US and Taliban sign historic peace agreement

[Still Waters]

A peace deal between the US and its once sworn enemy the Taliban is being sealed at twin ceremonies, in which the US has agreed to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting a 31-strong Taliban delegation in a historic moment where they are sharing a stage in Qatar's capital Doha.

Mr Pompeo, who called it "a momentous day", gave a list of pointers to the Taliban to follow to ensure success.

https://news.sky.com/story/us-and-taliban-sign-historic-peace-agreement-hailed-as-momentous-day-11946209

[zep73]

That's the plot to this season's Homeland (Tv show), that started three weeks ago.

Edited February 29, 2020 by sci-nerd

[RoofGardener]

So .. in a nutshell... the US has surrendered to the Taliban, who will now take over Afghanistan. 

Well, fair enough. The USA should never really have BEEN in Afghanistan in the first place. Let them sink back into their medieval Islamic swamp, and not trouble the outside word. 

[Setton]

Quote

Afghan conflict: Taliban to resume attacking local forces after deal with US https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51706126

*slow clap*

[+and-then]

On 3/1/2020 at 3:10 AM, RoofGardener said:

So .. in a nutshell... the US has surrendered to the Taliban, who will now take over Afghanistan. 

Well, fair enough. The USA should never really have BEEN in Afghanistan in the first place. Let them sink back into their medieval Islamic swamp, and not trouble the outside word. 

Oh... we had good reason to be there.  We just had no business being there so long.  When the Taliban begin building training camps for their Junior Jihadis next time, we just need to nuke them from space and that isn't a joke.  No troops, no drones, no compassion, no negotiations.  Irradiate the land then walk away.

[+and-then]

1 hour ago, Setton said:

*slow clap*

Enjoy the idea of civilians being tortured and killed by an Islamic hell hole, do you?  Or is it just the thrill of watching the U.S. be "humiliated"?  Cause I gotta tell ya, no one here FEELS humiliated.  We're pretty happy about walking away.  Let them eat each other for as long as they have the energy.  I'm sure that after they come back in, settle old scores and generally purge the population, they'll begin to plan and train for their next strike at the west.  At which time they need to be totally eradicated, deracinated and irradiated.  The whole world will be better off.

[Robotic Jew]

10 minutes ago, and then said:

Oh... we had good reason to be there.  We just had no business being there so long.  When the Taliban begin building training camps for their Junior Jihadis next time, we just need to nuke them from space and that isn't a joke.  No troops, no drones, no compassion, no negotiations.  Irradiate the land then walk away.

Wow. This....is disgusting.

[RoofGardener]

15 minutes ago, and then said:

Oh... we had good reason to be there.  We just had no business being there so long.  When the Taliban begin building training camps for their Junior Jihadis next time, we just need to nuke them from space and that isn't a joke.  No troops, no drones, no compassion, no negotiations.  Irradiate the land then walk away.

I don't think we DID have any business being there ? The idea was that the Taliban where refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden. But in fact, the Taliban merely required some EVIDENCE prior to handing them over. 

So the USA invaded. And then they tried to introduce democracy into a medieval society. Guess what ? It failed. 

We don't need to bomb Afghanistan from space. We just need to ignore it. Let it go its own way; their barbaric Islamic society will inflict more punishment on them than WE could ever do. And they will do it to themselves. 

[WanderingFool0]

12 minutes ago, Robotic Jew said:

Wow. This....is disgusting.

I find the entire history of US involvement with Afghanistan and all the problems that have arisen from it to be disgusting. I remember as a young teen, one summer, back when a handful of networks is what many people had, being forced to watch the entire Iran contra senate hearings. That summer was the summer I really began to pay real attention to history, government and politics.

The US dealing with that region and South America has always been sordid. Beginning with the CIA training and armament of Bin Laden and the Mujaheddin "freedom fighters"; the CIA's proxy army to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, the CIA funneling weapons and drugs both ways to the death squads and para-militaries in South America to help fund that proxy army, the resulting build up of Bin Laden's terrorist network, the 9/11 attack and the second gulf war being the fruits of that dark seed planted by the CIA.

The entire affair is disgusting to me.

Edited March 2, 2020 by WanderingFool0
correction

[Setton]

35 minutes ago, and then said:

Enjoy the idea of civilians being tortured and killed by an Islamic hell hole, do you?  Or is it just the thrill of watching the U.S. be "humiliated"? 

Neither. I just think your foreign policy is erratic at best and moronic at worst. 

Quote

Cause I gotta tell ya, no one here FEELS humiliated.  We're pretty happy about walking away.  Let them eat each other for as long as they have the energy. 

Enjoy the idea of civilians being tortured and killed by an Islamic hell hole, do you? 

Quote

I'm sure that after they come back in, settle old scores and generally purge the population, they'll begin to plan and train for their next strike at the west.  At which time they need to be totally eradicated, deracinated and irradiated.  The whole world will be better off.

Enjoy the idea of civilians being tortured and killed by an Islamic hell hole, do you? 

[+and-then]

55 minutes ago, RoofGardener said:

I don't think we DID have any business being there ? The idea was that the Taliban where refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden. But in fact, the Taliban merely required some EVIDENCE prior to handing them over. 

So the USA invaded. And then they tried to introduce democracy into a medieval society. Guess what ? It failed. 

We don't need to bomb Afghanistan from space. We just need to ignore it. Let it go its own way; their barbaric Islamic society will inflict more punishment on them than WE could ever do. And they will do it to themselves. 

They trained some of the people who flew those planes into the towers.  I'm completely at peace with the original attacks against the Taliban.  I think Tora Bora should have been remodeled into a series of mesas.

I never took you for being naive.  You don't turn your back on ***** Radicals and just ignore them.  They have a way of popping up and making your life miserable - if you survive.

[Setton]

1 hour ago, and then said:

They trained some of the people who flew those planes into the towers.  I'm completely at peace with the original attacks against the Taliban.  I think Tora Bora should have been remodeled into a series of mesas.

Odd that you want to reward the people behind those attacks.

[DarkHunter]

4 hours ago, WanderingFool0 said:

The US dealing with that region and South America has always been sordid. Beginning with the CIA training and armament of Bin Laden and the Mujaheddin "freedom fighters"; the CIA's proxy army to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, the CIA funneling weapons and drugs both ways to the death squads and para-militaries in South America to help fund that proxy army, the resulting build up of Bin Laden's terrorist network, the 9/11 attack and the second gulf war being the fruits of that dark seed planted by the CIA.

The CIA didnt arm and train Bin Laden.

Since I'm too lazy to look up exact details this is going to be a bit vague on details. 

Essentially America and Pakistan trained and armed various mujahedeen groups and if I remember correctly there was atleast 7 initially, Iran also armed and trained their own mujahedeen groups in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets too but they were smaller groups, less well armed, and didnt really do much.  America and Pakistan had a bit of a falling out over the arming and training of the mujahedeen groups, America wanted to train and arm the secular and nationalist mujahedeen groups while Pakistan wanted to train and arm the Islamist mujahedeen groups.  The reason being the Pakistan government was afraid of a nationalist movement starting in Afghanistan and spreading to ethnic minority groups inside Pakistan and raising causing problems while also having problems going on with India.  Ultimately America and Pakistan essentially stopped working together and started funding and arming their own separate mujahedeen groups. 

One of the mujahedeen groups America helped train and fund became the northern alliance which fought against the Taliban during the Afghan civil war and helped America in its invasion of Afghanistan.

[+and-then]

3 hours ago, Setton said:

Odd that you want to reward the people behind those attacks.

If you consider what we've done to them for 18 years "rewarding them" then I think you're delusional.  OTOH, no more U.S. blood or treasure should be wasted there.  There DOES however need to be a plan to re-engage quickly and bring a world of precision high explosives back down on them - with little or no warning - or they'll just make life miserable for us again.  Their belief system is a mental disease that exhibits corrosive levels of hate against all who are not exactly like THEM.  I just hope that we'll have a mechanism for helping those who really proved loyal to us to get out of there when we leave.  To refuse to do that is the same as signing a death warrant for them.

[aztek]

1 hour ago, and then said:

.............  Their belief system is a mental disease that exhibits corrosive levels of hate against all who are not exactly like THEM.  '...............

that perfectly fits for liberals as well.  if you think of it, and see what they do,. we have same enemy at home too, 

Edited March 3, 2020 by aztek

[Gromdor]

1 hour ago, and then said:

If you consider what we've done to them for 18 years "rewarding them" then I think you're delusional.  OTOH, no more U.S. blood or treasure should be wasted there.  There DOES however need to be a plan to re-engage quickly and bring a world of precision high explosives back down on them - with little or no warning - or they'll just make life miserable for us again.  Their belief system is a mental disease that exhibits corrosive levels of hate against all who are not exactly like THEM.  I just hope that we'll have a mechanism for helping those who really proved loyal to us to get out of there when we leave.  To refuse to do that is the same as signing a death warrant for them.

If we really could do that then we wouldn't have the need to surrender Afghanistan to them.  You really over-estimate the strength of our weapons and under-estimate the strength of geological features- like mountains.

[aztek]

lets not lie to ourselves we were there for the poppy,  and we aren't going anywhere, we may take armed forces out, but we'll only increase contractors presence,  cia ain't giving up billions in poppy. 

Edited March 3, 2020 by aztek

[Setton]

5 hours ago, and then said:

If you consider what we've done to them for 18 years "rewarding them" then I think you're delusional.  

You've done exactly what they wanted you to do and caused them to grow from a few hundred fringe crazies no one had ever heard of to tens of thousands, able to take and hold entire countries for months. 

Sounds like a reward to me. 

[RoofGardener]

13 hours ago, and then said:

They trained some of the people who flew those planes into the towers.  I'm completely at peace with the original attacks against the Taliban.  I think Tora Bora should have been remodeled into a series of mesas.

I never took you for being naive.  You don't turn your back on ***** Radicals and just ignore them.  They have a way of popping up and making your life miserable - if you survive.

I don't believe Afghan's where involved in the twin towers attack, @and then ? It was carried out by Al Quada, not the Taliban ? 

At the time when the US demanded that the Taliban surrender Bin Laden, he was denying involvement. The Taliban simply asked for evidence of his involvement, but the US threw a fit and invaded. (the US governments position was that the Taliban where just arbitrarily stalling, and had no intention of handing Bin Laden over. That is credible, as one Muslim country would hesitate at handing a devout Muslim over to a Kufar organisation like the USA.....very few Muslim-majority countries will do this). 

[kartikg]

15 hours ago, RoofGardener said:

I don't think we DID have any business being there ? The idea was that the Taliban where refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden. But in fact, the Taliban merely required some EVIDENCE prior to handing them over. 

So the USA invaded. And then they tried to introduce democracy into a medieval society. Guess what ? It failed. 

We don't need to bomb Afghanistan from space. We just need to ignore it. Let it go its own way; their barbaric Islamic society will inflict more punishment on them than WE could ever do. And they will do it to themselves. 

I for one thank usa for what it did, taliban enemy is not just usa but the entire world because it wants to turn into Islamic. They are going to gain strength and harasses all other countries now especially Asia and Europe. Unfortunate that other nations could not help usa. 

[RoofGardener]

39 minutes ago, kartikg said:

I for one thank usa for what it did, taliban enemy is not just usa but the entire world because it wants to turn into Islamic. They are going to gain strength and harasses all other countries now especially Asia and Europe. Unfortunate that other nations could not help usa. 

I don't think they WILL gain strength, @kartikg. Their  society - under Taliban rule - will remain technologically backward under a strict Islamic/Sharia ruling council. And THAT is when they finally take power. Meanwhile, there is a seemingly never-ending civil war between the Afghan government and the Taliban. And when THAT is resolved - one way or the other - there will be endless tribal conflicts. 

Afghanistan is mineral-rich (including Oil, Gas and Lithium). However, it is unlikely that any international investors - even the Chinese - will invest in such a turbulent country in order to exploit those resources. So Afghanistan looks like it will remain in poverty for some time to come. 

The Taliban seem to be very insular. They have never been involved in international terrorist attacks, so far as I know ? Whether that is a lack of desire, or simply a lack of means (including money), I don't know. But we don't currently have any reason to believe that they will stage terrorist attacks against Western nations. Until that changes, I say... "leave them alone". 

Edited March 3, 2020 by RoofGardener

[Setton]

1 hour ago, kartikg said:

I for one thank usa for what it did, taliban enemy is not just usa but the entire world because it wants to turn into Islamic. They are going to gain strength and harasses all other countries now especially Asia and Europe. Unfortunate that other nations could not help usa. 

1. You are confusing the Taleban and Al-Qaeda. 

2. Literally dozens of other nations did help you. Even though your only goal was revenge for 9/11.

[kartikg]

1 hour ago, Setton said:

1. You are confusing the Taleban and Al-Qaeda. 

2. Literally dozens of other nations did help you. Even though your only goal was revenge for 9/11.

Omg I was expecting someone to get pedantic and distinguish between them. There end goal is the same. 

[Setton]

2 hours ago, kartikg said:

Omg I was expecting someone to get pedantic and distinguish between them. There end goal is the same. 

It really isn't... 

[Robotic Jew]

16 hours ago, and then said:

If you consider what we've done to them for 18 years "rewarding them" then I think you're delusional.  OTOH, no more U.S. blood or treasure should be wasted there.  There DOES however need to be a plan to re-engage quickly and bring a world of precision high explosives back down on them - with little or no warning - or they'll just make life miserable for us again.  Their belief system is a mental disease that exhibits corrosive levels of hate against all who are not exactly like THEM.  I just hope that we'll have a mechanism for helping those who really proved loyal to us to get out of there when we leave.  To refuse to do that is the same as signing a death warrant for them.

Ah. So you just don't like them trying to compete with your god for who and how much to hate.