Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I'm fairly sure it's been proven multiple times that austerity didn't work.

Would you have an issue with the money being used on the new 'British Flagship' which if i remember correctly is approx circa. £200m being used to support Afghan refugees coming to the country?

There's also no evidence to support that there would be 'no discernible return'

Are you advocating that those who worked with UK forces should in essence be left to fend for themselves, knowing that this could mean their deaths?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

They can always join the many UK people already unemployed and homeless, and who are also in need of help . . would that fit in with your moral indignation better?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

There’s irony that we can’t find money to support the Afghans but if they killed about 3000 folk we (the west) world find a few trillion dollars to blow them off the face of the earth.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Armaments, big cash earner ;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

You failed to answer the question regarding the 'British Flagship'

Moral indignation? Absolutely, people's lives are genuinely at risk in this situation. I don't think we should throw them away like yesterday's jam (c) IT Crowd.

In my local area the only people who are homeless are those that choose to be homeless, possibly due to conditions in hostels etc. but there are more empty (but renovated properties) than there are genuinely homeless people. and thats with my area having a significantly higher number of refugees than the UK average.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I suppose, it’s the old there’s no magic money tree until there is for big defence contractors, the bloke that drinks in the same pub as Matt Hancock and other heavyweights of industry.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Certainly is, Priti Patel got £1000 per hour of one company, sure she was worth every penny though and nothing untoward was going on at all at anytime

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

It aint mine, I never wanted it, didn't design it or help build it. Waste of money and resources, same as HS2, a hill in London, and covid passports if you're looking for my opinion.

There will probably be something else along next week for people to get upset about, no figs given here, seen it all before, water ducks back etc ;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

That's not what i asked.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Oh sorry, I presumed you were asking my thoughts on the boat costing £200m, which I then gave.

If however, you were asking me about using that boat to rescue the refugees, I'd have to say it would be pretty amazing because, even though it cost an enormous amount of money, I doubt it could land & take off from Kabul airport :D

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Ah being deliberately obtuse to avoid answering the question posed. You’re quite good at that……

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

tbf, he asked

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I think we got to be very careful with who gets let in as it will be an easy route for Al-Qaeda. And let's be honest it will only be a matter of time before terrorist incident rise I believe

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Stupid bloody question considering (he probably thinks I'm a Royalist or something) . . . but I'll play the silly game.

I'd have an issue with 30 pence being used, I'd also have an issue with them jumping the housing queue, etc etc.

:p:

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Why us Brits calling him Sleepy Joe, a term used by Trump supporters?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Good gravy man, are you incapable of virtue signalling;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

No, but there isn't a 'smilie' for it . . . yet ;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

It’s inevitable.

Why should our civilians be exempted from suffering and pain given what we’ve put their country through.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

You really do just get lower and lower. :td:

I've not put anyone through anything, what suffering have you been causing ?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Personally none.

However they will rationally fail to see the distinction between the state and the civilians. Indeed we elect Governments (successive governments across the US/UK and others) who carry out these wars. I think we use the term “collateral damage”.

In reality we put ourselves in the crosshairs. In twenty years we can do it all over again, and the military industrial complex can trouser hundreds of billions of dollars more while we achieve nothing.

We could have voted against Governments pursuing these policies but time and again endorsed them. Would we hold much sympathy for people who voted for Saddam Hussein? Why should they feel any differently towards us?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I think you get more unhinged every day.

We dont elect governments to carry out wars.
Nor do we vote against them if we happen to disagree with certain policies.

You know very well its nothing like as simple as that.
Do you agree with every single policy of who you voted for, I most certainly dont.

And now you are comparing Saddam Hussein to our current (or previous) leaders ?

Are you a terrorist recuriter ? becasue you are starting to sound like one.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I’m not sure why you are misrepresenting what I’m saying.

That’s what they will be saying. I’m not quite sure why that’s not clear. Terrorist recruitment will be through the roof because from their perspective my points as made here are absolutely compelling.

“Ah but Blair had the minimum wage” isn’t really going to calm down frothing at the mouth Jihadis who will view anything American or British as legitimate targets, any more than we would accept that Saddam Hussein brought stability and security to large swathes of Iraq.

We carve our own comforting narratives of the white man bringing fairness, justice and equality to the world but there will absolutely be nomadkings of Afghanistan, typing away on forums completely ambivalent to that perspective. If we disagreed with it so much why didn’t we fight against the system propagating these wars? It only takes a handful to be radicalised with minimal skills and weapons to carry out a terrorist attack and within these refugees there will absolutely be people willing to commit it.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

9/11 and other attacks originating in Afghanistan, occurred BEFORE the "West" went into the country.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

He has a good point:

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

What exactly am I "misrepresenting" :confused:

You clearly seem to think we should endure "suffering and pain" becasue of what "we've" supposedly done.

If thats not saying its fine for terrorists to attack us because they may have suffered in their country at some point, then by all means please clarify what exactly you do mean.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

And the USA backed the Taliban first time round. The cycle is endless and there is no real incentive on their part to stop it. Generations in Afghanistan have grown up knowing nothing but being a chess piece in American wars even when 15 Saudi Arabians participated in the 9/11 attacks.

The average Afghan endorsed that no more, and arguably less, than your average US/UK national endorsed our involvement in Afghanistan. But many paid a heavy price and continue to do so.

---------- Post added at 22:10 ---------- Previous post was at 22:08 ----------

I phrased that as a question to illustrate their perspective. There will absolutely be people in Afghanistan and elsewhere taking the position “its fine for terrorists to attack us because they may have suffered in their country at some point”.

I said “we’ve” to mean the UK/USA state apparatus - it’s not unique by any means for me to have done so here. The Brexit threads “we” is frequently used to donate “our side” even though we (you and I) have no active participation in the process.

Believing a terrorist incident absolutely inevitable is different from wanting one or supporting one. It’s going to be impossible for all western governments to adequately vet the refugees from this crisis. State support and integration will likely be minimal. Plus there’s the ability to radicalise homegrown terrorists.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

You didnt phrase it as a question at all, there is no ?
You phrased it as a statement, which is exactly how I interpreted it.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Incorrect - the US, and the UK for that matter, trained and equipped certain of the tribal leaders in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. These became known as the Mujahideen, who overran the Soviet puppet government shortly after the withdrawal of the Red Army, almost as quickly as the Taliban overran Kabul this week.

The 1990s Taliban (some of them, at least) were the grandsons of the Mujahideen and they certainly benefited from the training and equipment left in the country by the SAS and others. They did not, and do not, however, share the ideology of the Mujahideen, who were moderate pussycats by comparison. The Mujahideen were classic tribal leaders motivated by loyalty to an idea of Afghanistan where that tribal system could continue to thrive without outside interference. The Taliban, particularly the original 1990s version of them, were motivated by a desire to create a primitive, austere version of Islam in the country and they weren’t at all fussy about giving succour to those who fancied taking that Islamic purity and sticking it to the West. It remains to be seen how much of that will reassert itself once the 2020s Taliban have their feet under the table. I suspect slightly more than they’ve indicated.

The Taliban overthrew the system established by the Mujahideen in 1996. It helps nobody to make historically incorrect statements about the USA backing the Taliban. It’s also pointless to do so. If you want to take a pop at the Americans all you have to do is point at Afghanistan this week, where an epoch-defining catastrophe is unfolding as we speak, entirely due to a forseeable, preventable failure of US foreign policy.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I genuinely can’t think off hand of a sentence starting with “why” that isn’t a question or seeking to establish a reason.

And having taken the view that I consider a related terrorist incident inevitable (not an unreasonable position to be fair) I can’t think of a reason that a rational Afghan (or general Islamic fundamentalist) who wants retribution for perceived injustice would create a distinction between civilians and military targets. Maybe they’re more principled than I give them credit for.

I certainly don’t intend anyone to read more into my previous statements than the above.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I posted part of a Sky News article earlier which stated the time frames of over-running the incumbent regimes was vastly different.
https://news.sky.com/story/events-in...ussia-12383629

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Tribal conflicts have been there for centuries, all that changes are the names of the groups.
Link

The fundamental problem is that there is no leader in Afghanistan that has the sense of pride and status to be prepared to stand up for the people of the country. The leaders knew they could simply flee the country and live the high-life wherever they wanted to.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

In countries like this, leaders are probably also well aware that if they upset the 'wrong crowd' with some strong decisions, they're only a 7.62 round or chunk of C4 away from not being a Leader any more ;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

And yet there are still leaders and countries around the World who DO stand to the Islamists.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

How's that for a FU, all the blood and money spent and he doesn't even think it appropriate to talk to the people who honoured the alliance with blood, how disrespectful considering it was his country attacked and we all stepped up even though technically iirc the one attacked all attacked rule didn't apply

The cycle really is endless Britain fought three wars there before when Afghanistan was really being used as a chess piece in the great game. Worth rembering Britain won twice there to and one of the wins could be argued won a settlement everyone benefitted from, if only we learnt from history and repeated it!!

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Name me two . .

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

But carried out by Saudis.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

No Special Relationship then, just more America first. And weren't the 9/11 bombers from the US ally Saudi Arabia anyway?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

because it's accurate?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

So after all the effort, expense and lost lives we're right back where it started from.:rolleyes:

Next time we have to take out the vipers nest it should be done with drones, bombs and missiles. Not ground troops.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

There’s an obvious issue there, but the desperation of the Democrats to defeat Sanders that they were willing to push Biden into this position is contemptible.

Trump was an unhinged psychopath, but the fact Biden is better than that and crushed him in the election doesn’t mean you have to back him to the hilt.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I love how Starmer doesn't mention Blair, who took us there in the first place searching for weapons that didn't exist.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Also, the "What happens if we withdraw?" argument was not being made effectively in the US. The electorate were tired of the situation and just saw the cost in money and lives. That doesn't excuse Biden's actions though.

---------- Post added at 10:47 ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 ----------

That particular farce was in Iraq not Afghanistan.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

EYERACK;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

When was the last time you saw the Donald on a bike? ;)

---------- Post added at 11:05 ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 ----------

They were in deep mountain caves and tunnels - unless you use "instant sunshine", none of the above would work.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

"Instant Sunshine" wouldn't affect people under a mountain, that why NRAD is under a mountain.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

They're not under a mountain, they're in a cave, I remember Colin Powell banging on about complex cave systems like they were out of an old bond film complete with mock ups and the reality was they're in a basic damp mouldy cave

---------- Post added at 11:49 ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 ----------

Yeah wonder why he or even bozo didn't mention that...

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

When the Americans were fighting the Japanese holed up in caves in the Pacific, they didn't try to go into the caves, they just sealed the entrances up with explosives.

I would have thought these days with long range drone, spy plane and satellite surveillance it wouldn't be that difficult to see which caves are being used and then use guided bombs and missiles to seal them up.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I think the track record of super powers in Afghanistan indicates things are not quite this simple.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

From what i've seen on the telly,a good bombing with soap would sort them out

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Remarkable speech by former serving soldier Tom Tugendhat, also Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Worth watching in full.

“This doesn’t need to be defeat, but at the moment it damn well feels like it,” he told MPs. “Like many veterans, this last week has been one that has seen me struggle through anger, grief and rage.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbMp7GHhdqs

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is built on giant springs and has blast-proof doors - pretty sure the Afghanis/others in that country wouldn’t have those… ;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Sounds like my bike seat:erm:

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Also, if it gets really dicey, they can always dial out to the Alpha site. ;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Wouldn’t know about that - I just remembered what I was told about it* when I visited HP Storage Solutions in nearby Colorado Springs in the early 2000s.

*They were talking about the region, including the US Air Force Academy and Pikes Peak…

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rt-within-days

The old special relationship ain't up to much these days.

Shots fired and tear gas by the looks of Twitter. The situation won't be sustainable for long.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Does the Mail have a point?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...anslators.html

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Ach Andrew I'd not worry about the detail. We're (not on a personal level, I'm invoking that to represent the United Kingdom) an irrelevance on a global stage. They'd only be asking if we could get the United States to do something and the bold Biden has gone full Don "America First".

As we followed America in like a lap dog we are racing them out like a greyhound. We've no vested interest in Afghanistan. We didn't 20 years ago either, but as long as the incoming terrorist training camps admire the fact we tried we should be fine.

---------- Post added 19-08-2021 at 00:37 ---------- Previous post was 18-08-2021 at 23:56 ----------

It's funny listening to those scared of the war on wokery suggesting people stay in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.

I mean, it might have been easier had we not armed them to the teeth.

As I said earlier if they rationally decide to bomb us I'm not sure that'd be entirely unexpected.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

And what a tough time they endured getting to those cave entrances, plus of course the problem with caves is they often have another way out. Look at the trouble they had in a much more up to date conflict in Vietnam with the tunnels and the trouble Israel has in the present day with tunnels

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Let's face it, if I was on a £36k holiday, I'd be wanting to get my money's worth from it and wouldn't want to be working so I do have some sympathy for Raab.;)

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Like he paid for it...

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Not a good look.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58277008

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Yeah, that was some very careful weasel wording from the FCO about the junior minister being asked to make the call. I guess it was only a matter of time until a curious hack asked for confirmation that the call actually was made. A good point from an ex-military MP on the radio this morning is that an Afghan in high office would only be prepared to discuss matters with an opposite number of equal status. That’s a cultural detail the officials advising Raab probably knew, and would have formed part of the rationale for disturbing his holiday. Whether they pressed the point with him, and whether he took it on board, is a mystery.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

BREAKING: Reports emerging from Afghanistan that the Taliban have set a woman on fire due to “bad cooking” Source Sky News.

https://news.sky.com/story/afghanist...inues-12385846

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Lessons for the woke left: (1) Not all cultures are equal. Some are utterly abhorrent. Uncritical multiculturalism is a death sentence. (2) This is what homophobia and misogyny REALLY look like, not believing in traditional marriage or family life (3) Being a patriot and defending a way of life is not jingoism but essential if you really care about protecting the weak and vulnerable from the nasty people who are out there (4) “Islamophobia” is not bigotry, it is actually recognising REAL fascism when we see it. (5) The fact these loons want to export terror to the West is why we need a secure, sensible, and robust immigration policy and to stay out of the EU.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Tony Blair has a written a heart-felt opinion piece in the Mail on Sunday

TONY BLAIR: America's retreat is imbecilic – and tells our enemies we don't have any interests or values worth defending

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I stopped listening to this idiot years ago, he's a very nasty man, who many would never tire of punching in the face.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

That doesn't mean he's wrong about Afghanistan though.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Doesn't mean he's right either, about quite a few things possibly ;)

anyway, I'm perfectly happy to step in if Hom3r needs a break from all the punching :D

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I'll join the queue. Could do with the exercise.:D

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

The guy took us into Iraq in the full knowledge we had no reason to be there. Not a credible critic.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

It's a brave soul who argues that the current withdrawal from Afghanistan is anything but a failure, so much as I dislike Blair I agree with him on this matter.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

It does beg the question though, of how long we (or the US) should have stayed there.

We've been there long enough, and thrown enough resources at them to enable them to stand on their own . . but they didn't.

If we were to stay another 20 years, we may as well have taken over completely and owned the damn place. :D

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

And not to mention without the Iraq distraction things might have turned out better, bozo should tell him he'll take no criticism from him and he should be in The Hague imo

Yes but not such a brave soul to send other people's children to war based on lies

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

a lot of the blame for all that lies at his feet anyway

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

No doubt about that - but because Blair is critical of the current withdrawal does not make the withdrawal successful by any stretch of the imagination.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I guess it all depends on your perception of a successful withdrawal.

It's a success for the UK because it saves us money and gets our people back home.

It's definitely not a success for Afghanistan . . . but when has anything ever been a success there?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

oh definitely

I have never been a soldier or a politician but even I know you pull your people out before you pull your armies out

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Probably wouldn't have had to 'pull our people' out if it wasn't for the Afghanistan forces - you know, the ones we've been supplying and training for years - running away at the first sign of a couple of bearded chaps on a camel :rolleyes:

Mind you, what else could they have done?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Cashed their pay cheques? Wait, they've not been paid for months!

Let's hope Johnson's pleas work.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...fter-31-august

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

They can't all play for Derby, surely :D

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

[QUOTE=TheDaddy;36090609]And not to mention without the Iraq distraction things might have turned out better, bozo should tell him he'll take no criticism from him and he should be in The Hague imo



Yes but not such a brave soul to send other people's children to war based on lies[/QUOT

Especially when his wife said she would never let their son join the army.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I would quietly walk up behind old fart and stab him in the back.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

I don't think anyone is saying otherwise, I am just pointing out that Blair (given his past actions) should stay out of it.

---------- Post added at 09:47 ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 ----------

We should have left about 18 years ago, after we had gone in and got rid of the Al Qaeda training camps and weakened the Taliban.

But we just stayed there, became and occupying force and let the Taliban recover.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

There was some Labour clot on Sky Breakfast this morning saying that we should be making safe passages through Kabul for refugees. I wonder how he thinks this could be done seeing as there are thousands of Taliban armed to the teeth round the airport?

It would rapidly escalate into a bloody conflict with our troops getting slaughtered.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

He's a stakeholder as he and Bush took us into Afghanistan. To suggest he says "no comment" when asked about the situation would not work with the World's media.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Just proves people do not learn from past mistakes. Vietnam was the same. Cease Fire VC regroup and attack rinse and repeat then quit, this has just been spread over more years.

Crazy to think an allied force with their hands tied with rules of combat would ever do better than a Soviet force with free reign

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Don't know how much free reign the Soviet forces had or how experienced they were.

Apparently lots of Soviet teenager soldiers were sent there on their first mission. The deaths of relatively young soldiers there contributed to the unpopularity of the USSR amongst its peoples and helped its 1989 demise.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Well their hands were not tied like ours was as for experience the Army had held a fair few counties in its iron grip since WWII as for who they sent I dunno. I certainly would not be surprised if some of our dead were young inexperienced troops on their first mission. I know a friend of mine who was in the TA served a short period of time in either Iraq or Afghan I cannot remember which ( have a feeling it might have been the first Iraq war )

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

He had no choice in regards to Afghanistan as that was a NATO operation, and subsequently a UN operation, as a NATO member had been attacked by a terrorist organisation that was based in Afghanistan, and we should have left as soon as that operation to remove Al Qaeda from Afghanistan had been completed.

Iraq was Bush and Blair going off reservation, fabricating a reason to invade another sovereign nation and will forever be a stain on the history.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Yup, but my point is that whilst people criticise him for speaking out now, he can't get away with "no comment".

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

True, wouldn't be a story with 'no comment', and he's never backed away from some good media exposure :D

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Like this wasn’t going to happen.

https://news.sky.com/story/afghanist...ation-12389001

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Would it be fanciful to wonder whether this is the backup plan NATO and its allies wouldn’t ever acknowledge …. Mujahideen-style resistance fighters acting as a thorn in the side of the Taliban regime? A few well-placed special forces to train them and maybe even do a little occasional fieldwork?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58239156

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

It wouldn’t be the first time

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

BREAKING: U.S President Joe Biden refuses to extend the deadline of 31/8/2021 for Evacuation and withdrawal of troops and Afghan citizens. Meanwhile, UN says there are credible reports the Taliban are conducting summary executions of Afghans.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

The U.K and France - two countries which I think share a lot of resources - need to look at reducing their dependence on America for these kinds of operations. Why is it we cannot operate in that region independently from America? I know we've been cutting the military for years but what precisely do we need to be able to have an independent ability to maintain a presence in a place like Afghanistan?

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

If it was sufficiently in our strategic interest, we could do it. There’s no hard and fast reason that would make it impossible. The problem in Kabul is a tactical one. The US has about 6,000 personnel there, some of them in quite specific skilled roles (like running air traffic control). The British military has about 1,000 personnel at the airport and the force is not configured to simply take over an operation like that at short notice. Why would we, when the whole thing was planned on the understanding that the Americans were handling that side of it?

The pressing strategic question now is how reliable an ally America really is. The UK and France already undertake a lot of defence cooperation and now would be a good time for us together to think about how we configure our forces to undertake operations relevant to our regional security. I also think that the strategic assumptions around the operation of the new QE-class carriers is flawed if it is possible for American retrenchment to effectively force them into port (an unlikely scenario I admit but at present the air wing is partly comprised of USMC F-35Bs and the carrier strike group includes a US navy destroyer). Particularly with regards to the aircraft the whole show has been planned on the assumption that there will always be a USMC detachment on board, even after we have taken delivery of all our F-35Bs, seeing as we have only ordered 48 of them.

I doubt very much of this will be spoken aloud anywhere but you can bet they’re thinking about it carefully at the MoD.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

Ignored by Washington and mistrusted in Europe, we need a re-think if we are going to live up to the Global Britain strapline.

Re: Parliament to be recalled re: Taliban in Afghanistan
 

You should write straplines for the Grauniad.