Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "NATO weighs in on Taliban gains as western nations speed up evacuations | DW News" video.

  1.  @DMeat0902  For the past 10 years, China has held mining concession and oil and gas exploitation rights in Afghanistan. It has achieved very little. Why would that change for the better now? The Taliban can't provide the necessary security any more than the US-backed government.
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  2. I find it troubling that despite the Afghanistan debacle, a learning of which is that foreign interventions rarely lead to a satisfactory result, you still think that a US president should solve the problem.
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  3.  @lostinmuzak  The distinction there is that the US, or any other foreign power for that matter, is not welcome in Afghanistan. Afghanistan makes a very poor strategic partner to anyone. Despite massive US support, the Afghan government couldn't control its own territory and I don't need a crystal ball to predict that the Taliban can't either. Afghanistan will remain in a state of internal conflict for the foreseeable future -- a failed state if there ever was one. China, as a government-appointed concession-holder, has had 10 years to exploit Afghanistan's mineral wealth, but in all that time it has achieved disturbingly little. Do you think that is going to chance now that the security situation has changed dramatically for the worse? The Taliban are a ragtag bunch of insurgents. When they're back in power, their adversaries can apply the same insurgency tactics to render any grand BRI schemes impossible. China could send over troops to provide security, but the cost would negate the profits. Pakistan deserve Afghanistan. They can govern it like their tribal areas -- in name only.
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  4. Speak for yourself. NATO went in because the US invoked Article 5. NATO-led ISAF, which had the UN's full blessing, didn't oust the Taliban from power since they were gone already. ISAF's mission was to provide security and to rebuild the country. As it happened, peacekeeping made way for increasingly challenging peace enforcement, with little opportunity to rebuild. That clearly tempered enthusiasm among the participants, the bulk of whom had signed up for peacekeeping only. In the end, most participating nations had already bowed out or only maintained a token presence. If someone's suffering from a saviour complex, it's the US and UK. The Iraq War is another good example. "Old Europe" NATO members simply refused to get involved.
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  5. That would be ideal, but what we'll see instead is Afganistan being ruled by a crazed theocratic faction. Once in power, The Taliban will never bother with a popular mandate of any kind.
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  6. To the US, I hope.
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  7.  Pat Limz  Actually, Massoud's Northern Alliance fought the Taliban ever since the Taliban first came to power. They were also instrumental in removing the Taliban from power, practically backed only by US airpower and relatively few US and British special forces. It remains to be seen in the Northern Alliance makes a comeback in some shape or form. It's also entirely possible that the Taliban itself will fragment into factions that will fight one another.
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  8.  @coke2679  Apples and oranges. The Germans could teach the Americans how to do democracy.
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  9. What are you on about? We have the governments we voted for. It seems the whole concept of democracy is lost on you.
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  10. You need an attitude adjustment. Team America is not the World Police, and you'll never be recognised as such.
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