source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ings-veterans-mental-health-light/8153828002/ It took the Taliban 1 day to fully controlled most of the main cities in Afghanistan....
Sad to see those images / videos of Afghans trying to save themselves. Just horrible to say the least ... No country can help another country permanently if their own military members are just going to drop and run; if I'm not mistaken, this is the 3rd time the Afghan military has done that over the 20 years period. Having said that, the US Commander-in-Chief, President Biden totally dropped the ball. Claimed that "buck stops with" him but blames former administration, Afghanistan President and military. What a joke! And the UK PM is calling Congress back - for what? More meetings and discussions? PRIORITIES, PM Johnson! People are dying there. Action speaks louder than words. This terrible incompetence by both 'leaders' will destroy whatever image US and UK have left - when you failed to take care of the people that assisted you; good luck trying to find others to help you in the future.
Trump set it up this way because he really didn't want any Afghans in the US as refugees. It it wasn't for Trump, thousands could have already left months ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/21/world/asia/pence-troye-trump-miller-afghan-refugees.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/politics/afghanistan-biden-trump-cnntv/index.html
The mirroring of how Afghanistan's military forces collapsed vis a vis to the final days of the Qing is really remarkable. Like the last dynasty's bannermen, ranks of the Afghan national army were really just in name only, given rise by a system that allowed payrolls to be based upon rosters. In such cases, the commanders simply pocketed the monthly pay of on paper but phantom recruits. This wasn't a problem until the units were mustered to face actual threats from the Talib and the sudden accounting was not able to be met with real men in uniform. Curious how this was exactly what doomed the Qing in the closing days of their empire. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/world/asia/afghanistan-rapid-military-collapse.html
