If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
Trump ‘got away’ with scuttling out of Syria, but that’s partly because Syria was a war torn nightmare, and America’s departure didn’t make things particularly worse. They were already about as bad as can be. Plus Assad and the Russians remained in situ, to keep the jihadis down
Afghanistan is different. There is no Assad or Putin to prevent the full dystopian jihadi nightmare
If Afghanistan reverts to gays being pushed off walls, women being stoned to death, mass public torture, then it will all be on Biden right until the next election, and it will all be on American TV
It certainly won’t be ‘good’ for him, but maybe Americans will shrug and look away
On the other hand, if, as HYUFD says, Isis or Al-Q launch terror attacks from Afghanistan that will surely damage Biden
My guess is that Biden's hard headed, or cynical, judgment is that Afghanistan is already lost. Certainly without committing a huge number of US forces. So he can cut his losses now or allow it drag on for a number of years hitting his re-election. So he chose the lesser risk from his PoV, ie the aftermath would be blamed on him pulling out when probably the same things would happen if he didn't, but he would also have much larger numbers of Americans being killed on the battlefield.
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
No disrespect, but Dom Sibley joins a distinguished group of batsmen (Gary Kirsten, Chanderpaul and Tavaré come to mind) that I’d rather pay to give runs to rather than watch the agony of their making them. #ENGvIND @bbctms
Good luck to the lad though. It’s hard graft being an opener. (Though someone I know claims his granny’d have done better with a stick o’ rhubarb)
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
It seems to me that Biden is facing a huge crisis over his confirmation of US withdrawal, and goodness knows where this will end but two things I do not want to happen
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And few of those were born in the US or UK, they were raised in Jihadi areas or turned to militants often in Afghanistan and far more of them will go there to be radicalised if Kabul falls
No disrespect, but Dom Sibley joins a distinguished group of batsmen (Gary Kirsten, Chanderpaul and Tavaré come to mind) that I’d rather pay to give runs to rather than watch the agony of their making them. #ENGvIND @bbctms
Good luck to the lad though. It’s hard graft being an opener. (Though someone I know claims his granny’d have done better with a stick o’ rhubarb)
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
I am not sure if it is the right thing to do. If you are going to withdraw, I would hope to do it in a better planned way.
But there is a very big difference with Vietnam. The Americans doubled-down in Vietnam, while Biden refuses to do so in Afghanistan. To be clear that is his choice: double-down or withdraw. The status quo light intervention isn't sustainable.
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
iSAGE - the link between cases and hospitalization is no longer weakening.
It was always going to stabilise at some point in time. Even if you hit 100% vaccination of the entire population it will do that.
High takeup of boosters for the over 50s may well weaken it further, though the JCVI doesn't seem overly keen on that...
Pagel seems to think it is a result of fewer children getting the plague (as not at school), so more adults even though overall case load is pretty flat. Adults end up in hospital more than kiddies.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
No. This makes things much worse. The jihadis will now run an entire state, with all the resources of that (and Afghanistan has considerable mineral wealth which the Chinese will happily buy)
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
I am not sure if it is the right thing to do. If you are going to withdraw, I would hope to do it in a better planned way.
But there is a very big difference with Vietnam. The Americans doubled-down in Vietnam, while Biden refuses to do so in Afghanistan. To be clear that is his choice: double-down or withdraw. The status quo light intervention isn't sustainable.
The alternative (ramp up to hundreds of thousands of troops) is not an alternative either. There was only ever one outcome which is the one in front of us.
It seems to me that Biden is facing a huge crisis over his confirmation of US withdrawal, and goodness knows where this will end but two things I do not want to happen
Trump is elected next President
The UK enters the arena again
Under Trump almost half a million Americans died. His incited attack on the Capitol after losing sank his popularity afterwards. Americans are not going to out him back in office because some third world hell hole collapsed when Biden left, especially as Trump had the same policy.
No sport creates stories like Test cricket does, but they're not always happy ones.
Does show the problem with all the calls to drop people from the team. What if the new players do worse?
I feel sorry for any English player coming into the test arena. How are they meant to prepare? They don't get anything like this level of pressure anywhere.
Is that really true ? Indian cricketers have a public many times the size of ours, and their test players often get as little fist class cricket between test series as do we.
They won the deciding game of their last away series against Australia without their captain, and fielding only two of the eleven who contested the first game. How do you prepare for that ?
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
No. This makes things much worse. The jihadis will now run an entire state, with all the resources of that (and Afghanistan has considerable mineral wealth which the Chinese will happily buy)
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
Imagine ISIS with one trillion dollars. Imagine the terror they could export. And they will
Possibly our best hope now is China moving in and exerting some kind of military leverage
Unlike opium, getting the minerals out would require massive investment in infrastructure and stability. Much larger than required for oil extraction....
There are larger mineral reserves in places which has less entertaining social situations.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And few of those were born in the US or UK, they were raised in Jihadi areas or turned to militants often in Afghanistan and far more of them will go there to be radicalised if Kabul falls
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
No disrespect, but Dom Sibley joins a distinguished group of batsmen (Gary Kirsten, Chanderpaul and Tavaré come to mind) that I’d rather pay to give runs to rather than watch the agony of their making them. #ENGvIND @bbctms
Good luck to the lad though. It’s hard graft being an opener. (Though someone I know claims his granny’d have done better with a stick o’ rhubarb)
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And few of those were born in the US or UK, they were raised in Jihadi areas or turned to militants often in Afghanistan and far more of them will go there to be radicalised if Kabul falls
ISI is the answer you are looking for.
ISI has been largely eliminated from Syria and Iraq now
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
No. This makes things much worse. The jihadis will now run an entire state, with all the resources of that (and Afghanistan has considerable mineral wealth which the Chinese will happily buy)
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
No. This makes things much worse. The jihadis will now run an entire state, with all the resources of that (and Afghanistan has considerable mineral wealth which the Chinese will happily buy)
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
Imagine ISIS with one trillion dollars. Imagine the terror they could export. And they will
Possibly our best hope now is China moving in and exerting some kind of military leverage
Because China just loves Central Asian Islamic Extremism. And Pashtun tribes just love foreigners coming in and taking their wealth. Afghanistan is not going to get the capital investment needed. There is more wealth in Libya under the ground.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
I am not sure if it is the right thing to do. If you are going to withdraw, I would hope to do it in a better planned way.
But there is a very big difference with Vietnam. The Americans doubled-down in Vietnam, while Biden refuses to do so in Afghanistan. To be clear that is his choice: double-down or withdraw. The status quo light intervention isn't sustainable.
The alternative (ramp up to hundreds of thousands of troops) is not an alternative either. There was only ever one outcome which is the one in front of us.
Unfortunately, I think that's right.
Incidentally there is another very nasty proxy war going on under the radar in Libya, with the Russians, UAE and Egypt on one side and Turkey on the other, to some extent a spillover from Syria. No-one cares and not many people are even aware of it.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
No. This makes things much worse. The jihadis will now run an entire state, with all the resources of that (and Afghanistan has considerable mineral wealth which the Chinese will happily buy)
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
Another alternative would have been to abandon the liberal cant, install an absolutely brutal Islamic dictator in Kabul, and give him lots of money and weapons to keep him loyal to the West. Just make sure he is OUR son of a bitch, with no desire to export terror
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
I wonder if Elon Musk is regretting building his factory in Germany. Union rights have now become an election issue and he’s had an embarrassing press conference with the CDU chancellor candidate Laschet who started questioning whether hydrogen cars might be the future.
Given the German car manufacturers have gone all in with batteries (unlike the Japanese), that is a particularly odd comment.
My guess is that they went for Germany because those gigafactories don’t just supply Tesla, and they want to be where the highest concentration of car making is.
My impression is that they picked Germany because of Brexit. We'd have bent over backward to push through the planning approval.
What concentration of car making is there in Texas or Nevada ?
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
I do not want to criticise Rhyl to be fair but further along the coast is more popular
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
That's entirely self-serving nonsense from them. The reason they've not done so before is that they've not previously had the ability to project military power. Anyone thinking they don't intervene overseas, and won't do so increasingly, is kidding themselves.
iSAGE - the link between cases and hospitalization is no longer weakening.
Based on what?
The ratio(s) of deaths <-> hospitalisations <-> cases will obviously stabilise at a new value, once the vaccinations are essentially done. Which would be fairly soon, for the last second vaccinations we are going to get, for adults...
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
Another alternative would have been to abandon the liberal cant, install an absolutely brutal Islamic dictator in Kabul, and give him lots of money and weapons to keep him loyal to the West. Just make sure he is OUR son of a bitch, with no desire to export terror
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
Except that neither the Soviet Union nor the USA could emerge victorious with severe force. You'd need some genius dictating there.
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
we did enjoy our stay. but yes others have said we should have headed further to Llandudno.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And few of those were born in the US or UK, they were raised in Jihadi areas or turned to militants often in Afghanistan and far more of them will go there to be radicalised if Kabul falls
ISI is the answer you are looking for.
ISI has been largely eliminated from Syria and Iraq now
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
Another alternative would have been to abandon the liberal cant, install an absolutely brutal Islamic dictator in Kabul, and give him lots of money and weapons to keep him loyal to the West. Just make sure he is OUR son of a bitch, with no desire to export terror
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
Except that neither the Soviet Union nor the USA could emerge victorious with severe force. You'd need some genius dictating there.
I think the PB consensus was that only Genghis Khan managed it?
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
we did enjoy our stay. but yes others have said we should have headed further to Llandudno.
Maybe next time and of course Conwy with it's wonderful castle is near to Llandudno
I wonder if Elon Musk is regretting building his factory in Germany. Union rights have now become an election issue and he’s had an embarrassing press conference with the CDU chancellor candidate Laschet who started questioning whether hydrogen cars might be the future.
Given the German car manufacturers have gone all in with batteries (unlike the Japanese), that is a particularly odd comment.
My guess is that they went for Germany because those gigafactories don’t just supply Tesla, and they want to be where the highest concentration of car making is.
My impression is that they picked Germany because of Brexit. We'd have bent over backward to push through the planning approval.
What concentration of car making is there in Texas or Nevada ?
Alot of the German car industry was very, very upset about the Berlin factory.
Merkel pushed it through to give them a massive kick to get back in the game of ZEVs.
Now she is leaving the political stage... Consider that the German car industry is virtually a part of the state. In Bavaria, that is literally true.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
Another alternative would have been to abandon the liberal cant, install an absolutely brutal Islamic dictator in Kabul, and give him lots of money and weapons to keep him loyal to the West. Just make sure he is OUR son of a bitch, with no desire to export terror
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
Didn't we try that with Dostum? I wouldn't be surprised to see his name pop up again.
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
That's entirely self-serving nonsense from them. The reason they've not done so before is that they've not previously had the ability to project military power. Anyone thinking they don't intervene overseas, and won't do so increasingly, is kidding themselves.
England scored one run in the first 22 minutes after tea.
And they wonder why the hundreds are popular
This is boring and unwatchable cricket
No it's not. It's proper, gripping, 5-day test cricket, rather than a couple of hours of predictable bludgeoning. An oil painting rather than a whimsical meme.
Is that seen as a good thing? Genuine question - I know that some places are drowning in tourists and a bit fed up with it. Like Skye or anywhere on the NC500 route. Happily not a problem here in Aberdeenshire.
England scored one run in the first 22 minutes after tea.
And they wonder why the hundreds are popular
This is boring and unwatchable cricket
No it's not. It's proper, gripping, 5-day test cricket, rather than a couple of hours of predictable bludgeoning. An oil painting rather than a whimsical meme.
I suppose to traditionalists but this test is unlikely to last 5 days
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
Another alternative would have been to abandon the liberal cant, install an absolutely brutal Islamic dictator in Kabul, and give him lots of money and weapons to keep him loyal to the West. Just make sure he is OUR son of a bitch, with no desire to export terror
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
Trump for all his faults would have been more likely to do that than Biden and may do so yet if he returns to office at the 2024 presidential election, which if Afghanistan turns into a disaster for the US would become more likely.
It would have to be a warlord like Dostum supported by the able Abdullah Abdullah
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
That's entirely self-serving nonsense from them. The reason they've not done so before is that they've not previously had the ability to project military power. Anyone thinking they don't intervene overseas, and won't do so increasingly, is kidding themselves.
Where have they intervened militarily overseas?
Does it have to be 'overseas'? If not [edit] then I can think of two examples in modern times (ie since WW2).
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
I am not sure if it is the right thing to do. If you are going to withdraw, I would hope to do it in a better planned way.
But there is a very big difference with Vietnam. The Americans doubled-down in Vietnam, while Biden refuses to do so in Afghanistan. To be clear that is his choice: double-down or withdraw. The status quo light intervention isn't sustainable.
The alternative (ramp up to hundreds of thousands of troops) is not an alternative either. There was only ever one outcome which is the one in front of us.
Except that the Taliban were at bay while America still had just a few thousand troops there. Complete withdrawal is symbolic, in the same way withdrawal of a lone Royal Navy survey ship gave the Argentinian junta the go-ahead to invade the Falklands.
By some accounts, President Trump had been persuaded not to withdraw completely based on evidence along the lines I posted in the last thread – that Afghanistan, or at least its urban centres, had been Westernised before the Taliban captured the country.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
Is that seen as a good thing? Genuine question - I know that some places are drowning in tourists and a bit fed up with it. Like Skye or anywhere on the NC500 route. Happily not a problem here in Aberdeenshire.
Very much so, as the whole area depends on tourism and is delighted to welcome lots of holidaymakers and many businesses depend on them
And even more so following the devastation of our tourism businesses due to covid
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
we did enjoy our stay. but yes others have said we should have headed further to Llandudno.
Maybe next time and of course Conwy with it's wonderful castle is near to Llandudno
I love a good castle. Those i'd be travelling with probably not so much. Pembrokeshire is def on our to visit list but not sure when.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
'I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
Biden's position is an embarrassment. US policy should be no aid whatsoever to any Afghan government that has any Taliban involvement of any kind. The strategic implications of this surrender will not be lost on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.' https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
England scored one run in the first 22 minutes after tea.
And they wonder why the hundreds are popular
This is boring and unwatchable cricket
No it's not. It's proper, gripping, 5-day test cricket, rather than a couple of hours of predictable bludgeoning. An oil painting rather than a whimsical meme.
I suppose to traditionalists but this test is unlikely to last 5 days
Potential for a bet there Big G! I think it will last 5 days.
iSAGE - the link between cases and hospitalization is no longer weakening.
Based on what?
Hospital admin as a % of cases 7 days earlier. Apparently.
From their graph looks like it was ≈ 2% and now is ≈ 4%
Except cases have fallen recently - which takes time to feed into the hospital figures. So, in that case you get an apparent increase in the ratio. Until everything stabilises again.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
No. This makes things much worse. The jihadis will now run an entire state, with all the resources of that (and Afghanistan has considerable mineral wealth which the Chinese will happily buy)
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
Imagine ISIS with one trillion dollars. Imagine the terror they could export. And they will
Possibly our best hope now is China moving in and exerting some kind of military leverage
The Taliban is not the same as ISIS. They were willing to tolerate AQ 20 years ago, but essentially are an overarching paleo-religious grouping with a Afghani/Pashtun focus. They’ve never particularly had much interest in expanding internationally
England scored one run in the first 22 minutes after tea.
And they wonder why the hundreds are popular
This is boring and unwatchable cricket
No it's not. It's proper, gripping, 5-day test cricket, rather than a couple of hours of predictable bludgeoning. An oil painting rather than a whimsical meme.
I suppose to traditionalists but this test is unlikely to last 5 days
Potential for a bet there Big G! I think it will last 5 days.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
One of Don's "few moments" of lucid brilliance? Can you point me to the others - I'm struggling?
"#Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat" "#Biden, a veteran of the #Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous #history, a #tragedy many years in the making." washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/…
Will this cost the Democrats the House and Senate next year?
Don’t know, but I have seldom seen such bipartisan, across-the-board condemnation of a presidential policy - and the critiques are savage
And America’s allies are no less scathing: the FAZ calls it a ‘total failure’
‘Kandahar und Herat gefallen: Biden hat Afghanistan den Taliban ausgeliefert faz.net/-gq5-aeq6h?GEP… via @faznet Völliges Versagen der Politik die tollen Kanzlerin u des Spuperpräsidenten in den USA. Die die Afgha verteidigen sollen sind zu millionen in Merkel-D, Frauen Kinder wo?’
At this point the position of the US abroad is at its weakest since the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and the Carter and Ford administrations.
In fact it is weaker as China is now more powerful than the USSR was then
People need to make their minds up as to whether they want America to be a global policeman or to cultivate its garden.
If America is not the global policeman then China in the East and Africa and Russia in the Middle East and Europe will happily fill the gap
China is not interventionist in the terms that the US has been. It always states how no one should interfere with another country's domestic affairs because of course it wants to set the stage for Taiwan, the Spratlys, etc when it does not want anyone interfering in what it believes to be its own internal affairs.
That's entirely self-serving nonsense from them. The reason they've not done so before is that they've not previously had the ability to project military power. Anyone thinking they don't intervene overseas, and won't do so increasingly, is kidding themselves.
Where have they intervened militarily overseas?
Does it have to be 'overseas'? If not [edit] then I can think of two examples in modern times (ie since WW2).
They intervened in Korea and Vietnam on behalf of their client states.
That is a different MO from the US' actions over the past 50 years.
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
we did enjoy our stay. but yes others have said we should have headed further to Llandudno.
Maybe next time and of course Conwy with it's wonderful castle is near to Llandudno
Will I be thrown out of Wales for saying I much prefer Beaumaris? There's something about the fact it was never completed, yet hasn't been mined, that makes it so much more interesting. When I visited, I could almost imagine the masons returning after 700 years to restart work. Unlike ruined castles, or those that have been lived in and altered for centuries, it seems to much more pristine and original.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
One of Don's "few moments" of lucid brilliance? Can you point me to the others - I'm struggling?
This would be the warmongering imbecile that Trump spent months trying to persuade to come and join his administration. Begging would be one word for what went on apparently.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
'I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
Biden's position is an embarrassment. US policy should be no aid whatsoever to any Afghan government that has any Taliban involvement of any kind. The strategic implications of this surrender will not be lost on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.' https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
Is BJ's position who grovelled to successive POTUS in aid of some spurious special relationship and is now aping exactly the actions of Biden more or less of an embarrassment?
Are "Jock-land" and "Jock-experts" now the officially sanctioned descriptors non "blood & soil" commentators permitted to use?
Did it never occur tio you that that was the perfect opportunity for a pisstake?
Yoons have developed skins thinner than graphene, well, the ones that had a vestigial sense of humour in the first place.
It’s funny that whenever Nats make a racist or offensive comment it’s “just a bit of banter” but when Unionists make an innocuous remark it’s deeply offensive, redolent of our alleged contempt for all things Scottish and a prime cause for independence now!
Is that seen as a good thing? Genuine question - I know that some places are drowning in tourists and a bit fed up with it. Like Skye or anywhere on the NC500 route. Happily not a problem here in Aberdeenshire.
You can be sure if it ends up a bad thing it'll be Drakeford's fault.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
'I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
Biden's position is an embarrassment. US policy should be no aid whatsoever to any Afghan government that has any Taliban involvement of any kind. The strategic implications of this surrender will not be lost on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.' https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
Is BJ's position who grovelled to successive POTUS in aid of some spurious special relationship and is now aping exactly the actions of Biden more or less of an embarrassment?
Blair to be fair to him had a better policy on Afghanistan than Boris, though our Defence Secretary has said withdrawal risks terrorists returning to the country but we are not going to stay if the US leaves.
Only a change in President or Presidential policy in DC can change things now
Are "Jock-land" and "Jock-experts" now the officially sanctioned descriptors non "blood & soil" commentators permitted to use?
Did it never occur tio you that that was the perfect opportunity for a pisstake?
Yoons have developed skins thinner than graphene, well, the ones that had a vestigial sense of humour in the first place.
It’s funny that whenever Nats make a racist or offensive comment it’s “just a bit of banter” but when Unionists make an innocuous remark it’s deeply offensive, redolent of our alleged contempt for all things Scottish and a prime cause for independence now!
Tbf I've always seen your comments as dim rather than deeply offensive (aside from slandering folk as people smugglers of course).
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
'I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
Biden's position is an embarrassment. US policy should be no aid whatsoever to any Afghan government that has any Taliban involvement of any kind. The strategic implications of this surrender will not be lost on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.' https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
Didn't you used to slag off HRC for interventionist tendencies and laud Trump for his "no more foreign wars, waste of time and money" riposte to that?
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
'I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
Biden's position is an embarrassment. US policy should be no aid whatsoever to any Afghan government that has any Taliban involvement of any kind. The strategic implications of this surrender will not be lost on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.' https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
John Bolton was one of the idiots that got us into this mess. He is a modern day colonialist.
Are "Jock-land" and "Jock-experts" now the officially sanctioned descriptors non "blood & soil" commentators permitted to use?
Did it never occur tio you that that was the perfect opportunity for a pisstake?
Yoons have developed skins thinner than graphene, well, the ones that had a vestigial sense of humour in the first place.
It’s funny that whenever Nats make a racist or offensive comment it’s “just a bit of banter” but when Unionists make an innocuous remark it’s deeply offensive, redolent of our alleged contempt for all things Scottish and a prime cause for independence now!
Tbf I've always seen your comments as dim rather than deeply offensive (aside from slandering folk as people smugglers of course).
Straight to insults again.
It’s sad that you can’t put a positive case for independence
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
One of Don's "few moments" of lucid brilliance? Can you point me to the others - I'm struggling?
Are "Jock-land" and "Jock-experts" now the officially sanctioned descriptors non "blood & soil" commentators permitted to use?
Did it never occur tio you that that was the perfect opportunity for a pisstake?
Yoons have developed skins thinner than graphene, well, the ones that had a vestigial sense of humour in the first place.
It’s funny that whenever Nats make a racist or offensive comment it’s “just a bit of banter” but when Unionists make an innocuous remark it’s deeply offensive, redolent of our alleged contempt for all things Scottish and a prime cause for independence now!
Tbf I've always seen your comments as dim rather than deeply offensive (aside from slandering folk as people smugglers of course).
Did he ever provide the evidence for the people smuggling, BTW?
Are "Jock-land" and "Jock-experts" now the officially sanctioned descriptors non "blood & soil" commentators permitted to use?
Did it never occur tio you that that was the perfect opportunity for a pisstake?
Yoons have developed skins thinner than graphene, well, the ones that had a vestigial sense of humour in the first place.
It’s funny that whenever Nats make a racist or offensive comment it’s “just a bit of banter” but when Unionists make an innocuous remark it’s deeply offensive, redolent of our alleged contempt for all things Scottish and a prime cause for independence now!
Tbf I've always seen your comments as dim rather than deeply offensive (aside from slandering folk as people smugglers of course).
Straight to insults again.
It’s sad that you can’t put a positive case for independence
It's sad that you're relaxed about slandering people who are too weak to answer back (insofar as anyone pays attention to what's said on here), but we are where we are.
If this stuff sticks, no way he runs again in 2024. HYUFD was right
TBH I think the timing of this retreat is closely linked to presidential election cycle: just after the last election and well before the next. The timing is bipartisan you might say.
Question, I suppose, is whether a defeat can be anything other than chaotic, because this one one certainly is.
For context. This was the map in 2017 of areas under government control (dark blue) and Taliban control (red). The light blue areas were areas under no control, where the Taliban could move at will. The Afghan government was probably doomed even then.
It is a defeat in the sense of the withdrawal from Vietnam was a defeat.
It is however not not the right thing to do.
That remains to be seen, only if jihadi terrorists do not return to Afghanistan as Leon correctly points out is a risk will Biden get away with it
There are enough Jihadi terrorists in Florida and Finsbury Park to be getting on with before worrying about Afghan.
And if a threat to the West emerges like it did in Iraq and Syria, we can go in, clear them out and exit again. The problem is forever war and permanent occupation.
Absolutely. And as we are seeing, anything short of full occupation isn't going to work.
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
Another alternative would have been to abandon the liberal cant, install an absolutely brutal Islamic dictator in Kabul, and give him lots of money and weapons to keep him loyal to the West. Just make sure he is OUR son of a bitch, with no desire to export terror
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
All that ever does is make the West become the spectre of the puppet master behind every awful massacre. The right action is to limit our interventions to short clearing outs of people about to attack us, or to places where the bulk of the population is clearly on our side.
Are "Jock-land" and "Jock-experts" now the officially sanctioned descriptors non "blood & soil" commentators permitted to use?
Did it never occur tio you that that was the perfect opportunity for a pisstake?
Yoons have developed skins thinner than graphene, well, the ones that had a vestigial sense of humour in the first place.
It’s funny that whenever Nats make a racist or offensive comment it’s “just a bit of banter” but when Unionists make an innocuous remark it’s deeply offensive, redolent of our alleged contempt for all things Scottish and a prime cause for independence now!
Tbf I've always seen your comments as dim rather than deeply offensive (aside from slandering folk as people smugglers of course).
Did he ever provide the evidence for the people smuggling, BTW?
One thing occurs, if the US are going to keep their noses out, militarily, of anything but homeland security, there is enormous scope for saving money in that area. Their defense budget is mind blowing.
Why are the JVCI so anti boosters? US, Israel, other European countries, Middle East, all doing or going to be doing wide ranging boosters.
Sajid Javid and other ministers are very much expecting that booster doses will be administered to 30m+ people over the autumn and are working on putting the infrastructure in place.
Looking like an increasingly public clash between ministers and their advisers is on the way...
Perhaps the worst thing about the Afghan situation is that John Bolton is being interviewed as a serious figure again. Trump firing him as a warmongering imbecile was one of Don's few moments of lucid brilliance.
'I'm guessing he thinks the Stars and Stripes should be flown forevermore in Kabul ?
Biden's position is an embarrassment. US policy should be no aid whatsoever to any Afghan government that has any Taliban involvement of any kind. The strategic implications of this surrender will not be lost on Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.' https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
Didn't you used to slag off HRC for interventionist tendencies and laud Trump for his "no more foreign wars, waste of time and money" riposte to that?
In terms of Syria and Assad I said leave alone yes.
Not Afghanistan however, either we keep a military presence there or impose a warlord like Dostum or there is a strong chance terrorist training camps will return to the country.
Then the next thing we know we have 9/11 2 on another major western city
One thing occurs, if the US are going to keep their noses out, militarily, of anything but homeland security, there is enormous scope for saving money in that area. Their defense budget is mind blowing.
If the US did that then NATO European powers would dramatically have to raise defence spending to contain Putin as would Australia, Japan, South Korea etc to contain China
Why are the JVCI so anti boosters? US, Israel, other European countries, Middle East, all doing or going to be doing wide ranging boosters.
Sajid Javid and other ministers are very much expecting that booster doses will be administered to 30m+ people over the autumn and are working on putting the infrastructure in place.
Looking like an increasingly public clash between ministers and their advisers is on the way...
To be fair it does seem to be debatable as to the extent to which boosters will be necessary. It's a fine balance between waiting for the evidence and avoiding putting people at risk. And all against a backdrop where vast numbers across the globe are yet to have a first jab. I can understand the desire to be clear that they are needed and at what particular point in time.
The Plymouth shooter killed his mother and a three year old. Serious questions about his firearm licence need to be asked given what was reported to be publically available Online.
Isn't that the gent who was thrown out of Ukip for unfortunate remarks, and likes to join independence marches with a loudhailer and the rattiest UJ T-shirt ever? Or am I muddling my McConnachies?
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
we did enjoy our stay. but yes others have said we should have headed further to Llandudno.
Maybe next time and of course Conwy with it's wonderful castle is near to Llandudno
Will I be thrown out of Wales for saying I much prefer Beaumaris? There's something about the fact it was never completed, yet hasn't been mined, that makes it so much more interesting. When I visited, I could almost imagine the masons returning after 700 years to restart work. Unlike ruined castles, or those that have been lived in and altered for centuries, it seems to much more pristine and original.
Harlech would get my vote although i haven't visited since my teens. Would be even more impressive if someone hadn't moved the sea further away.
we had an overnight stay in Rhyl with the grandkids last month (looked like a handy spot for visiting Chester Zoo the next day).
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
Maybe if you had come a few miles more (12) you could have enjoyed all that Colwyn Bay seafront, Rhos on Sea, and Llandudno offer our very welcome visitors
we did enjoy our stay. but yes others have said we should have headed further to Llandudno.
Maybe next time and of course Conwy with it's wonderful castle is near to Llandudno
Will I be thrown out of Wales for saying I much prefer Beaumaris? There's something about the fact it was never completed, yet hasn't been mined, that makes it so much more interesting. When I visited, I could almost imagine the masons returning after 700 years to restart work. Unlike ruined castles, or those that have been lived in and altered for centuries, it seems to much more pristine and original.
Comments
High takeup of boosters for the over 50s may well weaken it further, though the JCVI doesn't seem overly keen on that...
https://warontherocks.com/2021/08/a-reluctant-embrace-chinas-new-relationship-with-the-taliban/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/opinion/biden-afghanistan-taliban.html
Arsenal football club were responsible for 9/11.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/funny_old_game/1650069.stm
I mean watching George Graham's tedious sides of the late 80s/early 90s would have turned anyone to terrorism.
Jihadi John was an Arsenal fan as well.
https://www.joe.co.uk/news/new-jihadi-john-suspect-grew-up-supporting-arsenal-friends-claim-35393
But there is a very big difference with Vietnam. The Americans doubled-down in Vietnam, while Biden refuses to do so in Afghanistan. To be clear that is his choice: double-down or withdraw. The status quo light intervention isn't sustainable.
That is different from sending troops abroad.
‘Torn by four decades of war and desperate poverty, Afghanistan is believed to be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world. The value of these resources has been roughly estimated between $1-3 trillion.’
https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/afghanistans-mineral-resources-are-a-lost-opportunity-and-a-threat/
Imagine ISIS with one trillion dollars. Imagine the terror they could export. And they will
Possibly our best hope now is China moving in and exerting some kind of military leverage
BBC
Indian cricketers have a public many times the size of ours, and their test players often get as little fist class cricket between test series as do we.
They won the deciding game of their last away series against Australia without their captain, and fielding only two of the eleven who contested the first game. How do you prepare for that ?
America has been experiencing the "self-licking lollipop" phenomenon that the Brits faced in eg Helmand.
There are larger mineral reserves in places which has less entertaining social situations.
1. Arsenal - 38 - 22 - 10 - 6 - 73 - 36 - 37 - 76
2. Liverpool - 38 - 22 - 10 - 6 - 65 - 28 - 37 - 76
So tedious that they won the league on goals scored.
promenade was lovely. beach too. but the sea looked like sewage. could that be because it was very windy or is that normal? and once you got beyond the seafront it wasnt pretty. but I guess a lot of seaside towns are like that now.
our other trip was to Whitby where the sea was crystal clear. didnt hurt that it was hot and sunny there either.
He's managed to get out the same way three times in a row, and after playing himself in.
Iran is sitting on billions of dollars of resource wealth. Are we trying to occupy Tehran?
Incidentally there is another very nasty proxy war going on under the radar in Libya, with the Russians, UAE and Egypt on one side and Turkey on the other, to some extent a spillover from Syria. No-one cares and not many people are even aware of it.
And turn a blind eye when he crushes the Taliban with severe force
What concentration of car making is there in Texas or Nevada ?
I do not want to criticise Rhyl to be fair but further along the coast is more popular
The reason they've not done so before is that they've not previously had the ability to project military power. Anyone thinking they don't intervene overseas, and won't do so increasingly, is kidding themselves.
You'd need some genius dictating there.
What Western forces have done to the Afghan people is unforgivable.
Brendan O'Neill"
https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/08/12/the-betrayal-of-afghanistan/
@SkyNews
BREAKING: YouTube has terminated the account of Plymouth shooter Jake Davidson for violating its "offline behaviour policy".
More on this story here: https://trib.al/kbriB7L
FFS...
Merkel pushed it through to give them a massive kick to get back in the game of ZEVs.
Now she is leaving the political stage... Consider that the German car industry is virtually a part of the state. In Bavaria, that is literally true.
But I think the ship has sailed.
And they've just scored 12 off an over.
It would have to be a warlord like Dostum supported by the able Abdullah Abdullah
By some accounts, President Trump had been persuaded not to withdraw completely based on evidence along the lines I posted in the last thread – that Afghanistan, or at least its urban centres, had been Westernised before the Taliban captured the country.
And even more so following the devastation of our tourism businesses due to covid
From their graph looks like it was ≈ 2% and now is ≈ 4%
https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1426171163332562946?s=20
That is a different MO from the US' actions over the past 50 years.
Only a change in President or Presidential policy in DC can change things now
It’s sad that you can’t put a positive case for independence
Sajid Javid and other ministers are very much expecting that booster doses will be administered to 30m+ people over the autumn and are working on putting the infrastructure in place.
Looking like an increasingly public clash between ministers and their advisers is on the way...
https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1426192147297017864?s=19
Not Afghanistan however, either we keep a military presence there or impose a warlord like Dostum or there is a strong chance terrorist training camps will return to the country.
Then the next thing we know we have 9/11 2 on another major western city
https://twitter.com/RobDunsmore/status/1426181322104578048?s=20
Serious questions about his firearm licence need to be asked given what was reported to be publically available Online.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16399120.meet-pro-union-activist-worked-orange-order-denies-jews-murdered-gas-chambers/
So many castles to chose from