Since President Biden is breaking the US-Taliban peace deal by pushing back the May 1st withdrawal deadline to September 11th, the Taliban said it is ready to attack US troops again and turn the final months of Washington’s almost twenty-year-old war into a “nightmare.”
Mullah Salih Khan, a Taliban commander in the Helmand Province, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that the group is prepared to strike “very much prepared to strike” US and Afghan government forces, warning that the Taliban will turn Afghanistan “into a nightmare” for them.
Mullah Mujahid Rahman, a Taliban subcommander from the Ghazni province, also said the group was ready to fight the US. He said the US has “proven they can’t be trusted after retreating from the May 1st deadline” and that the Taliban is willing to “fight till the end” of the US occupation. “We have the pride of defeating about 100,000 invaders from [different] countries in Afghanistan. A few thousand won’t be a problem at all,” he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid delivered a warning via Twitter on Wednesday. “If the agreement is breached and foreign forces fail to exit our country on the specified date, problems will certainly be compounded and those whom failed to comply with the agreement will be held liable,” he said.
Since the US-Taliban deal was signed in Doha in February 2020, no US troops have died in combat in Afghanistan. Leading up to President Biden’s decision on Afghanistan, the Taliban has been clear that they will again target US troops if they remain in the country beyond May 1st.
Formally announcing his plan on Wednesday, President Biden tried to frame his new timeline as being compliant with the deal. But instead of leaving Afghanistan by May 1st, Biden is starting the withdrawal process on that date with the goal of completing it before September 11th.
New boss want to put his senseless fingerprint on the plans of the old boss. Disconnected from any reality but the Taliban might live and die by the words, promises, faith. Old school? Or maybe they just make noise to save face, to sound like their deadlines cannot be moved like it’s worth nothing? For them after all, the US leaving is a great victory whichever month the last one leaves.
Afghans put great cultural store by their code of honour, and breaking a treaty promise is a major evil in that code of honour. Besides, what is the guarantee that, having broken their word once, the Imperialist States will not do so again?
Yes. There is an interesting movie with Mark Wahlberg, Lone Survivor, that dealt with the Pashtun code of honor, where the villagers protected a Navy Seal from the Taliban.
The code of honour includes hospitality. You must protect your guest.
And if the Taliban attacks the Amerikastani occupation war criminals, that will be taken as a pretext to stop the “withdrawal” completely.
What kind of “withdrawal” takes 4½ months to remove 2500 troops? It is absurd on the face of it.
Besides, what’s the guarantee that Bidet will even be in office in September? Harris may easily repudiate anything he said without a moment’s hesitation, just like Bidet did Trump.
Yes, it’s all subterfuge, to ease out of the notion of “withdrawal” altogether. They need that ground against Iran-China-Russia. Probably they thought they could eventually use the “Petreus tactic” (bribe them); but, have failed. So they’ll continue statusquo or surge per need until such time as Iran-China-Russia accept their fate.
Three or four C-7s could do the job in one day. Perhaps a week to get the mechanized stuff out.
Your last sentence brought a laugh. Didn’t Drumpf immediately repudiate everything that had to do with the Obama administration, including shutting down the pandemic unit and discarding the plan of action left by the Obama administration, the JCPOA, the Start Treaty?
Oh Gee, what fun for ‘Exceptional” America, Getting to break treaties, ignore commitments and thumbing it’s nose at all the not so exceptional! Or will it turn into a “Siagon all over again Nightmare” which the Taliban seem to be prepared to provide a “wake up Call for sleepy Uncle Joe & America Alà Vietnam!!!!
At least we were not in Vietnam 20 years.
We were. We were there with the French. Air America went back further than the Marines landing.
Brilliant strategy:
break your agreement,
then tell your enemy exactly what you are plan to do (stay till Sept),
baiting them to attack you,
so you can then “justify” renewed hostilities.
My thoughts exactly. Thank you.
The Taliban do not want the United States to leave. Because they know if the United States leaves, they will have to fight another 40 year insurgency to deal with China. Better to deal with the pain in the butt called US special forces then another 40 year war with the Chinese, which the Afgans will win, but they would rather not have to fight another 40 years if they don’t need to. The special forces will stay safely in their fobs and be a Chinese trip wife while the Taliban have de facto control over Afghanistan. What they really want to destroy is Pakistan, which they will have no problems doing. Or at least try to incorporate the Pushtun areas of Pakistan and erase the Durand line…That would be harder than it appears because despite the people’s ignorance there are many Pushtun tribes that hate the Taliban.
It is not fair to say that the United States lost Afghanistan because they never fought to win in Afghanistan. It’s just served as a function of the military industrial complex a cash cow with Teets that spurted out blood. But it appears that Biden is creating a new opportunity for the military industrial complex, called a war in Donbass, Ukraine, a conflict that could easily destroy the planet. Other than that it serves no real purpose for the United States, A completely useless and unnecessary conflict. It is possible that our friend Mr. Biden may choose to replace US forces in Afghanistan with Isis. In any case, ED stabilized Pakistan could just as easily threaten the quality of life on our planet as a warrant Donbass could with hundreds of nuclear weapons floating around a fairly large population sized failed state. Brian Ghilliotti
China…Huh? What are you talking about? I’m quite sure that China has no interest in invading Afghanistan.
Maybe Biden can march Colin up to the UN again and this tiime with a glass bottle of Taliban yellow flour. Should be no problem since they have no honor and no integrity.
Just re-read your post. I cannot stop laughing. Your first sentence is right on the money……………