I am just gutted by what is happening in Afghanistan. If you haven’t been keeping up, Afghan government forces have continued to flee and surrender (and even switch sides). Three additonal major cities have fallen (Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah), which brings the total to more than a dozen that have fallen.
As one expert on the country, who has 18 years as a military operations analyst, put it:
At this point, the Afghan troops have shown little heart for resisting, and it’s been frustrating watching the videos of it happening online. (Taliban fighters running through streets with absolutely no training; Afghan government convoys driving out of cities at high speed.)
President Joe Biden has held fast in not changing his course to leave the country for good.
“Look,” Biden told reporters at the White House, “we spent over a trillion dollars over 20 years. We trained and equipped, with modern equipment, over 300,000 Afghan forces. And Afghan leaders have to come together.”
Because of how fast things have collapsed, we are currently sending some troops in to withdraw additional Embassy personnel in Kabul, but that is a short-term deployment merely to withdraw the Americans staffing the building. (Minus a core staff who will stay longer.)
I think part of what frustrates me the most is best summed up below.
In other matters, I thought I’d share a pretty fascinating glimpse inside the secret Russian soldiers, who operate around the world (mostly in the shadows). These soldiers operate in places like Syria, Libya, and other parts of the world, and the BBC story will really open your eyes to this tool that Russia increasingly uses.
Finally, this hasn’t made the news of late, but Yemen is a country that continues to spiral downward. For a good overview of that situation, see below.
That’s it for this post. Please share this post if you enjoyed it.
And if you haven’t already, please subscribe for email notifications. (It’s FREE. Unless you choose to subscribe and support what I’m doing. You can cancel at any time.) Every Tuesday and Friday, I write about conflicts and military matters that are happening throughout the world. Such as what’s happening in Afghanistan or Iraq. How we’re aligning ourselves to counter China’s growing influence. Updates on new military technology that we’re fielding.
I also post veteran interviews on Sundays.
And I do all of this from a moderate perspective that focuses on unity in our country. I also don’t believe in clickbait, over-the-top headlines, or other tactics to drive web traffic. You will always get the sober, mature view, with a slight bit of my optimism peering through.
Feel free to leave a comment below. I love having conversations on here! (Please be kind in the comments. I’m a proud moderate, who wants to unite the country. So if you attack someone or say something out of line, I will delete your comment.)
Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please consider becoming a paying subscriber. It’s only $5 per month and you can cancel at any time. Another way to help support the channel is to share or tell a friend about it. Finally, don’t forget to check out my books. I write really fast-paced military and mystery thrillers. I’ve had thousands of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and all of my books average 4+ stars on Amazon. You can find all ten books here: amazon.com.
The world is too crazy for me, Stan. It's good to have people like you following things so I can take in what I can. You're doing a good job.