What's new

Taliban Storm the Strategic City of Ghazni

. . .
Not good. Ghani needs to act fast (and not be selfish), a 90s style prolonged civil war is in nobody's interests.
 
Last edited:
. .
I don't think it is going to be very prolonged.
It may look like that way right now, but even in the 90s the Taliban were not able to control the whole country. Afghanistan is multi-polar, even if they manage to seize most of it, the current government and warlords might return to being similar to the old Northern Alliance outfits as before.

So what you're saying is possible, but I don't think the Taliban can take the whole country, and they certainly would not keep it for long if they did, it'll eventually become civil war 4.0.
 
.
Not good. Ghani needs to act fast, a 90s style prolonged civil war is in nobody's interests.
he has to resort to created a "public defence command" with that idiot dostum as its head who couldn't even hang on to his "field marshall" uniform or his palace...

the fact that a "public defence command" has to be created and untrained civilians have to be armed indicates that the ana is shitting sloppy turds in their pantaloons and running away...
 
. .
Not good. Ghani needs to act fast, a 90s style prolonged civil war is in nobody's interests.
There is no chance of a 90s style civil war.
It is just IEA reestablishing their control. At a pace similar to the Americans
 
.
imo the ANA should save their lives and defect because Ghani is using them as connon fodder
 
.
It may look like that way right now, but even in the 90s the Taliban were not able to control the whole country. Afghanistan is multi-polar, even if they manage to seize most of it, the current government and warlords might return to being similar to the old Northern Alliance outfits as before.

So what you're saying is possible, but I don't think the Taliban can take the whole country, and they certainly would not keep it for long if they did, it'll eventually become civil war 4.0.
I think we sometimes under estimate the political savviness of Taliban. We sometimes think they will do divisive things like killing and pillaging non pushtoons, which will cause a counter rebellion to their rebellion. Some western analysts seem to hope that they start acting like ISIS so there is no clear victory Taliban as well, and they can sit back and arm the other groups to keep Taliban in check all the time.

The way they are controlling former NA stronghold first, including other ethnicities in their cause rather than being a pushtoon only movement, shows that they want to project themselves as an Afghan resistance movement and not just a Tribal ethnic group fighting for control. And slogan of Islam also goes a long way in Afghan politics, and for Kabul govt having B52 bombers still helping you takes legitimacy away from a religious point of view at-least.
 
. .
I think we sometimes under estimate the political savviness of Taliban. We sometimes think they will do divisive things like killing and pillaging non pushtoons, which will cause a counter rebellion to their rebellion. Some western analysts seem to hope that they start acting like ISIS so there is no clear victory Taliban as well.
The way they are controlling former NA stronghold first, including other ethnicities in their cause rather than being a pushtoon only movement. So they are trying to project them selves as an inclusive political govt under the banner of Islam ( we can disagree on interpretation but thats the slogan).

I think they will face a natural opposition, for example, even if tomorrow the US + the int'l community gives up entirely and Ghani + others completely disappear... Taliban still can't hold Afghanistan on their own, power sharing is a must.

Just like the Americans failed to enforce their political vision on Afghanistan despite having a huge amount of resources, they failed to push the Afghan government to the point where it could comfortably govern. And a few rag tag men with rifles were enough to keep them off keel.

This dynamic was possible because insurgencies don't really need resources, as long as there's natural opposition, there'll be insurgency. I think if Kabul falls, the current ANA + government will melt away, but in their place the natural opposition to the Taliban in the government's current strongholds will essentially become an insurgency. The tables will turn.

Anyway, I reserve my opinion of what might happen, all I'll say is that the Taliban alone cannot govern Afghanistan, in the same way the US failed to govern according to their whim.
 
.
It may look like that way right now, but even in the 90s the Taliban were not able to control the whole country. Afghanistan is multi-polar, even if they manage to seize most of it, the current government and warlords might return to being similar to the old Northern Alliance outfits as before.

So what you're saying is possible, but I don't think the Taliban can take the whole country, and they certainly would not keep it for long if they did, it'll eventually become civil war 4.0.
mindsets have changed now...don't forget, the taliban in the 90s couldn't get to the badakhshan province, that province was hardcore anti-taliban but today, they happily handed their province over to simply 4 taliban commanders in a sedan without any resistance or fight. there's something to be said about a subliminal realization that all afghans, religious or not, have gone through over the past 20 years...after seeing the "democratic regime" using and abusing the average afghan and casting a perverted eye on the women of the average afghan vis-a-vis seeing that those some women were completely safe and unharmed in taliban controlled areas and didn't get exploited nor had to give bribes, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they would prefer to live under taliban rule.

I'll explain if its not clear.

the Achilles heal of the so called "democratic" government in afghanistan is that it isn't democratic at all...be it ghani or karzai, I mean who the hell are these people? they have no roots in afghanistan, they are mostly foreign citizens, all there stakes are in europe, uk and america, they have ZERO stakes in afghanistan and they are all corrupt as hell. the u.s. simply holding a sham of an election campaign followed by stuffing ballot boxes doesn't make anything democratic, it makes it even more corrupt if anything, and I'm talking about the utter disregard and distruction of "merit". the average afghan finally started realizing this.
 
.
Yes, he should leave.


Looks that way, but the Americans are talking about a long civil war, must be a reason behind that thinking.

Yeah there is a reason for them salivating for a prolonged civil war rather than just having one side fully in control, it would seriously derail china from fully establishing their economic presence in the area.
 
.

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom