Afghanistan: Street fighting rages as Taliban attack key city

[Solauren]

That's what purges are for.

DO you honestly think that the Taliban is NOT going to end up killing off a few hundred thousand "descidents", "heretics", "rebels" and "undesirables"?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

According to Google, in 2001 the population of Afghanistan was 21.6 million, in 2019 it was 38 million and 2021 close to 40 million, nearly double its pre-invasion numbers. A few hundred thousand isn't going to put a dent in that.

[Juubi Karakuchi]

The Taliban will not be shy about purging. But it carries its own risks.

As I see it, and I admit I may be wrong, the real power in Afghanistan lies with local leaders. The Taliban took over by bribing or persuading these leaders to let them through, and to govern their territories in the Taliban's name. In some cases, these chiefs were able to convince local ANA battalions to surrender, since the troops trusted the chiefs more than the government. Indeed, the chiefs may have been feeding them.

But the thing is, the Taliban could not succeed, or maintain their thin veneer of control, without the help of these chiefs. And the chiefs trust them about as far as they can spit. The Taliban never liked the tribal order, and only tolerated it because they could not maintain control without it. And when the Northern Alliance came rolling south, the tribes stood back and let the Taliban be crushed. The chiefs cannot be sure that the Taliban aren't still sore about that; for all their promises and bribes.

To control them, and to attract that Chinese investment they claim to want, the Taliban need to establish a stable and effective government. This is important for China, because they don't want to build lots of mines and roads only to have the locals trashing them all the time; and they don't want to have to put boots on the ground to secure them. They want an Afghan government that can hold the country down; and they don't much care how they do it, so long as it works.

Thus far, the Taliban have not done a good job of this. Not only have they broken promises left and right (including of amnesty), but they've created a southern Pashtun-only government, leaving their northern allies (apparently about 25% of the manpower, or 20,000 fighters) out in the cold. Even if their northern branch is willing to endure that for the sake of the cause, the northern chiefs and public they're trying to govern will not be best pleased. The only thing that can appease them now is serious local autonomy, and I doubt that the Taliban - based on what it's been doing - will grant that.

So yes, being bloodthirsty lunatics is not always a good idea.

[Steel]

According to Google, in 2001 the population of Afghanistan was 21.6 million, in 2019 it was 38 million and 2021 close to 40 million, nearly double its pre-invasion numbers.

That is one of the crazy things about this situation: most people in Afghanistan are under 20 years old - 52.4% of the population are 19 or younger and have never lived in the country outside of US occupation.

https://www.populationpyramid.net/afghanistan/2020/

The Taliban are going to have to impose a system on a population where the majority of people have grown up under a very different set of rules.

[Solauren]

The Taliban are going to have to impose a system on a population where the majority of people have grown up under a very different set of rules.

And with alot of them at the rebellious ages where they might fight back.

[ray245]

The Taliban are going to have to impose a system on a population where the majority of people have grown up under a very different set of rules.

And with alot of them at the rebellious ages where they might fight back.

It's easier when you're not the government to gain support by making empty promise. The Taliban might find it a lot harder now they actually have to fulfill such promises.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Afghanistan earthquake: Taliban appeals for aid as charities scramble to provide emergency relief.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government has appealed for more international aid as the country reels from a devastating 6.1 magnitude earthquake which killed at least 1,000 people and left another 1,500 injured.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadah, who almost never appears in public, has pleaded with humanitarian charities “to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort”.

Wednesday's earthquake struck areas already suffering the effects of heavy rain, leaving international organisations scrambling to provide emergency shelter and food aid to remote regions.

More than 3,000 houses were destroyed as a result of the earthquake, which struck near the city of Khost, around 100 miles southeast of the capital Kabul, in arid mountains near the border with Pakistan.

Most of the fatalities were reported to be in the province of Paktika, where the district of Gayan, close to the epicentre of the earthquake, suffered heavy damage to its buildings.

Rescue efforts have been hampered as communication networks were badly hit in the devastation.

"We can't reach the area, the networks are too weak, we are trying to get updates," Mohammad Ismail Muawiyah, a spokesman for the top Taliban military commander in Paktika province, told Reuters.

People have been digging through rubble with their hands in the search for survivors, with photographs showing houses flattened to rubble and bodies swathed in blankets laying on the ground.

A health ministry spokesperson said around 1,000 people had been rescued by Thursday morning, but reiterated pleas for international relief, as the war-ravaged country - in the midst of an economic crisis - lacks sufficient resources.

The deadliest earthquake to strike the country in two decades is a major challenge for the Taliban, who swept to power last summer following a rapid takeover of the country as US troops withdrew.

The Taliban's power grab meant many international aid organisations and some governments reduced their relief programmes in a country where around 80% of the budget was from foreign assistance.

However, the humanitarian agencies still operating in the country, including UNICEF, have rushed supplies to the earthquake-stricken areas.

The Afghan Red Crescent Society has already sent some thousands of blankets, and at least 800 tents and 800 kitchen kits to the affected areas.
The Italian medical aid group Emergency, which still operates in Afghanistan, said it sent numerous ambulances to the areas closest to the quake zone.

Pakistan, meanwhile, said it would send food, tents, blankets and other essentials, while other countries, such as India, South Korea and Japan have also pledged their support.

Earthquakes tend to cause serious damage in Afghanistan, where there are large swathes of rural areas over which dwellings are unstable or poorly constructed.

The death toll from Wednesday's earthquake was equal to that of an earthquake that struck the northern part of the country in 2002.
Those are the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors in Afghanistan’s remote north-east region killed at least 4,500 people.

To the surprise of no-one, the Taliban doesn't know what to do.

[Raw Shark]

To the surprise of no-one, the Taliban doesn't know what to do.

Speaking as an Eagle Scout and guy who generally thinks maybe I should've been born into the Mad Max Timeline: I, for one, suspect that I would be working a little above my pay grade in the face of such a disaster. To all of my family, coworkers, and other acquaintances who think the Islamic world has no good guys, eat a dick. The Red Crescent is at least trying.

[Batman]

Maybe the Mad Max timeline would BENEFIT from having you, but why would anybody WANT to live there?And the islamic world has nobody but themselves to blaim. Just as US christianity. You let the extremists become the loudest (And you don't do anything about them), don't wonder when they're the ones who get noticed most.

[Raw Shark]

Maybe the Mad Max timeline would BENEFIT from having you, but why would anybody WANT to live there?

It'd feel nice to belong.

And the islamic world has nobody but themselves to blaim. Just as US christianity. You let the extremists become the loudest (And you don't do anything about them), don't wonder when they're the ones who get noticed most.

Yeah, it's a shitshow, and my own nation had no small part in that, but there are innocent people suffering. We can play the blame game later.