Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Mon 05/31/2021 View Sun 05/30/2021 View Sat 05/29/2021 View Fri 05/28/2021 View Thu 05/27/2021 View Wed 05/26/2021 View Tue 05/25/2021
1
2021-05-31 Afghanistan
Pentagon 2022 Budget Request for ANDSF $3.3 Billion, Up 9.2%
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by trailing wife 2021-05-31 00:00|| || Front Page|| [6 views ]  Top

#1 the United States would still support Afghanistan through financial means

$3.3 billion for the 2022 fiscal year budget in operational support to sustain the Afghan security forces,

Who are doing such a fine job with all those numbers [even their ghost personnel]. But they need your money to keep doing it. Yes, yes! The need for $$$ is all that's holding them from utterly annihilating terrorism from their 'stan. Like the other 'stan next door, all they need is the moolah 'financial support'. A few billion [annually] can end this evil forever and usher in democracy. Wouldn't you like that? Oh, when will that moolah support arrive?

Because if it doesn't, a school full of girls might pay for your reluctance.
Posted by Dron66046 2021-05-31 01:10||   2021-05-31 01:10|| Front Page Top

#2 the United States would still support Afghanistan South Vietnam through financial means.

I saw this movie! Ends badly.
Posted by CrazyFool 2021-05-31 01:29||   2021-05-31 01:29|| Front Page Top

#3 I saw this movie! Ends badly.

The Democrats cut off funding in 3 years and then helicopters on the embassy roof.
Posted by Flaising Omeling6076 2021-05-31 08:19||   2021-05-31 08:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Russia will form 20 new military units close to border with Europe 'in response to growing threat from NATO'
Posted by Skidmark 2021-05-31 12:16||   2021-05-31 12:16|| Front Page Top

#5 The Democrats cut off funding in 3 years and then helicopters on the embassy roof.

Even without the funding, the Afghans might beat the Taliban. After the US withdrawal sometime in 1973, DRV (North Vietnam) got this huge infusion of tanks, fighter-bombers and artillery and both Chinese and Soviet aid. RVN (South Vietnam) got bupkis.

For the Taliban, Pakistan isn't up to filling the role of the Soviets and the Chinese as head moneybags and armorer. Does Xi Jinping want the Taliban in charge? Maybe - if he wants a pretext for conquest and eventual annexation. Afghanistan, a chunk of which might arguably have been part of the Tang Dynasty, would certainly be an easy conquest for any power willing to pacify it using the old rules of war (i.e. the ones used so handily by the Greeks to pacify and rule Persia for centuries).

https://www.timemaps.com/history/china-750ad/

A guerrilla force that isn't subject to large-scale atrocity against its civilian supporters, even as it uses atrocity to cow its opponents in the government can fight on for a long time. But the idea in the media that the Taliban "controls" anything is BS - like saying that the cartels "control" Mexico. The day the cartels try to take over the Federal government in Mexico City, they'll find out who controls what.

And the day US troops pull out, the Afghan government will have a freer hand to match the Taliban atrocity for atrocity. Without Uncle Sam's protection, how many foreign journos will stay on to record on a one-sided basis, government atrocities to match the Taliban's?

Note that there's also a huge difference between the Taliban and the DRV. The DRV never sponsored a mass killing on American soil. In the back of every US politician's mind is - what happens when the Taliban leadership, once again in charge of Afghanistan, tries once again to arrange a one-way ticket to Paradise in collaboration with al Qaeda, but this time with nukes? It's not so much the attack that worries them, but an attack on DC, where Congresscritters and the President live.

Note that 9/11 occurred with no prior notification, leaving los Federales all the way up to the President with no time to huddle in bunkers. What if 9/11 had been an A-bomb attack? Dubya and any part of the Federal government in DC would have been swept away. That's why the aid is likely to continue - simple self-preservation.
Posted by Zhang Fei 2021-05-31 13:46||   2021-05-31 13:46|| Front Page Top

#6 Why are we poking the Bear?

To what end? For whose benefit?

At what cost -- especially the opportunity cost entailed by not devoting our scarce resources and attention to the only really major threat to our security, Communist China
Posted by Thrinemble Black7053 2021-05-31 14:13||   2021-05-31 14:13|| Front Page Top

23:41 Varmint Flusotch7157
22:51 Varmint Flusotch7157
22:45 CrazyFool
22:30 These Forkbeard7574
22:28 Anon1
22:21 These Forkbeard7574
21:31 Shiva Protector of the Hohlraums
20:57 NoMoreBS
20:52 SteveS
20:50 Vernal Hupomosing6282
20:37 Flaising Omeling6076
20:29 CrazyFool
20:23 SteveS
20:23 CrazyFool
20:13 NN2N1
20:02 Betty Glinetch1592
19:55 Count Galeazzo Wittlesbach2888
19:55 Slappy
19:51 SteveS
19:50 magpie
19:49 magpie
19:47 swksvolFF
19:38 SteveS
19:33 SteveS









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com