Taliban offensive of 2021 and collapse of Afghan government.

NPR Article​

​

CIA Chief And Taliban Leader Meet As Taliban Demand Aug. 31 U.S. Withdrawal​


Greg Myre

5-6 minutes
1629827036130.png


CIA Director William J. Burns, seen here in his office in Langley, Va., met Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, according to a U.S. official.

CIA Director William Burns met Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The meeting between Burns and Baradar marks the highest level meeting so far between the Biden administration and the Taliban since the group took over in Afghanistan on Aug. 15.

The CIA declined to comment, and there was no word on where in Kabul they met or what they discussed. But the most pressing issue is whether the U.S. airlift operation at the Kabul airport will continue beyond the Aug. 31 deadline.

President Biden says that date is still the target. But he's left open the possibility of extending it, saying he wants to evacuate all U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghans who want to leave the country. Biden also wants all U.S. forces out by the end of the month. Close to 6,000 American troops are at the airport as part of the airlift.

The Taliban are eager to formally establish a government in Afghanistan. They say a continued U.S. presence beyond Aug. 31 would cross a "red line," and there would be unspecified consequences.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday that his group will accept "no extensions" to an Aug. 31 deadline, The Associated Press reported.

A range of issues to resolve

While news of the Burns-Baradar meeting came as a surprise, the U.S. and the Taliban are in regular contact and have a number of issues to work out.

The Pentagon says it is in daily contact with the Taliban at the Kabul airport, where armed Taliban members are effectively performing crowd control outside the wall of the airport. The U.S. says the Taliban has been cooperative on issues regarding the airport. Still, U.S. forces are concerned about the possibility of an attack by other extremist groups, including the Islamic State and its affiliates.

1629827079768.png

Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban's negotiation team, in talks on Nov. 21, 2020, in Doha, Qatar.

Patrick Semansky/AP

In turn, the Taliban were shunned by the international community during their harsh rule of Afghanistan from 1996-2001. They are seeking international legitimacy this time around, and have encouraged foreign governments to keep their embassies open in Afghanistan. While the Taliban are striking a different tone, the U.S. and its allies are deeply skeptical that the group has changed its fundamental principles.

Also, Afghanistan's weak economy has been heavily dependent on assistance from the U.S. and other Western countries. An aid cutoff could send Afghanistan into a downward economic spiral. Aid groups also say they are concerned about the possibility of a mass exodus of Afghans to neighboring countries.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Baradar have a tangled history.

A joint CIA-Pakistan operation resulted in Baradar's capture in Pakistan in 2010. After eight years in a Pakistani prison, he was released in 2018 and then led the Taliban delegation in negotiations with the U.S. in Doha, Qatar.

In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed an agreement that called for all U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan by May of this year. The agreement also states that the Taliban will not allow terrorist attacks to be carried out from its territory.

In followup talks, Baradar met last November with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Qatar.

On Monday, Baradar met the CIA director, this time under very different circumstances than his first encounter with the spy agency.
 
The Last Boyscout said:
I wonder if that's like a prerequisite for their higher positions now? "either you did time in GITMO or have a high bounty on your head by the CIA, or you ain't cut out for this gig here."
Click to expand...
i always point to gitmo when i say we need guns. they found a loophole around the constitution. since it was technically leased land and not American soil.
 
  • Like
Reactions: not william stenchever, MrJokerRager and Ghostse
Now they're claiming over 25,000 evacuees in a single day, even when previously they said their max capacity was 9k and the flight traffic hasn't been consistent with these numbers. They won't say how many people went to each country and before we were seeing Qatar and other midpoints going crazy because they didn't have the ability to feed and temporarily house all of the refugees at 1/10th the traffic.

They're literally going to push these numbers as far as they can until some media hack decides to do their fucking job and start adding up known numbers, then asking where the extra human lives are coming from and going to. A human audit.

They now want us to believe that they are getting more passengers out per runway in a day than DFW or ATL.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: fuzzdew, Francesco Dellamorte, Sig and 10 others
Stoneheart said:
Those were strategic targets. the fulda gap was full of tactical nukes
Click to expand...


Fulda gap was always a meme. Soviet war planners never had serious considerations going that way, but NATO had a hard on for the area.

For the most part Soviet war plans were extremely defensive and were looking more inwards. They would rely on nukes for any advance and that was evidence by the equipment that had NBC all fitted. The soldiers on the ground were literally expected to push on for a few months until radiation sickness settled in and then be replaced by more sodiers.

Most front line infantry units would be Satellite states anyway in any initial attack and were considered expendable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrJokerRager and Feline Supremacist
Terrifik said:
View attachment 2476059
View attachment 2476061
View attachment 2476065
Click to expand...
Did they tell her to her face? Because that would have been golden.

Also, whoever mentioned being stuck in Mazar i Sharif, I'd cross the border to the west and take my chances in Iran rather than stay in Afghanistan and try to make my way to Kabul. Even with a US passport. I'd don a chador and get to an embassy in Tehran (eg French, Swiss, Canadian. etc). The Persians may hate us but they aren't savages.
 
  • Feels
  • Agree
  • Informative
Reactions: IAmNotAlpharius, Cpl. Long Dong Silver, make_it_so and 3 others
Ahriman said:
View attachment 2468997
Click to expand...
Foltest said:
the real life Zhukov had earn those medals when leading the red army to victory. What has this shitass general done to earn his?
Click to expand...
I don't want to present myself as an expert in the US military, but aren't a portion of the ribbons basically participation trophies? Like, if a soldier participated in a particular conflict or even was just stationed in a particular country at a particular time then they get a ribbon. I think that's probably where at least some of the ribbons on that guy's chest came from.
en.wikipedia.org

Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Edit: Looks like I was more correct than I thought I was. @oldTireWater explained it in more detail than I could.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Justa Grata Honoria
Diana Moon Glampers said:
They're now claiming 16k people got out in the last 24 hours. A couple hours ago the number was like 10,900.

These are ridiculous numbers, higher than they said were possible at maximum capacity last week, and not remotely in keeping with flight traffic. I really think they're just trying to sow so much confusion that the average American thinks almost everyone made it out.
Click to expand...
Why are you surprised, the Biden Administration got into office on faking bullshit numbers to begin with.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Francesco Dellamorte, IAmNotAlpharius, Belvedere and 9 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back