For the second time this week, Taliban insurgents attacked and overran an Afghan Army base in the country’s north, this time in Baghlan Province. The offensive lasted about five hours, and left the Taliban in control of the military base and a nearby police checkpoint.
Starting before dawn, Taliban fighters quickly overwhelmed the police checkpoint, killing nine police, then moved on to the army base. They got to the base in Baghlan-e Markazi District and took that as well, killing another 36 troops.
Baghlan Governor Abdul Hai Nemati says that reinforcements have been sent to try to recapture the area. Checkpoints in the area were reportedly set on fire by the Taliban, however, so not everything can be recovered.
Whether reinforcements are being sent beyond the provincial level is unclear, but unlikely. Afghan military reinforcements were sent to Ghazni already, and an even bigger military base was overrun earlier this week in Faryab, with no reinforcements in sight.
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The statements from the Pentagon and MSM have a very Baghdad Bob like quality to them…
Vietnam – Loss
Iraq – Loss
Afghanistan – Loss
Libya – Loss
Syria – Loss
[Insert intervention] – Loss or at best an inconclusive waste of money.
Jesus, I’ve been looking all over the place for you. I was afraid that I had chased you off for good.
I owe you an apology. My reaction to your well intentioned advice was way over the line and I’m sorry. You have to understand that my reaction was not about anger. It wasn’t even about you. It was about trauma. I’m still struggling to come to terms with the emotional abuse I suffered under the Catholic Church as a child. I spent years believing that my gender identity made me a shameful monstrosity that doomed me to eternal hellfire. I grew up terrified of myself and that eventually lead to years of hating myself.
Even though we don’t know each others real names, I’ve come to consider you a friend and an unlikely allie. When you suggested that I return to living a lie, I saw red and I overreacted. Every trans person has tried to be “normal”. It’s a recipe for self-loathing. I couldn’t value myself as a human being until I came out as a genderqueer lesbian. It’s not an easy life but it’s also not a choice and it’s the only way I know how to love myself. I wanted so bad for you to understand this that when you didn’t, I felt attacked. So I attacked back. I’m sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
Regardless of what we think of them, the Taliban are patriots–unlike their Quisling government.
The Vietcong of the Hindu Kush.
Well put!
Headline should have read “Taliban Recover Another Military Base, Killing 45 Occupation Troops.”
There is a larger danger here. The Afghan Army and police are shaky anyway. These repeated disasters of total overrun could easily lead to an effective collapse of those forces. We saw that with important parts of the South Vietnam Army, and all the way back to the utter failure of MacArthur’s Philippine Army in Dec 1941.