OldSolduer
Army.ca Relic
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Say isn’t China backing the Taliban? IF they are then cash is the least of their worries
China doesn't front cash without getting or owning something in return.Say isn’t China backing the Taliban? IF they are then cash is the least of their worries
I have no doubt that the US troops are ready and willing. It's their political leadership that's letting them down, sadly.
I just saw this a few minutes ago: US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad
The Washington Examiner is not, I think, pro-Biden, but, even so, this does sting a bit.
Interesting catch (and yeah, the Examiner is definitely anti-Democrat), but so far, this is the only outlet carrying this tidbit - and the writer doesn't say who told him, even in protected generic terms. Still, interesting (and stinging) scuttlebutt, indeed, even if partly true ....I just saw this a few minutes ago: US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad
The Washington Examiner is not, I think, pro-Biden, but, even so, this does sting a bit.
The government is coming under pressure after it emerged ministers did not make a phone call about evacuating Afghan translators who had helped UK forces.
It had said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was too busy to speak to his Afghan counterpart, with a junior minister being asked to do so instead.
But the Foreign Office now says it "was not possible" to arrange the call before the Afghan government collapsed.
Mr Raab has rejected demands from opposition parties to resign.
It was revealed earlier this week that the foreign secretary was unavailable to make the phone call last Friday - while he was on holiday in Crete - as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.
(...)
The Afghan foreign ministry reportedly refused to arrange a call with a junior minister, pushing it back to the next day.
But a Foreign Office spokesman has now told the BBC: "Given the rapidly changing situation, it was not possible to arrange a call before the Afghan government collapsed." ...
US Deployed Helicopters To Rescue 169 Americans In Kabul Operation
"They were very close to the perimeter of the airport. Very close. And in a short amount of time, with a short amount of distance, some of our troops were able to go out there and retrieve them and bring them in," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Washington:
The US military in Afghanistan deployed three helicopters to rescue 169 Americans unable to reach the Kabul airport gates to leave the country, an official said Friday.
In the first evidence that US forces are willing and able to go beyond the US-secured airport to help people seeking evacuation, three Chinook helicopters flew to pick up the group of US citizens at the Baron hotel, not far from the airport, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
The group had planned to walk to the Abbey Gate of the airport, but a crowd was gathered there and US officials were concerned for the Americans' safety.
"There was a large crowd established outside the Abbey Gate, a crowd, that, not everybody had confidence in, in terms of their ability to walk through it, and so local commanders on the scene took the initiative and flew these helicopters out there to pick them up," Kirby said.
Earlier, President Joe Biden mentioned the rescue in a speech, but gave few details.
Since US troops took over the airport to facilitate an airlift of potentially tens of thousands of people a week ago, they have avoided going outside the gates to steer clear of possible clashes with the Taliban, who have seized control of the country.
The Pentagon says the US commander on the ground in the airport is in frequent contact with the local Taliban commander to make it easier for Americans and Afghans with US visas to reach the airport to leave.
Perhaps the deal is "we won't shoot you in the face with Hellfires if you let us roam free and fetch who we want" ?Smells like BS, or something taken out of context.
would also be interesting to know if the UK or France have deals with the Taliban? I think anyone other than the US is under appreciating the protection they are afforded by ‘being allies’ of those who have the deal to not interfere. I suspect if it was a true Wild West, that the SAS, 2 Para, French SF and other allies zipping around Kabul would be not having an easier injury-free go of it…I’d dare say there’s some hubris in the air and it isn’t the Taliban or the Americans.
China shares a rugged 76-kilometre (47-mile) border with Afghanistan.
Beijing has long feared Afghanistan could become a staging point for minority Uyghur separatists in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang.
But a top-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants.
In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
The Uyghur are a Turkic people located primarily in northwestern China. Significant communities can also be found in Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with a small number in Afghanistan. Their origins can be traced back to Turkish nomads who lived in Siberia. They became independent of the Turks in 744 AD, but were forced to leave their homeland in 840 AD. It was then that most of them immigrated to western China.
The Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan represent a very slight percentage of the country's total population. They have been heavily influenced by Russians and other Central Asian peoples; most are bilingual and today, few of them speak Uighur as their first language.
Uyghur literally means "allied." For centuries, the Uyghur were an important link between China and the rest of the world. They lived along the legendary Silk Road and worked as caravan drivers transporting Chinese goods. The strategic locations of their homes allowed them to be the "middlemen" between the Orient and Europe.
Excuse me if I call BS on that promise.But a top-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants.
In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Aaaaaaaaall in the phrasingExcuse me if I call BS on that promise.
In that context, they may be more careful.... The Afghan Taliban will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China ...
Too true. The CHN info-machine statement mentions the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), "an Uyghur Islamic extremist organization founded in Western China. Its stated goals are to establish an independent state called East Turkestan replacing Xinjiang." No longer considered terrorists by the U.S. as of late last year.The Chinese re-education camps are filled with Uyghur militants. Not Al Qaeda or Taliban.
One man's patriot is another's terrorist.
I read that President Biden is "giving up" on Afghanistan to "focus" on China.
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China ready for 'friendly relations' with Taliban, welcomes Afghan development projects
China is ready to deepen "friendly and cooperative" relations with Afghanistan, a government spokeswoman said Monday, after the Taliban seized control of the country.www.france24.com
URL unfurl="true"]https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15755/af[/URL]
So he is abandoning the one place where he can directly influence the Uyghur situation of Xinjiang and directly confront Beijing over their handling of ethnic minorities.
Not a good look for the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong or Taiwan. Or Falung Gong, Muslims and Christians.
Nor can it be particularly comforting for the Baltics and the Visegrad Group or Ukrainians.
Observing events around the world, however, I fear we are entering the fourth stage of Hopf’s cycle; that hard times are coming, enabled by a weak West that is not equal to the task of overcoming them.
The chief culprit has been President Joe Biden. His administration, with the gratingly right-on Kamala Harris at his side, has been a wokefest from the start, whether it was rescinding Donald Trump’s ban on critical race theory-inspired implicit bias training for federal employees on his first day, signing ill-thought-through executive orders on trans rights, or jumping on every other virtue-signalling bandwagon he could find.
His commitment to these Left-wing shibboleths has won him not only the faltering support of the Democrats’ influential young radicals, but that of America’s media establishment, which has covered shamelessly for a president who should have spent more time worrying about his role as commander-in-chief and his obligations to the people of Afghanistan than trying to rival Justin Trudeau or Jacinda Ardern for “wokest world leader”.