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Naked Flame

12:30 / 15.11.01

This just in from stratfor: Northern Alliance claims to have taken Kandahar.

Apparently tensions are rising in Kabul: the city is under the control of a single warlord (whose name I didn't get.) Other ethnic groups are re-arming, according to the Beeb, 'in order to have a say in the new government.' Because, as we citizens of democracy know, firepower=votes, doesn't it? </sarcasm>

Please God(dess) stop this before it gets any more fucked up.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

12:33 / 15.11.01

Right now, I wouldn't give a rat's ass for the voting power of anyone not prepared to wave a gun around in that situation.

Or have one waved on their behalf.

Can't really claim that we've re-enforced the 'peaceful action works' meme, can we?

[ 15-11-2001: Message edited by: Nick ]

Jack Fear

12:43 / 15.11.01

Go go Northern Alliance. They're brutal genocidal bastards, but they're OUR brutal genocidal bastards. So it's okay. Right?

Right?

(the rest of this message has been edited out and spun-off into a separate topic in the Switchboard.)

[ 15-11-2001: Message edited by: Jack Fear ]

rizla mission

12:51 / 15.11.01

About a week ago:

People 'in the know' (including the Pakistani PM I think) were interviewed on the news saying stuff like (para-phrasing): "The Taliban are deeply entrenched and still have the support of the people, the Northern Alliance have nowhere near enough power to take over the country, let alone control it" and so on.

And know .. The Taliban have just, well, fucked off?

Does anyone else suspect foul play?

Jack Fear

13:03 / 15.11.01

Nah. I think that's mostly attributable to the great Afghan tradition of switching sides (and selling out your former comrades) when the going gets tough. Very pragmatic people.

That and the fact that the 55th Brigade, the real muscle of the Taliban, owed their primary allegiance in fact to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden (most of them are Arabs and Pakistani nationals, rather than Afghans), and now that he's gone into hiding they've mostly gone with him...

[ 15-11-2001: Message edited by: Jack Fear ]

Naked Flame

13:20 / 15.11.01

quote: Can't really claim that we've re-enforced the 'peaceful action works' meme, can we?

Well, we can reinforce it but as yet nobody since Gandhi has tried it. Doesn't stop me trying.

JF- I can envisage three possibles:
1. The Taliban may be switching to guerilla warfare- historically the only way of beating an enemy with superior firepower, supply and control.
2. Al-Q'aeda have absconded with their best and are even now slipping through the cracks under cover of chaos.
3. They're catasrophically fucked in no uncertain terms and we're about to be consumed by an orgy of US/allied military triumphalism.

as to the changes in the media's perception of the Taleban, anyone remember this one from Bill Hicks circa Gulf War?

'It went from the "Elite Republican Guard", to the "Republican Guard", to "the Republicans made up this shit about there being guards there..."'

The Damned Yankee

00:44 / 16.11.01

So far this is looking as if all America's attacks on Afghanistan actually succeeded in doing was to set the clock back to before the Taliban took power (i.e. big civil war that made pre-gang truce South Central LA look like a walk in the park).

Smooth move, President Fuckwit, sir, and well worth the loss of civil liberties on the home front!

Bastard.

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