(April 14, 2025 at 5:59 am)Leonardo17 Wrote: Belaqua on Afghanistan:
No, the US and its allies fought very hard to establish some sort of victory over the Taliban. In fact, I was drafted in 2002 and I was even asked if I wanted to go there. Many of us did not want to go there because of the imminent danger.
Than there was this completely disorganized retreat. With corrupt Afghan officials leaving the country with helicopters full of cash. Most of the “Afghan” army was completely corrupt. They seemingly had 350,000 soldiers while they only had about 100,000. With all the money coming from the US. When the Taliban arrived, they just left. The US retreat was also similar to Vietnam in 1975. All this chaos. All collaborators simply left behind (or facing the risk of expulsion due to Trump’s policies today). And all those helicopters, airplanes, tanks and hummers simply left behind as if gifted to the Taliban.
Let us not forget that some 2500 US soldiers died to take this country in the first place. So U.S. and European policy makers are known to make this type of poorly informed decisions in many instances. So call me emotional but that’s not how I would do things. I suppose it had a lot to do with the election of Trump after Obama. But I don’t know a lot about that either.
About Missiles:
On Israel:
Current situation:
Europe is doubling its efforts for Ukraine. With or without the US, Ukrainians will keep getting the lasts pieces of European Military technology:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/britain-annou...53063.html
The only issue is this: Russians and Chinese may now have a possibility to study the newest NATO military technology and this in turn may put the US is a more difficult situation in the long run.
I hadn't heard before that you were drafted! I'm glad to hear that you made it home alive. Not too damaged, I hope.
You begin your reply with "No," but I think we agree on all the Afghanistan stuff. The US made an effort, a lot of people got killed on both sides, and then the retreat was a mess. If the enemy is in charge of the country two weeks later, you've lost.
The leaders make poorly informed decisions, if the goal is to win, obviously. If the goal is to enrich well-connected contractors, then every war is a great success. It's pretty clear that whenever they walk away from one, there's always another one lined up and ready to go.
Quote:So there is some sort of neo-colonialist project going on there. In fact Donald Trump’s “Riviera of the Middle East” could be the best thing that happens there.
As for Israel, it's certainly a colonialist project. I don't think you even need the "neo." It's settler colonialism. White people are pushing out the brown people, from where the brown people have always lived.
Even if you believe that God promised the land to Abraham's descendants (which I don't), DNA tests show that the Palestinians are far more closely related to the ancient Israelites than modern Ashkenazi Jews. Benjamin Mileikowsky is from Poland, but changed his name to Netanyahu to sound more local, though Ashkenazis in general are descended from Eastern Europe.
A "Riviera of the Middle East" will be the best thing that could happen to a select handfull of Trump's supporters. As always, that's who he's working for. The two million or so Palestinians who live there will not benefit, however.
