re: Taliban has taken Kabul. Terrorist attack at Airport at least 12 marines confirmed killed

Love how passionate Colbert is when Republicans frick something up but when Democrats frick something up he’s too busy dancing with a senile idiot.

Taliban is not one unified group but rather a collection of warlords fighting under a common banner. They had a common purpose, driving us out but as soon as we live that’s gone.

Shooting down a plane would be huge disaster for them, but one warlord may still have an axe to grind etc. God only knows how many rocket launchers are lying around.

Wtf are any Americans still doing there btw. I feel for our Afghan friends who have been trying to get out for months but hitting the DMV like bureaucracy bullshite, but Americans still there????WTF

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Love how passionate Colbert is when Republicans frick something up but when Democrats frick something up he’s too busy dancing with a senile idiot.

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I think I actually figured out what I was doing that makes gifs small. Let's see if it works.

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It’s possible the taliban force in each of the cities in only a token force at best. They have an army 50k strong? That’s not a lot of boots/sandals to occupy a country. They may be rolling more folks in to Kabul preparing for something.

It’s also possible someone might fancy themselves a warlord in one of these remote areas and they are getting froggy.

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Saleh, the former VP of Afghanistan and now the self-proclaimed President since Ghani skipped town, is organizing resistance in the North. They are gathering troops, some locals and some ANA troops that didn't desert. They have taken several villages/towns and are on approach to Bagram.

There probably aren't huge numbers of Taliban troops in those areas, and the locals are doing the same thing they did when the Taliban rolled through, just shrugging their shoulders and going with it.

In the North it’s easy for Iranians to supply and resupply the fighters. That’s were the resistance to Taliban started 20 years ago too.

Afghanistan is really ungovernable. It’s a country of contradictions. For example do you think the ultra religious Taliban is really going to crack down on all the poppy farms? That will soon be their only source of real income

Bookmarked. Thank you.

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I’ve been posting here for 15 years and have absolutely no idea how to post a .gif

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Gotta include the filename.gif in the url.

I've always thought that Colbert was the biggest fig that I've ever seen, but he's one of the only ones not wearing a mask in that GIF.

I also just saw that there is an American journalist in Myanmar that has been detained for 80+ day. It's "randomly" trending on twitter.

Any chance that Kamala will try to get him out for some brownie points while she is in SE Asia?

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Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the UN’s World Food Programme’s country director for Afghanistan, told the Observer that swift coordinated action was critical. “Otherwise, an already horrendous situation is just going to become an absolute catastrophe, a complete humanitarian disaster,” she said. “We need to get supplies into the country, not only in terms of food, but the medical supplies, the shelter supplies. We need money and we need it now.

“Delay for the next six or seven weeks and it’s going to start becoming too late. People have nothing. We have to get food in now and get it to the communities in the provinces, before roads are blocked by snow.”

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One of the Taliban’s top leaders, co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Kabul for talks with Afghan political leaders including the former President Hamid Karzai, moving the group closer to forming a government, a week after their almost bloodless capture of Kabul.

While some Taliban leaders have promised an inclusive government, and kept figures like the health minister and Kabul mayor in office, one senior figure has ruled out any form of democracy. The meetings come amid continuing chaos and bloodshed at Kabul airport. Many people with links to foreign forces and western organisations do not trust the Taliban’s promises of amnesty.

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The troubled evacuation effort was complicated further yesterday when the US embassy warned its citizens to stay away from the airport gates because of security threats. US officials said the most serious risk was an attack by the regional Isis affiliate, the New York Times reported.

On Sunday, witnesses told Reuters that the Taliban had imposed some order around Kabul airport, making sure people formed orderly queues outside the main gates and not allowing crowds to gather at the perimeter. There was no violence or confusion at the airport as dawn broke on Sunday, said the witnesses. Although it was early, there were long lines forming.

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