Afghanistan Thread: 16 years Later, America is still there

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51264744

An Air Force Bombardier E-11A (spy plane) has gone down in an area controlled by the Taliban.

Supposedly it's one of only four that the Air Force has.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/27/79996...contradictions
https://twitter.com/AhMukhtar/status...98398564741126 - Crash site video

Two persons aboard died in the crash. An U.S. official says mechanical problems are what cause the plane to go down.

[mallister]

not optimal.

[6souls]

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/0...anistan-attack

Two U.S. soldiers are dead and six injured while one Afghan soldier is also dead along with three others injured after another Afghan soldier opened fire on them during an argument. The shooter was killed.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49559493

The U.S. is negotiating with the Taliban to remove 5400 troops within 20 weeks. In the meantime, the Taliban have continued to carry out bombings in the country.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49624132

Trump says the deal is off.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51689443

The deal is back! All U.S. & Nato troops will withdraw if the Taliban holds up their end of the bargain after 14 months.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and leaders of the hardline Islamic movement attended the signing ceremony in Doha in Qatar.

Under the agreement, the militants also agreed not to allow al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control.

Within the first 135 days of the deal the US will reduce its forces in Afghanistan to 8,600, with allies also drawing down their forces proportionately.

The move would allow US President Donald Trump to show that he has brought troops home ahead of the US presidential election in November.

The deal also provides for a prisoner swap. Some 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan security force prisoners would be exchanged by 10 March, when talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are due to start.

The US will also lift sanctions against the Taliban and work with the UN to lift its separate sanctions against the group.

[mallister]

Lol

[Zealot]

Congratulations boys, after 19 years of war we finally *checks notes* surrendered the country to the people we'd been trying to beat all along.

[Byrthnoth]

Whoa now. It's a peace deal where we draw our troop presence down to almost pre-Trump levels (Obama left office with 8400 troops in Afghanistan), give them a 5:1 prisoner exchange, and in exchange we hope the Afghan government can negotiate something with them.

[6souls]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51689443

The deal is back! All U.S. & Nato troops will withdraw if the Taliban holds up their end of the bargain after 14 months.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51692546

Trump says 5000 troops will be withdrawn by May and he will personally meet with Taliban leaders.

[archibaldcrane]

Ripped from this season of Homeland lol

[archibaldcrane]

Ripped from this season of Homeland lol

My god, following this season exactly

[archibaldcrane]

If the National Security Advisor gets kidnapped or the Pakistani military blows up a Taliban convoy next I'm going to lose it

[Andalusian girls]

My god, following this season exactly

fuck

[6souls]

The Taliban have announced that they will resume attacks. In the past three hours they killed three policemen and injured 11.

[mallister]

They've also started kidnapping civilians to pad their numbers for the prisoner exchange.

[6souls]

My god, following this season exactly

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52016469

The U.S. has cut $1B in aid to the country. Another $1B that is expected in 2021 is also in consideration to be cut.

[mallister]

Jackasses attacked a maternity hospital in Kabul. 16 dead on that one. They also hit a funeral, didnt catch where with 20+ dead and 60+ wounded.

No one is claiming responsibility. Their military has been taken off defensive posture and is now back to aggressively bird dogging that ass.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/afghan-of...071607292.html

[Roranora]

bump for shooting up a maternity ward

is this the highest shock value soft target? even now they're like uh we don't claim that one, we blew up the funeral

[Andalusian girls]

you don't understand Rora those babies could have grown up to believe Mohammed's son-in-law was the rightful successor to a 7th century polity

as such were they not asking for death

[Andalusian girls]

i will say we'll see what the Taliban's tepid commitment to integrating within the framework of a broader Afghan government is worth. if the prospective peace treaty is to have any hope at all of hammering out a not-totally-dysfunctional state them aiding or at least not hindering reprisals against Daesh for a maternity ward massacre would be a decent initial gesture.

[Andalusian girls]

them aiding or at least not hindering reprisals against Daesh for a maternity ward massacre would be a decent initial gesture.

that's gotta be up there with the most cynical sentence ever penned

love u Middle East