Afghanistan

[TopBadger]

Even the good Tories are c.nts, because all Tories are c.nts. QED.

[tom p]

I'm no expert, but a warzone seems like roughly the worst possible place to live inside something extremely flammable.

And it's not like the US military struggles for cash - they just don't give a sh.t about their allies (as we learned in the withdrawal from Syria too, of course).

But the contractors make more profit if they military money and do the bare minimum to get paid for it. The military on the ground who check the work often aren't in a position to deny payment or demand rework.

Such is government contracting...

Only if the contract is badly written so as not to have clear quality standards and lines of accountability for quality acceptance.
I'm perfectly willing to believe that such basic things are missing (?by design) in US government contracts, given what a shitshow the USA is

[Gfamily]

sh.t.
The young man who had been staying in our place in France while applying for asylum status has heard that his village outside Kabul has been taken by the Taliban and he can't contact his mother and sister.

He's currently away in Paris, so has nobody with him who he knows, so he's really upset.
On the other hand, he can't really have his application refused again now. Surely not.

Thankfully he's not relying on Priti Patel's humanity.

We've just heard that his appeal has been accepted, and he's been granted refugee status. Given that the initial rejection was due to 'his village being under US military protection' it clearly wasn't possible to continue to deny him asylum.

[Fishnut]

sh.t.
The young man who had been staying in our place in France while applying for asylum status has heard that his village outside Kabul has been taken by the Taliban and he can't contact his mother and sister.

He's currently away in Paris, so has nobody with him who he knows, so he's really upset.
On the other hand, he can't really have his application refused again now. Surely not.

Thankfully he's not relying on Priti Patel's humanity.

We've just heard that his appeal has been accepted, and he's been granted refugee status. Given that the initial rejection was due to 'his village being under US military protection' it clearly wasn't possible to continue to deny him asylum.

Thank f.ck for that. Any word from his family?

[Vertigowooyay]

Out of all the things that could/should have turned the population against Johnson, it might be the non-partisan British attitude to animals that might seriously damage him.

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 81600?s=21

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 23786?s=21

An Afghan animal charity run by an ex-Marine which earlier this week seemingly had permission to get 68 staff plus hundreds of animal out of Afghanistan seems to have been scuppered by one of Ben Wallace’s SPADs.

[Gfamily]

sh.t.
The young man who had been staying in our place in France while applying for asylum status has heard that his village outside Kabul has been taken by the Taliban and he can't contact his mother and sister.

He's currently away in Paris, so has nobody with him who he knows, so he's really upset.
On the other hand, he can't really have his application refused again now. Surely not.

Thankfully he's not relying on Priti Patel's humanity.

We've just heard that his appeal has been accepted, and he's been granted refugee status. Given that the initial rejection was due to 'his village being under US military protection' it clearly wasn't possible to continue to deny him asylum.

Thank f.ck for that. Any word from his family?

He has heard from them, and although they are not in any immediate danger, they are at risk and their options are very limited.

[Woodchopper]

For me the really interesting thing about "who was behind 9/11?" is why the US government is still, 20 years later, covering up the extent of Saudi Arabian involvement
https://apnews.com/article/sept-11-saud ... 25bab79bb4

I just read this personal account of 11 September by an official who was involved in policy-making:

Once we were evacuated, we were not allowed back in the compound to get our cars, so I walked home to Alexandria past the burning Pentagon. At home I was called by a very anxious Prince Bandar, who was being bombarded with questions from Riyadh. I told him that we had confirmed almost immediately that al-Qaida was responsible and that a majority of the hijackers were Saudis.

The next day, back in the office, we began planning the invasion of Afghanistan.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-fr ... ite-house/

I get the logic for attacking Afghanistan. That’s where Al Qaida was based at the time. But it’s always been striking that they did nothing obvious to Saudi Arabia.

[Fishnut]

We've just heard that his appeal has been accepted, and he's been granted refugee status. Given that the initial rejection was due to 'his village being under US military protection' it clearly wasn't possible to continue to deny him asylum.

Thank f.ck for that. Any word from his family?

He has heard from them, and although they are not in any immediate danger, they are at risk and their options are very limited.

Hearing from them is good - hopefully that will give some small amount of peace of mind. At risk and limited options is really not good, and unfortunately sums up the situation for large numbers of Afghans right now.

[Bird on a Fire]

For me the really interesting thing about "who was behind 9/11?" is why the US government is still, 20 years later, covering up the extent of Saudi Arabian involvement
https://apnews.com/article/sept-11-saud ... 25bab79bb4

I just read this personal account of 11 September by an official who was involved in policy-making:

Once we were evacuated, we were not allowed back in the compound to get our cars, so I walked home to Alexandria past the burning Pentagon. At home I was called by a very anxious Prince Bandar, who was being bombarded with questions from Riyadh. I told him that we had confirmed almost immediately that al-Qaida was responsible and that a majority of the hijackers were Saudis.

The next day, back in the office, we began planning the invasion of Afghanistan.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-fr ... ite-house/

I get the logic for attacking Afghanistan. That’s where Al Qaida was based at the time. But it’s always been striking that they did nothing obvious to Saudi Arabia.

It's super "interesting". I'm not a truther at all - it's very clear that 9/11 was a terrorist attack by Al Qaida. But it also seems pretty clear that the US government is covering up the extent of Saudi involvement, for some reason, and given the salience of 9/11 in the last 20 years of geopolitics it seems like we ought to know what.

[sTeamTraen]

A few years ago I volunteered in a food bank in France. One man came in a couple of times with the mother of all backpacks, rather than the usual wheely shopping bag. As I talked to him to ask what he wanted or didn't want, he occasionally slipped into English. I found out he had been an interpreter for French NATO forces in Afghanistan (interpreting local languages to English, not French; I occasionally wonder it they had someone else to handle the last bit if necessary), and had been allowed into France but only with refugee status, so he wasn't allowed to work. The backpack was French special forces issue, a quality bit of kit.

Anyway, just to say that we must ensure that these people have a chance to work and actually rebuild their lives. This guy could have taught English in a high school but he was getting food handouts. Merely getting people out of range of the Taliban is not enough.

[dyqik]

Even the good Tories are c.nts, because all Tories are c.nts. QED.

But some are f.cking c.nty c.nts about really important things, and some are only f.cking c.nty c.nts about less important things.

They still remain c.nts about most important things though.

[sTeamTraen]

Out of all the things that could/should have turned the population against Johnson, it might be the non-partisan British attitude to animals that might seriously damage him.

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 81600?s=21

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 23786?s=21

An Afghan animal charity run by an ex-Marine which earlier this week seemingly had permission to get 68 staff plus hundreds of animal out of Afghanistan seems to have been scuppered by one of Ben Wallace’s SPADs.

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

[Sciolus]

Nope. It's a massive distraction in a situation where resources are totally overwhelmed. Even the publicity-hunting is actively harmful to actual people in actual danger.

[dyqik]

Over here, there's a kerfuffle about two congressmen who flew to Kabul over the weekend and returned on US military evacuation flights, to "inspect" the evacuation effort.

The local congressman claims that their flight out of Kabul was mostly empty, and that they weren't preventing anyone else for coming out. So the dogs may not have been taking flights from people (of course it takes resources to get them to the airport and on the flights).

Of course, there'd have been a massive propaganda coup for the Taliban if they'd captured sitting US congressmen outside the airport.

[Vertigowooyay]

Out of all the things that could/should have turned the population against Johnson, it might be the non-partisan British attitude to animals that might seriously damage him.

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 81600?s=21

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 23786?s=21

An Afghan animal charity run by an ex-Marine which earlier this week seemingly had permission to get 68 staff plus hundreds of animal out of Afghanistan seems to have been scuppered by one of Ben Wallace’s SPADs.

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

That was sort of my point - the volume of calls/emails etc that MP's are getting about this issue seem to be far outweighing any calls/emails about threat to human life, either Afghan or British operatives. Its the British attitude to pets that could cause Johnson the most damage.

[shpalman]

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being supply KFC with chicken? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

Although, "everything tastes like chicken" right?

[dyqik]

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being supply KFC with chicken? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

Although, "everything tastes like chicken" right?

Except KFC chicken.

[JQH]

Out of all the things that could/should have turned the population against Johnson, it might be the non-partisan British attitude to animals that might seriously damage him.

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 81600?s=21

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 23786?s=21

An Afghan animal charity run by an ex-Marine which earlier this week seemingly had permission to get 68 staff plus hundreds of animal out of Afghanistan seems to have been scuppered by one of Ben Wallace’s SPADs.

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

People are saying it on FaceBook. Including a former member of this parish.

[Opti]

The scenes at Kabul airport are utterly horrifying.
So no surprise there.
A literal clusterf.ck.

[shpalman]

Callers to emergency Afghanistan helpline redirected to washing machine repair company in Coventry

[jdc]

Out of all the things that could/should have turned the population against Johnson, it might be the non-partisan British attitude to animals that might seriously damage him.

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 81600?s=21

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 23786?s=21

An Afghan animal charity run by an ex-Marine which earlier this week seemingly had permission to get 68 staff plus hundreds of animal out of Afghanistan seems to have been scuppered by one of Ben Wallace’s SPADs.

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

Ricky Gervais has been politely disagreeing with those complaining about Pen Farthing's attempts to rescue animals & staff: https://twitter.com/PenFarthing/status/ ... 9021290522

[Woodchopper]

Dozens of California students and parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip to the country.

More than 20 students and 16 parents from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon, Calif., visited Afghanistan on summer vacation. Now they are among thousands of people who are waiting to leave the country amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal that has caused political unrest across the nation, according to the Los Angeles Times.

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... s-stranded


Words fail me.

[jimbob]

Out of all the things that could/should have turned the population against Johnson, it might be the non-partisan British attitude to animals that might seriously damage him.

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 81600?s=21

https://twitter.com/penfarthing/status/ ... 23786?s=21

An Afghan animal charity run by an ex-Marine which earlier this week seemingly had permission to get 68 staff plus hundreds of animal out of Afghanistan seems to have been scuppered by one of Ben Wallace’s SPADs.

Am I the only person who would not evacuate a single dog or cat, or 10,000 of each, or provide the necessary armed escort to get them to the airport, if it takes up space or relevant resources that could be used to evacuate one human being? #ThingsYouCantSayOnFacebook

No, it's obscene.

But the one that my girlfriend found was really telling, was the person saying animals were important and #AllLivesMatter which really highlights the racism

[Brightonian]

UK accidentally left details of interpreters for Taliban to find after shredding operation failed, Times reports

US deliberately handed over details of interpreters to Taliban at airport to help them secure access but still revealing identity, Politico reports

[plodder]

Have a poem

https://allpoetry.com/Homage-To-A-Government