SAN DIEGO: The president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani has fled Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul leaving his people in the hands of Taliban terrorists. Jumping on a wide-open opportunity with Biden’s unrelenting U.S. troop withdrawal, Taliban commanders seized the seat of government once again. A seat they lost when U.S. -led forces toppled them in 2001.
The terror group is reportedly soon to rename the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed to ABC News that “personnel was being evacuated from the embassy building to the Kabul airport,” reports Epoch Times.
Reports came in they were told to “shelter in place” when Taliban gunfire ripped through the crowds.
NOW – Chaos at #Kabul airport: Hundreds want to leave Afghanistan and are panicking. Gunshots can be heard.pic.twitter.com/JW1jHRgcIq
— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) August 15, 2021
Afghanistan Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, in a tweet apparently referring to President Ashraf Ghani and his associates, lamented that they
“Tied our hands behind our backs and sold the homeland, damn the rich man and his gang,” reported National Herald today.
Senior Afghan leader and Head of High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah, said in a video clip,
“He [Ghani] left the people of Afghanistan in mess and misery and he will be judged in futurity.”
Ghani says he left to prevent a bloodbath. Just weeks ago Ghani was admonishing “unity is the only way to victory.”
Ghani condemned “foreigners and networks.”
“We will not surrender to destructive plans of foreigners and networks,” President Ghani said July 29,” according to TOLO News.
“The Afghan president, while speaking at a ceremony on National Flag Day at the Presidential Palace, reiterated that “there is no military solution to the country’s crisis.”
So what did Ghani mean by “foreigners?”
The U.S. or the terrorists or both? He expects peace where there is none promised from the Taliban. A ‘coming together. Whereas, the fighters run rampant in pick-up trucks, with now seized weapons from the Afghan military.
“He [Ghani] assured the nation that the situation in the country will change soon with the implementation of his security plan.”
The world can see there is not a diplomatic solution as we witness the unstoppable takeover swath of the terrorist group which recently included Jalalabad, then on to Kabul. Take Kabul, take the country. Reports are in that the U.S. embassy flag has been lowered. Afghanistan has run out of time despite earlier promises from its leaders.
“In an interview with Russian media [early August], former president Hamid Karzai said the Taliban “will be defeated” by Afghans and the people will confront them and will form an uprising against them if the group continues its violence.”
“This means an opportunity to coexist and to allow the country to progress. If they don’t allow that and if they continue to seek their own domination of Afghanistan the way they think of it, that will give rise to a national uprising without a doubt and I will be one of those people,” Karzai said.
An unconditional surrender at the point of rifles is not co-existing.
Biden officials frankly admit they miscalculated,
“The fact of the matter is we’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” referring to Afghanistan’s national security forces. “And that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” reports CNN.
What Biden keeps saying is that the Afghan forces are capable. Twenty-two Afghan commandos fell dead when shot point-blank when they tried to surrender. Surrendering is not the course to take according to military experts who know the insurgents well.
The Taliban network has been killing the Afghan Army and Security Forces for years.
Yet trained Afghan fighters have returned with lethal retaliation with U.S. help. But where was the big stick from the Afghan leaders who could never agree or unify as an undefeatable power against the Taliban?
Terrorists who want what they want, not what the Afghan people want. (Bombing Outside Afghan School Kills at Least 90, With Girls as Targets)
Who are the Taliban?
The Taliban formerly ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Until human rights abuses caught up with them and they harbored 9/11 monolith murderer Osama bin Laden. George W. Bush demanded that the de-facto ruler of Afghanistan hand him over. The Taliban refused to extradite him which led to Operation Enduring Freedom.
The war then started with the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies. They met defeat in a U.S.-led surge of forces and lost power.
This is important history: (Wiki)
Following defeat, the Taliban reorganized under Mullah Omar and launched an insurgency against the Afghan government in 2003. Insurgents from the Taliban and other groups waged asymmetric warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets, and turncoat killings against coalition forces.
The Taliban exploited weaknesses in the Afghan government to reassert influence across rural areas of southern and eastern Afghanistan. From 2006 the Taliban made further gains and showed an increased willingness to commit atrocities against civilians. International Assistance Security Forces (ISAF) responded by increasing troops for counterinsurgency operations to “clear and hold” villages.
We did that in unrelenting force while training up Afghan forces to defend themselves, Although Afghan forces lacked logistical support from Ghani’s government. Ghani had a seemingly apathetic interest in bolstering Afghan forces to win over the Taliban who continued their atrocities. Instead let Americans do the job, leaving immeasurable coalition body parts on Afghan soil.
Through all that, Taliban leadership has lived in a shroud of secrecy.
Jump to excerpts summarized from a 2021 report from Dhaka Tribune:
There is little known about Taliban leadership except to military and intelligence experts.
- Abdul Ghani Baradar was transformed into an insurgent during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s. Baradar allegedly fought alongside one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar. In the early 1990s, the two founded the Taliban movement. They joined forces during the civil war that erupted after the Soviet withdrawal. Baradar oversaw the current withdrawal agreement of American forces.
- Haibatullah Akhundzada was appointed leader of the Taliban after a U.S. drone strike killed his predecessor, Mullah Mansour Akhtar, in 2016. Akhundzada secured loyalty from al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. This helped seal his jihadi credentials with the group’s long-time allies.
- Sirajuddin Haqqani is the son of the famed anti-Soviet jihadist and commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. He serves as deputy leader of the Taliban, and heads the Haqqani network. This U.S.-designated terror group became one of the most dangerous terror factions fighting Afghan and U.S.-led NATO forces. Famous for suicide bombers and assassinations of top Afghan officials.
- Mullah Yaqoob, the scion is the son of the Taliban’s founder Mullah Omar. He heads the group’s military commission, which oversees field commanders who execute the insurgency’s strategic operations in the war.
End of Dhaka Tribune excerpts.
Military experts warned Biden months ago of the likely Taliban takeover of Kabul.
Biden stormed forward to withdraw troops with no solid plan to evacuate the Americans left behind. As well as the Afghan allies and interpreters that supported our troops. No strategy, no pre-thinking for their safety, or welfare that is horrifying to consider (AFGHAN INTERPRETER FOR US ARMY WAS BEHEADED BY TALIBAN. OTHERS FEAR THEY WILL BE HUNTED DOWN TOO)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pushed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on why the process happened so quickly.
“We didn’t give them air cover. You say you had this plan. No one would plan out this outcome. The ramifications of this for America will go on for decades and it won’t just be in Afghanistan,” McCarthy said, according to a GOP source on the call.
For months people have been trying to work with the Taliban who have the rifles and bombs behind their backs when they talk. Back then the Taliban promised they would not enter Kabul by force.
In days previous, the Taliban have ripped through major cities taking control.
Their mobilization has been surprisingly easy. Almost as if they were standing at the ready at the gate waiting for the U.S. troops to depart. Did they pay tribal leaders off? Surely, it could not have been that easy to defeat the remaining Afghan forces, which include patriots who care about their country and will die for it as our troops do.
Ghani did his fighting forces a terrible disservice.
So how does the Taliban do it?
With simply determination. The kind missing from Ghani to stop them.
The government of Afghanistan botched the help we gave them by tying our strategic capable hands. By not showing fierce military strength to the Taliban. Supporting their own forces.
We fought a war for them not against them like Japan or Germany.
U.S. government and risk-averse military leaders played a role. We could, with other countries in Operation Enduring Freedom, have easily wiped the Taliban off the map. Told Ghani to either get serious about eliminating these terrorists he allowed to flourish or risk losing our alliance.
All you have to do is look at Iraq, finally getting leaders in who take terrorism seriously and have worked so hard to build up their own security forces.
It takes a strong military to conquer one’s enemies and keep them down and out.
