The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

[Humble Disciple]

The Taliban isn’t engaging in violence, isn’t attacking the U.S.

What reality are you living in?

[Ken]

The Taliban isn’t engaging in violence, isn’t attacking the U.S.

What reality are you living in?

As far as I know, not one single US soldier has been killed or even fired upon since the Taliban came to power and this current airlift started. Do you have information to the contrary?

There is certainly violence going on within the country between Afghans. There are rebel groups still battling the Taliban to the north of the capitol. But nothing that involves the US directly.

As for Josh's comment upstream about why Afghans need to be evacuated? There are certainly a limited number of Afghans who were allied with and worked for the US as translators and in other roles. Some have gotten death threats from the Taliban which seem credible. The Taliban has killed people. But how many of those people there are I really don't know. And how many of them are entitled to US entry visas under US law I really don't know. I'm sure some where promised that. But it certainly isn't our role to evacuate every single Afghan who might dislike the new regime.

[Ken]

The New York Times’ Alissa J. Rubin recalls the early days of the Afghanistan invasion: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/23 ... -years-ago

Taliban fighters brandished Kalashnikovs and shook their fists in the air after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, defying American warnings that if they did not hand over Osama Bin Laden, their country would be bombed to smithereens.

The bravado faded once American bombs began to fall. Within a few weeks, many of the Taliban had fled the Afghan capital, terrified by the low whine of approaching B-52 aircraft. Soon, they were a spent force, on the run across the arid mountain-scape of Afghanistan. As one of the journalists who covered them in the early days of the war, I saw their uncertainty and loss of control firsthand.

It was in the waning days of November 2001 that Taliban leaders began to reach out to Hamid Karzai, who would soon become the interim president of Afghanistan: They wanted to make a deal.

“The Taliban were completely defeated, they had no demands, except amnesty,” recalled Barnett Rubin, who worked with the United Nations’ political team in Afghanistan at the time.

Messengers shuttled back and forth between Mr. Karzai and the headquarters of the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, in Kandahar. Mr. Karzai envisioned a Taliban surrender that would keep the militants from playing any significant role in the country’s future.

But Washington, confident that the Taliban would be wiped out forever, was in no mood for a deal.

“The United States is not inclined to negotiate surrenders,” Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a news conference at the time, adding that the Americans had no interest in leaving Mullah Omar to live out his days anywhere in Afghanistan. The United States wanted him captured or dead.

And because Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration were not in the mood for a deal, or had other ulterior objectives for Afghanistan, here we are. TWO TRILLION dollars and countless lives later.

[Josh]

The Taliban isn’t engaging in violence, isn’t attacking the U.S.

What reality are you living in?

Can you point to a single attack in the U.S., let alone in Afghanistan? So far, the Taliban has left Americans alone at the airport and is letting any Americans who want to leave, leave. They are in fact securing the airport and preventing rioting and other disorder there.

There does seem to be a deadline of August 31 by which the Taliban expects the U.S. military to be completely out of the county. I'm not sure why anyone thinks this is unreasonable. I mean, we don't allow the Taliban to set up a military presence in the United States.

The Taliban has yet to engage in widespread violence in Afghanistan, at least any more than the prior puppet government did. And certainly less violence than the U.S. military occupation led to.

[Humble Disciple]

The Taliban is going door to door, asking people if they've collaborated with the United States, presumably to kill them. The Taliban is also trying to kill people around the Kabul airport who are wanting to leave. Are these things not true? We don't need to whitewash the Taliban in order to oppose the war.

[Ken]

The Taliban is going door to door, asking people if they've collaborated with the United States, presumably to kill them. The Taliban is also trying to kill people around the Kabul airport who are wanting to leave. Are these things not true? We don't need to whitewash the Taliban in order to oppose the war.

I don't know if they are true or not. Do you have a reliable source other than your say-so?

[Humble Disciple]

The Taliban is going door to door, asking people if they've collaborated with the United States, presumably to kill them. The Taliban is also trying to kill people around the Kabul airport who are wanting to leave. Are these things not true? We don't need to whitewash the Taliban in order to oppose the war.

I don't know if they are true or not. Do you have a reliable source other than your say-so?

Have you been watching the news?

[Ken]

The Taliban is going door to door, asking people if they've collaborated with the United States, presumably to kill them. The Taliban is also trying to kill people around the Kabul airport who are wanting to leave. Are these things not true? We don't need to whitewash the Taliban in order to oppose the war.

I don't know if they are true or not. Do you have a reliable source other than your say-so?

Have you been watching the news?

Yes, and I haven't seen the Taliban kill anyone on the news. Have you?

[Humble Disciple]

I don't know if they are true or not. Do you have a reliable source other than your say-so?

Have you been watching the news?

Yes, and I haven't seen the Taliban kill anyone on the news. Have you?

You know how to use Google news search, right? Are you being sincere?

[Ernie]

https://nypost.com/2021/08/23/taliban-i ... s-brother/

You can check out the death sentence here that is purported to be a primary source.