ISIS and Afghan Taliban

[spmetla]

I wouldn't say that the US ignored Pakistan's funding, it's more that we were logistically stuck working with either them or the Russians and CIS states. Whenever we put pressure on Pakistan suddenly our supplies that were being moved through Pakistan began being attacked by 'militants' and Pakistan cannot and does not want to take control of the Northwest Frontier Province which is semi-autonomous and largely the support zone for the Taliban.
The US sold Pakistan equipment to do counter-terrorism and most of that ended up just shoring up their frontier with India.

There was a window of opportunity to put pressure on Pakistan in 2001-2003 but once we invaded Iraq it was clear we had no leverage to deal with Pakistan.

As for US incompetence in contracting, well that's a given. Sheer corruption and mismanagement all the way up and down though that stems largely from a Defense industry that up until two years ago has never even attempted being audited. Contracting mismanagement, pricing markups by suppliers and so on are the norm even within the US.

Read the below report on the burnpits at FOB Salerno. The US contracted to build incinerators to replace the burn pits and then never used them. FYI it is a case study in the Army's ILE for mid level officers in trying to rectify the Army's mismanagement in contract control by teaching the responsibilities for it. Bear in mind that military Officers generally don't have a business background so when they are suddenly in charge of checking work quality and contracts for compliance they aren't too good at it which is compounded by rotating troops out every nine months.

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/A...J-20131029.pdf
EDIT: No the link to the actual inspection, without the DoD certs on your PC you can't view the original even though unclassified. Here's a report SIGAR did for congress that highlights many of the key points below.


As for the polling data, most Americans have been completely ignorant about the war in Afghanistan for the last 20years. Talking with friends that are suddenly outraged at the quick pullout they seem to have the impression that US Soldiers were in the 'trenches' up until a few weeks ago and then suddenly left when in actuality the ANA has been in the lead for fighting the Taliban for the past five years, US/NATO commitments were really in air power, training, and advising not so much fighting anymore. US casualties have only been in the dozens per year the last few years and hasn't had a combat KIA in years either.

The spectacle of the peace talks was important in Washington, which hoped to create a fiction of power transition to cover the process of a negotiated U.S. defeat. There was genuinely nothing to discuss: The Afghan government was committed to constitutional rule of law—including elections, howsoever problematic—while the Afghan Taliban were committed to overturning the constitution and opposed elections as non-Islamic. The Taliban used the spectacle of the peace process as a recuperative retreat to revivify and emplace their forces while stashing weapons as they awaited U.S. withdrawal.

This is why I still lay blame on Trump too for even negotiating with the Taliban, it undermined the Afghan government and legitimized the Taliban. Any power sharing should have been based around having the Taliban join the political process through elections and perhaps greater autonomy for the provinces/districts.

Meanwhile Ashraf Ghani has fled to the UAE and the first Vice President of Afghanistan, Amrullah Saleh has vowed to keep fighting the Taliban and has fled to the Panshir valley to continue the resistance. This together with the protests in Jalalabad that in which three people were killed by the Taliban and the rumors of arrests in Herat and Kandahar make the situation tenuous for all Afghans to include the Taliban. Transitioning from resistance to rule is always dangerous and difficult, most conquerors make poor rulers and the Talibans deal with the devil that is narco-terrorism will be difficult to break.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...le35956937.ece

Afghanistan's defiant vice president Amrullah Saleh said on August 17 he is “the legitimate caretaker President” after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

“Clarity: As per d constitution of Afg, in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President the FVP becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate care taker President. Am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus,” he posted on Twitter.

It appears Amrullah Saleh has retreated to the country's last remaining holdout: the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul.

"I won't disappoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with Taliban. NEVER," he wrote in English on Twitter on August 15, before going underground.

A day later, pictures began to surface on social media of the former Vice-President with the son of his former mentor and famed anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud in Panjshir — a mountainous redoubt tucked into the Hindu Kush.

Mr. Saleh and Massoud's son, who commands a militia force, appear to be putting together the first pieces of a guerilla movement to take on the victorious Taliban, as fighters regroup in Panjshir.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...ahmad-massoud/

Ahmad Massoud is the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

In 1998, when I was 9 years old, my father, the mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, gathered his soldiers in a cave in the Panjshir Valley of northern Afghanistan. They sat and listened as my father’s friend, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, addressed them. “When you fight for your freedom,” Lévy said, “you fight also for our freedom.”

My father never forgot this as he fought against the Taliban regime. Up until the moment he was assassinated on Sept. 9, 2001, at the behest of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, he was fighting for the fate of Afghanistan but also for the West.

Now this common struggle is more essential than ever in these dark, tense hours for my homeland.

I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban. We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time, because we knew this day might come.

We also have the weapons carried by the Afghans who, over the past 72 hours, have responded to my appeal to join the resistance in Panjshir. We have soldiers from the Afghan regular army who were disgusted by the surrender of their commanders and are now making their way to the hills of Panjshir with their equipment. Former members of the Afghan Special Forces have also joined our struggle.

But that is not enough. If Taliban warlords launch an assault, they will of course face staunch resistance from us. The flag of the National Resistance Front will fly over every position that they attempt to take, as the National United Front flag flew 20 years ago. Yet we know that our military forces and logistics will not be sufficient. They will be rapidly depleted unless our friends in the West can find a way to supply us without delay.

Opinion by David Ignatius | Good intentions and seductive illusions: Scenes from Afghanistan’s long descent

The United States and its allies have left the battlefield, but America can still be a “great arsenal of democracy,” as Franklin D. Roosevelt said when coming to the aid of the beleaguered British before the U.S. entry into World War II.

To that end, I entreat Afghanistan’s friends in the West to intercede for us in Washington and in New York, with Congress and with the Biden administration. Intercede for us in London, where I completed my studies, and in Paris, where my father’s memory was honored this spring by the naming of a pathway for him in the Champs-Élysées gardens.

Know that millions of Afghans share your values. We have fought for so long to have an open society, one where girls could become doctors, our press could report freely, our young people could dance and listen to music or attend soccer matches in the stadiums that were once used by the Taliban for public executions — and may soon be again.

The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again.

No matter what happens, my mujahideen fighters and I will defend Panjshir as the last bastion of Afghan freedom. Our morale is intact. We know from experience what awaits us.

But we need more weapons, more ammunition and more supplies.

America and its democratic allies do not just have the fight against terrorism in common with Afghans. We now have a long history made up of shared ideals and struggles. There is still much that you can do to aid the cause of freedom. You are our only remaining hope.