The War in Afghanistan

[Zachowon]

Proposal to create new British Army regiment for Afghan special forces

One suggestion was to create a new regiment similar to that of the Gurkhas.

www.standard.co.uk

Proposal to create new British Army regiment for Afghan special forces backed by MPs who have been soldiers

Afghan refugee numbers ‘significantly larger’ than Government estimate Labour warns

morningstaronline.co.uk

Afghan commandos could fight for British Army like Gurkhas

Government considering proposals to create brand new regiment consisting of Afghan special forces troops evacuated from Kabul

extra.telegraph.co.uk

The UK is considering incorporating Afghan special forces evacuated from Kabul into the British army

The Afghan special forces were trained by UK troops and are "very good by international standards," a former military head said.

www.businessinsider.com

Events over the coarse of the past month has not made me think "damn, we need some of that in our military" whenever I think about the ANA. Then again, that might not be the point, sure they're demonstratively ineffective, but on the other hand, they'll be fanatically loyal to anyone who rescued them from getting killed by the victorious Taliban as enemy collaborators, at least so long as there's an implied threat that disloyalty will get them sent back. They'd make a fantastic varangian guard for defending the British political classes against the British plebeians.

Commandos are not the normal ANA

To be fair, the commandos did fight, unlike much of the ANA, but forming a regiment out of them would be foolish, Gurkhas are still a regiment because they can be recruited from the tribe that holds true to its tradition, who could this regiment recruit to keep up the strength? Rapefugees getting fat on the all the forms of social support?

Northern Alliance?

 

[PsihoKekec]

And how will they recruit from an area that is completely surrounded by Taliban and is likely to be overrun by the next Spring?

 

[Zachowon]

And how will they recruit from an area that is completely surrounded by Taliban and is likely to be overrun by the next Spring?

Idk.
It's the British. They always di wierd shit

 

[Marduk]

If they are that good and want to pursue that kind of profession (which considering how few took part in defense of the airport as opposed to just being evacuated, probably not many), there's no need for silly ideas like that, just give them Erik Prince's number.

Overall could just be current day British politicians wanting to desperately recreate a pale shadow of their country's imperial glories.
They absolutely could use that, if only for the morale, even though they hardly have the means and absolutely don't have the guts to do it properly.

 

[BlackDragon98]

A new Varangian Guard for the British Cabalists. That why they want the Afghan commandos.

They probably pissed themselves when they saw the Jan 6th parade and now they want to recruit a Varangian Guard in case of "emergencies".

Because they know their days are number and they want some form of insurance if the British military supports the people instead of them.

 

[Zachowon]

A new Varangian Guard for the British Cabalists. That why they want the Afghan commandos.

They probably pissed themselves when they saw the Jan 6th parade and now they want to recruit a Varangian Guard in case of "emergencies".

Because they know their days are number and they want some form of insurance if the British military supports the people instead of them.

No.
Afghan Commandos are just damn good at theirjob, and would be another group like the Gurhkas

 

[Marduk]

That raises 2 other issues in the larger perspective:
1. What's up with the total lack of plans regarding the obvious question of "what next"?
Recognition of Taliban government, diplomatic relations, and whether or not support the Panjashir resistance (which some commandos joined btw), and if so, how and how much.
2. Western governments are increasingly wielding their powerful immigration incentives in a self-destructive way guided more by kneejerk reactions and PR people rather than strategic interests and goal oriented politics, that could be counter-intuitive in some way but actually serve a purpose.
The commando discussion is indicative of this. If you offer an easy way out for allied factions in a third world civil war... What happens if they take it?
Oh, right, the allied factions disappear from that civil war. Congratulations, you have effectively wiped out your own proxy, what a feat of strategic brilliance, gonna be up there with Rommel, Patton and Sun Tzu.
These idiots should be doing this kind of thing to enemies, at least where feasible (no one wants jihadis home, but pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and the like could be targeted in this way), rather than allies.

 

[Bacle]

Now we may never get many of those service dogs back home.

 

[Bacle]

 

[Zachowon]

We do it to the Norks

 

[Vaermina]

That seems unlikely given it would require the Democrats take the Taliban off the Terrorist list.

 

[King Arts]

That seems unlikely given it would require the Democrats take the Taliban off the Terrorist list.

I saw someone on SB say that the Taliban in Afghanistan were taken off the terrorist list. Not the Taliban in Pakistan though. That I think came up before Biden though, it's because back then the U.S. was negotiating with them, and so you know how the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists, so the Taliban in Afghanistan had to be taken off the terrorist list so we can keep using that line.

 

[SoliFortissimi]

That seems unlikely given it would require the Democrats take the Taliban off the Terrorist list.

Biden would send Akhundzada the coat off his back if he felt it could hurt China. So probably, depending on who offers the Taliban more.

Frankly, I'm not that worried about them beating the Yanks. Afghanistan is only important because they wanted Revenge and Bush wanted an excuse to occupy Iraq. Now that is done, that place can go and rot for all anyone cares.

What worries me more is if the media misleads the gullible watchers into thinking this is some major fiasco to be avenged or something. The yellow papers will do anything to sell copies, damn them all.

 

[Marduk]

That seems unlikely given it would require the Democrats take the Taliban off the Terrorist list.

Either that, or there will be some tricky legalities applied to separating the Taliban from Afghan government that just so happens to be controlled by them.

 

[King Arts]

So you're saying that if we don't open the floodgates to people who, with the backing of the most powerful empire in the world, billions of dollars in equipment and training, and a numerical advantage that was at one point like 3-1, could not hold a single city on their own for longer than a week, retarded foreign wars will be less viable in the future?

Don't threaten us with a good time.

Sorry I haven't been prompt in responding. But this is kinda a double edged sword. If you are an old school conservative who wants to let the rest of the world do their own thing as long as they don't attack America itself that is fine. But if you get involved in foreign affairs it will cause more losses for America. And some people like Zach who I was talking to will be bitching in 10 years when we invade Iran, or China "Why can't we find any collaborators to act as interpreters or informants for us?! We are bringing them freedom!" It basically means we'd have to rely on American citizens who are descenced from those places to join the Army and act as interpreters that worked in ww2 for Japan. But then we were able to do a draft, now adays that might not be possible. So we'd have to see how many native Chinese (Mandarin or Cantoneese?), or Iranian(Farsi) speakers are in the U.S. Armed forces.

To be fair, the commandos did fight, unlike much of the ANA, but forming a regiment out of them would be foolish, Gurkhas are still a regiment because they can be recruited from the tribe that holds true to its tradition, who could this regiment recruit to keep up the strength? Rapefugees getting fat on the all the forms of social support?

I still don't think an Afghani regiment would be a good idea, our allies in the region have shown themselves to be cowards and weaklings without a warrior spirit. So any Afghan regiment would have a terrible reputation. Unless this British regiment pulls a French Foreign Legion and just hires the Taliban our former enemies just like how the French hired ex Waffen SS.

 

[BlackDragon98]

I saw someone on SB say that the Taliban in Afghanistan were taken off the terrorist list. Not the Taliban in Pakistan though. That I think came up before Biden though, it's because back then the U.S. was negotiating with them, and so you know how the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists, so the Taliban in Afghanistan had to be taken off the terrorist list so we can keep using that line.

The Pakistani Taliban will simply give their Afghani brothers a call and have them add them onto the membership list.

I bet the process is faster than getting a membership at Costco.

I still don't think an Afghani regiment would be a good idea, our allies in the region have shown themselves to be cowards and weaklings without a warrior spirit.

The people who have warrior spirit all joined the Taliban.

That's why they won and now control Afghanistan.

 

[Circle of Willis]

Oh my God this is rich. Any aid sent to the Taliban (even 'just' the money they've been demanding) will inevitably not only be used against ISIS-KP, but their other enemies in the Panjshir resistance too. By rendering such aid the US will effectively be allying with the 'Ban against the only good bits left of that client government they, and we (as in the collective international coalition of which my own country was a part), had just wasted 20 years and trillions of $$$ propping up.

Absolutely fucking fantastic development for American international credibility, as if it wasn't in enough trouble already. Yeah, I know realpolitik has gotten America to team up with old enemies like Vietnam against new enemies, but in this case it's not like allying with them against China or even that time the US indirectly helped the Khmer Rouge against Vietnam when the latter invaded Cambodia - this is more like allying with the Communist Vietnam against ARVN remnants trying to hold out in the Central Highlands, literally days after the fall of Saigon, because ???

I know I talked about this very possibility not even a week ago but damn, I really thought it would take a little longer for this to happen. At least give the smoking corpse of your vanquished client state a month or two to cool and for media interest & popular furor to die down just a little bit, Biden & friends!

If this entire sordid mess actually ends with Biden allying with the Taliban to defeat ISIS-KP in the short term and in hopes of using them as the next 'moderate Syrian Afghan rebel/partner' proxy in the longer run, there's a non-zero chance that I'll die of laughter. Truly that's the sort of comedy only God could write while particularly bored & drunk.

 

[LindyAF]

Sorry I haven't been prompt in responding. But this is kinda a double edged sword. If you are an old school conservative who wants to let the rest of the world do their own thing as long as they don't attack America itself that is fine. But if you get involved in foreign affairs it will cause more losses for America. And some people like Zach who I was talking to will be bitching in 10 years when we invade Iran, or China "Why can't we find any collaborators to act as interpreters or informants for us?! We are bringing them freedom!" It basically means we'd have to rely on American citizens who are descenced from those places to join the Army and act as interpreters that worked in ww2 for Japan. But then we were able to do a draft, now adays that might not be possible. So we'd have to see how many native Chinese (Mandarin or Cantoneese?), or Iranian(Farsi) speakers are in the U.S. Armed forces.

I mean the other thing that can be done is train Americans in a foreign language. It's not exactly impossible for people to learn other languages. In fact, that's something the military should have done much more of for Afghanistan anyway. Not having sufficient in-house ability to translate is part of what allowed so much corruption to fester.

IIRC the armed services trained like 20,000 people in Japanese (which is a notoriously difficult language to learn) for WW2. For Afghanistan, IIRC the number trained in Dari was IIRC sub 100 and the number trained in Pashto not much better. And remember that although the scales of the conflict was different, that's numbers trained in Japanese primarily for an invasion that ultimately never even happened vs numbers trained in Dari over 20 years of occupation.

Additionally, it's not like the US government didn't relocate any translators to onto our land - IIRC roughly 100,000 non-American citizen afghanis were evacuated by the US government. And in a lot of the places that are anywhere near making sense for American forces to be, English is more common than it is in Afghanistan.

 

[ShieldWife]

I don’t want any more of these ridiculous wars. We are driving our nation into bankruptcy with them, selling our children into debt slavery to make tycoons richer and kill millions of innocent people. If we can’t find collaborators, then that’s good, maybe making war harder will make it less likely.

We certainly don’t need any Afghanis coming to the USA. Before long they’ll be just one more Democrat demographic demanding affirmative action, complaining about white privilege, and raping dirty whores who don’t wear burkas.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

@ShieldWife

Let's be perfectly clear. It's not our military/defense spending that's sinking us fiscally. It's the domestic spending to buy votes and pad wallets that's enslaving our future generations.