 star, all inclusive resorts.

 

[shotgun09]

Per Lucas Tomlinson, Fox News Pentagon reporter:
BBM
Lucas Tomlinson
@LucasFoxNews
BREAKING: U.S. embassy Kabul warns of "potential security threats" outside Kabul airport. "We are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time."
6:32 AM · Aug 21, 2021·Twitter Web App

https://twitter.com/LucasFoxNews/status/1429043702148784130

 

[Reasonable & Just]

The Taliban were never, ever, gonna make this easy...

From the Embassy page:

Security Alert – Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan (August 21, 2021) | U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan

Event: Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so.

U.S. citizens requesting assistance in departing the country who have not yet to completed the Repatriation Assistance Request for each traveler in their group should do so as soon as possible. Spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens in Afghanistan who are awaiting immigrant visas should also complete this form if they wish to depart. Do not call the U.S. Embassy in Kabul for details or updates about the flight. This form is the only way to communicate interest in flight options.

We will contact registered U.S. citizens as the security situation changes to provide further instructions