Billions Spent on Afghan Army Ultimately Benefited Taliban
August 16th, 2021Flashback 2009: ‘Absurd’ Conspiracy Theories Prevalent in Afghanistan
And now, here’s an actual AP headline from today, “Billions Spent on Afghan Army Ultimately Benefited Taliban.”
The Afghanistan operation was primarily about shoveling trillions of dollars into the gaping maw of the U.S. military industrial complex and getting kilotons of opium out the other end.
Another curiosity: Priceless mineral deposits have been kept in the ground by all of the chaos. I still don’t understand how this fits into the picture, but oil companies definitely benefited from the slow adoption of electric vehicles. What would EV batteries cost now if Afghan rare earths had been in play over the last decade?
Well, what we got instead was the U.S. sending trillions of dollars to the usual suspects, and a U.S. armed flip flop army that now presides over skyrocketing opium production and priceless, but untapped, mineral reserves.
You couldn’t make it up if you tried.
I consider the potential for pipelines to be mostly noise. As for the 9/11 component of the narrative, it’s like the American Dream. As George Carlin said, “You have to be asleep to believe it.”
Via: AP:
Built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also U.S.-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters and more.
The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centers. Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend.
A U.S. defense official on Monday confirmed the Taliban’s sudden accumulation of U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment is enormous. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The reversal is an embarrassing consequence of misjudging the viability of Afghan government forces — by the U.S. military as well as intelligence agencies — which in some cases chose to surrender their vehicles and weapons rather than fight.
Apache Helicopters Chase Afghans Swarming A C-17 On Kabul Airport’s Runway
August 16th, 2021Via: The War Zone:
Any security perimeter or containment measures aimed at keeping U.S. aircraft and personnel safe at Kabul International appear to have failed. As thousands of Afghans flocked to the airport in a desperate attempt to escape the Taliban, they have now taken to the runway, in effect shutting down the evacuation operation.
Video coming out of Kabul via Sowaibah Henifie shows huge crowds of Afghans swarming a C-17 that is taxiing while an Apache gunship flying just feet above the ground tries to push them away from the moving airlifter.
Taliban Says Afghanistan War Over as President Flees
August 15th, 2021Those guys sure seem to like their new U.S.-provided rifles. I’ve indicated U.S. weapons with green arrows.
Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Zabi Karimi)
Nice ACOG too:
The Scope That Changed Everything
There’s a reason the Trijicon ACOG® (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) is the official medium-distance engagement optic of the Marine Corps and U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Fascinating.
This may become the most infamous — and devastating — press conference ever held by an American President. pic.twitter.com/j4kKwyPDVm
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) August 15, 2021
Via: Al Jazeera:
The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over after its fighters swept into the capital, Kabul, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
Related: A New Narco-State Is Blossoming in Afghanistan Under the Taliban
Taliban Enter Afghan Capital, U.S. Evacuates Diplomats by Chopper
August 15th, 2021Biden, last month: "The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy of the United States from Afghanistan." https://t.co/cMx5e2xjtn
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) August 15, 2021
Via: Reuters:
Taliban insurgents entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul on Sunday, an interior ministry official said, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.
The senior official told Reuters the Taliban were coming in “from all sides” but gave no further details.
Kids Game
August 14th, 2021Via: PBS:
Latest from Dr. Michael Yeadon [???]
August 13th, 2021Update: Dr. Mike Yeadon on Telegram
Multiple people told me to look for updates from Dr. Yeadon on Telegram: t.me/robinmg
—
Does anyone know where Dr. Mike Yeadon is posting updates/information? Blog, social media, etc?
In case you have not seen this Mike Yeadon podcast.https://t.co/mZemgYvyFM
— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) August 13, 2021
Vaccine Passports for Interstate Travel? “Too Polarizing for the Moment”
August 13th, 2021Via: AP:
Still, while more severe measures — such as mandating vaccines for interstate travel or changing how the federal government reimburses treatment for those who are unvaccinated and become ill with COVID-19 — have been discussed, the administration worried that they would be too polarizing for the moment.
That’s not to say they won’t be implemented in the future, as public opinion continues to shift toward requiring vaccinations as a means to restore normalcy.
20 Years Of War In Afghanistan Has Cost US Taxpayers Over $2.2 Trillion
August 13th, 2021Mission accomplished.
Via: ZeroHedge:
Just a reminder that as the D.C. think tank pundit class of chicken-hawk keyboard warriors and armchair interventionistas who helped get the US into this unnecessary ‘forever war’ in the first place writhe in frustration and pain while beholding from afar the American Empire in rapid retreat in Afghanistan, the US has wasted literally trillions over years propping up a government that now appears to barely be putting up a fight.
“From its start in 2001 through April 2021, the war in Afghanistan has cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $2.261 trillion, according to estimates earlier this year from the Costs of War Project at Brown University,” Fox News reviews of the disturbingly high figures. All that as the US public now sits back and witnesses US-trained Afghan forces retreat “without a bullet being fired”…
And further as a number of veterans and independent analysts are now pointing out: “The Pentagon spent $88 billion dollars training the Afghan Army for 20 years It collapsed in 1 month.” It remains that “Not one general or politician will face consequences for this.”
Meanwhile as of Friday morning after the Taliban had already captured about a dozen major cities and provincial capitals in a mere week, spurring emergency evacuation efforts to begin at the US embassy in Kabul (in preparation for the inevitable), the Taliban is now in control of the country’s second largest city of Kandahar, along with Herat – the latter being the third largest.
Danish WHO Chief Says COVID ‘Patient Zero’ Was Likely Wuhan Lab Worker
August 13th, 2021Never forget: Dr. Fauci Backed Controversial Wuhan Lab with Millions of U.S. Dollars for Risky Coronavirus “Gain of Function” Research.
Via: Summit News:
One of the World Health Organization’s leading infectious diseases experts says that the first COVID ‘patient zero’ was “likely” a lab worker at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Peter Embarek, who spearheaded a WHO team sent to investigate the lab earlier this year, told Danish television that the likely source of the pandemic was someone infected by a bat during fieldwork or at one of the laboratories in Wuhan.
“This is where the virus jumps directly from a bat to a human,” reports Denmark’s TV 2 News. “In that case, it would then be a laboratory worker instead of a random villager or other person who has regular contact with bats. So it is actually in the probable category.”
The report notes that the type of bat involved in passing on the infection, the horse shoe bat, was only present inside the Wuhan lab and does not live naturally in the general Wuhan area.
“An employee who was infected in the field by taking samples falls under one of the probable hypotheses,” said Embarek.
Embarek’s new assessment contradicts the results of the WHO investigation, which originally asserted that the lab leak origin was “extremely unlikely.”
“Herd Immunity Is Not A Possibility”: Dr. Malone Vindicated After Oxford Prof Warns Over New Variants
August 13th, 2021Via: ZeroHedge:
But earlier this week, Dr. Malone saw his views subtly vindicated by an unexpected source: a British scientist and academic named Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, who is the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. During a briefing, Sir Pollard warned Parliament that the UK likely won’t ever achieve herd immunity, thanks to the delta variant.
In remarks that risked undermining the government’s vaccination campaign, Sir Pollard, a professor of pediatric infection and immunity, warned Parliament on Tuesday that achieving herd immunity is likely “not a possibility” thanks to variants like delta. Recently, a group of scientists estimated that the threshold for herd immunity might now be as high as 90% due to the delta variant. According to Pollard, we’re learning for the first time that herd immunity is magical thinking – and has always been magical thinking.
Since those who are vaccinated can still be infected by variants, “there is virtually nothing the UK can do” to eradicate COVID completely.
