Monday 16 August: The Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan shames Britain and America

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/08/15/letters-talibans-resurgence-afghanistan-shames-britain-america/

739 thoughts on “Monday 16 August: The Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan shames Britain and America”

  1. This is manifestly not Saigon’: Blinken defends US mission in Afghanistan. 16 August 2021.

    Blinken’s rejection of any parallels with the iconic image of helicopters evacuating personnel from the US embassy in Saigon in April 1975 at the end of the Vietnam war came as the skies over the Afghan capital were filled with Chinooks and Black Hawks ferrying US embassy staff to a secure location at the international airport. The secretary of state made his remarks with Taliban forces amassing inside the capital, and with their representatives already negotiating a “peaceful transfer” of power at the presidential palace.

    Morning everyone. He at least had the decency to look a self- conscious twerp as he uttered these inanities, though his comments reminded me more of Baghdad where Comical Ali denied the presence of American troops just as an Abram’s tank appeared in the background over his right shoulder.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/15/antony-blinken-us-mission-afghanistan-saigon

          1. Dropped at the bottom of the pile, no doubt.

            Can’t have their great and glorious leader made to look the fool he is.

      1. mng KtK, in case it happens to slip past the noses of MSM – Demented Joe was a Senator during Saigon, senator during Iran, VP during Benghazi, now President during Kabul

        1. Morning, AWK.

          Yes, just this minute picked up that information from the article I nicked the tweet above from. Trump looks to have been correct when he stated that Biden had been in politics for 47 years and achieved NOTHING.
          Are disasters achievements if the they are planned and come to fruition?

          1. pretty much. It’s standard “woke narrative via word pairing “disasters = Achievements” [well it probably is for Mil Ind complex]. Not helped with compliant MSM, who seem to ignore when Trump was President, he’d sent Pompeo to Doha in 2020 to meet Taliban about peaceful handover of power https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/849942085b25aa192e3268563427903209a26665216466374ecf50aaffce35b3.jpg and https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/996feddebc600a0cf01e07dca8d55ce3b571a8fcf472fe4de315d26bec1630b0.png so however MSM want to paint it, as you say Demented Joe and most of his paymasters in what passes for politics have achieved nothing

    3. Biden couldn’t have made a more ham-fisted job of Afghanistan if he had done it on purp…

    1. Morning, Alf.
      According to YouTube, there’s a vast amount of farting to take care of afterwards. Be sure to record it for posteriors posterity.

      1. Second litre of the unblocker this morning. First lot yesterday evening. Craving food but none until this afternoon. Another pint of water at 9 am then only sips

        1. I was about to say “Keep buggering on” – but then thought that would be a bit inappropriate in the circs…!

    2. Bomb doors open then Alf?

      Good luck matey, and ask for max sedation, you won’t know much about it unless you feel obliged to look at the screen (I didn’t).

      When you get home take a look at the Lee Evans sketch on Youtube about his colonoscopy experience…the tears are guaranteed to flow! (For some reason I can’t post the link.)

      Here you go:
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KHi5N2Ohq6w

      1. Thanks Hugh.
        I have one every 5 years following my cancer in 1998. Quite used to them but the clear out is always unpleasant and unpredictable.

        1. “Unpleasant” is perhaps an understatement. I always starve well before the deadline as this much reduces the involuntary downloads.

          1. I had to chase the hospital to get the instructions and preparation. Finally got them by courier at 5pm Friday for procedure today. Appalling state St Peter’s Chertsey is in. Patient care is bottom of the list of priorities. The letter I received on Friday was dated 29 July but never sent to me.

    4. Best wishes and good luck. It doesn’t hurt. Though when he gives you ‘a little puff of air to open up’… a little warning would be appreciated.

      And no. We don’t want you to post the video !

      1. Thank you Phizz. I’ve had many of these but my only concern is having it don at St Peter’s hospital which I don’t trust.

    5. Yo Atg. I hope it went well. When I lived in Seale, the local consensus was that when an ambulance picked you up, you asked them to ‘turn left’ and go to Frimley Park. Now I’m nearer Guildford, I’m prolly going to see more of the Royal Surrey. It failed my Mum (TIA) and a former Rector, but that’s the luck of the draw…

      1. All went very well thanks Geoff.
        In at 1pm out by 3.30 and all clear for another 5 years.

    1. Morning, Peddy.
      Been up a while here. Temps reached a dizzy 11C! Positively tropical!

        2. Argh!
          I woke at 3:30 to pump bilges, then slept like the dead until the alarm radio went silent…

  7. Monday’s woke scoops from the Islington Wine Cellar:

    SIR – That the Taliban have been able to recapture Afghanistan with ease says a great deal about the lack of American and British strategy in managing a staged withdrawal of troops. Just as worrying, however, is how spineless Joe Biden and Boris Johnson have shown themselves to be. Neither is fit to lead.

    Kim Potter
    Lambourn, Berkshire

    SIR – It is utterly heartbreaking to watch the triumph of the Taliban’s misogynistic death cult. It signals an abject failure of Western political leadership, which will be seized upon by China, Russia and Iran.

    It is not, however, a failure on the part of Western military personnel, who did their duty with exemplary courage and endurance. Every serviceman and woman who served there should hold their head high. Their political masters have failed them, and my heart goes out to them.

    Major Nigel Price (retd)
    Wilmslow, Cheshire

    SIR – I served in southern Afghanistan. Prior to deploying, I was briefed that it was a “30-year military commitment”.

    That was 15 years ago.

    Captain Jeremy Stocker (retd)
    Willoughby, Warwickshire

    SIR – The Taliban are winning in Afghanistan because they never went away, and so those who live there never considered them to have been defeated.

    To stop the Taliban would require 500,000 coalition troops, imaginative asymmetric warfare, years of fighting, and the neutering of the safe haven of Pakistan.

    There is simply no political appetite for this. But the West must plan for the consequences. China and Russia are nervous at the latest developments. We should co-operate with them and take immediate, drastic action against the Taliban if they shelter any organisation that goes on to commit acts of terror.

    Squadron Leader Steve Oakley
    Basingstoke, Hampshire

    SIR – Ben Wallace deserves credit for admitting the sunk-cost fallacy of the war in Afghanistan.

    As a direct result of that war, 241,00 people have been killed, including 456 British military personnel and 71,000 civilians.

    No vital interest of the West justified this, or the trillions of dollars spent. It should not have taken so long to realise this.

    Dr John Doherty
    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

    SIR – After the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839 to 1842), second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 to 1880), third Anglo-Afghan War (1919), Soviet-Afghan War (1979 to 1989), Operation Herrick and Operation Enduring Freedom (2001 to 2014) and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (2014 to 2021), the world should surely have learnt one lesson: stay out of Afghanistan.

    Captain John Maioha Stewart
    Breisach am Rhein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Gun law overhaul

    SIR – There is one undeniable fact about the Plymouth massacre: it was only because Jake Davison had access to a weapon that he was able to use it to kill people.

    Either the vetting procedure for gun licensing is improperly carried out or the system itself is not fit for purpose and needs to be swiftly overhauled.

    The public does not want simply to be told that “lessons have been learnt” – because they never are.

    Dr Daphne Pearson
    Monmouth

    SIR – I was astonished to read that over half a million people have firearms licences in Britain.

    It is difficult to think of any valid justification for someone living in an urban area to have a gun, and I doubt that many rural gun owners really need them (as opposed to having one because “everyone
    round here does”).

    Licences should be issued for one year only and no one should be given a licence without demonstrating a genuine need to have a gun. The default position should be to decline an application, and the police must be given a target to get the total down to 50,000 within two years.

    Andrew Dyke
    London N21

    SIR – Before police are given the extra burden of trawling through 500,000 gun licence holders, more basic questions should be asked.

    Apparently, Jake Davison had previously had his guns taken away. Why was this? And why was the decision later reversed? It should have been a red flag. He also was known to have had mental health issues. Was the GP – as should be the normal routine – asked to comment?

    This issue does not require systemic change, just the systematic following of procedure.

    Irving Warnett
    Wakefield, West Yorkshire

    Early cancer diagnosis

    SIR – The NHS says people should seek GPs’ advice on possible early signs of cancer (report, August 14).

    Many of these, however, could be caused by much less serious things – and getting GPs to take them seriously is, in some cases, impossible.

    I have several friends (some of whom have died) who repeatedly contacted their general practice about symptoms. One diagnosis was acid reflux. Another response was: “We’re none of us getting any younger.”

    This must change if we are to get somewhere with our cancer statistics.

    Alison Place
    Hampton, Middlesex

    Warding off wasps

    SIR – I sympathise with G D Copson (Letters, August 13), whose bench is being damaged by wasps.

    For the last six or seven years we have enjoyed wasp-free summers, courtesy of an imitation wasps’ nest, which dissuades them from invading.

    These are available in packs of two on the internet and, while you cannot prove a negative, they do appear to work. I introduced them to our local publican who, after a few days, went out and bought another five packs.

    Simon Cowley
    London SW20

    SIR – Wasps’ nests are indeed a wonder of nature (Letters, August 14).

    Wasps are also very protective of them, as I discovered when I accidentally put a sickle through one while weeding. The wasps will follow you a considerable distance, taking frequent revenge with their stings.

    Alistair Mackay
    Dunoon, Argyllshire

    Too many bishops

    SIR – The Church of England has become top-heavy (Letters, August 13). The Archbishop of Canterbury should clear out unnecessary jobs in diocesan offices and cut the number of bishops to one per diocese. In my father’s day, one bishop was able to tend to full churches and clergy in each parish.

    We could then afford more parish priests, who could be trained to visit their parishioners and have a better chance of filling their churches. What is the point of busy diocesan offices if the churches are empty?

    Robert Pyke
    Stowmarket, Suffolk

    DVLA does the job

    SIR – As with so many organisations in these troubled times, inconsistency seems to be the biggest problem at the DVLA (Letters, August 13).

    Unlike many readers, my wife and I received a good service. We needed to renew our driving licences at the same time, which I did online. That was on August 10. On August 13 both arrived.

    Gerald R Gibson
    Peterborough

    SIR – I have had the same problem as Mary Wiedman’s son, a qualified HGV1 driver waiting for his licence to be renewed (Letters, August 13).

    However, he can still drive both a car and a heavy vehicle under Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. He must be satisfied that he has not had his licence removed, that his doctor has not advised that he is unfit, and that he has submitted his application correctly.

    Derek Crowley
    Coventry, Warwickshire

    Stooks and steeds

    SIR – The letter (August 13) on “the trials of stooking” reminded me of the fun I had jumping them with my pony.

    Veronica Rickards
    Ripon, North Yorkshire

    SIR – As a farmer’s son in 1950s Scotland, I found stooking a required skill. It was a rewarding experience to see one’s stooks stand up to wind. It only became a drudge when the sheaves were wet and heavy.

    The worst job by far was harvesting turnips: constant bending down to grab the shaws and uproot each turnip, then chop the root and shaws off. Often in mid-winter there was ice and snow. A slip with the cropper could be painful. I still have a scar.

    Jim Grant
    London SE22

    A Victorian visionary has his history rewritten

    SIR – The statue of the Victorian inventor Lord Armstrong is going to be relabelled because of his involvement in developing weapons of war. In a similar spirit, perhaps recipients of the Nobel Prize could return their medals and the funds they received.

    Peter Barnwell
    Chonburi, Thailand

    Calculating the hidden costs of heat pumps

    SIR – The cost of installing a heat pump may be £10,000, but then there is the cost of modifying the insulation and heat delivery within the house, which is needed to keep it at a comfortable temperature.

    Your article estimates that this will come to “several hundred pounds”. As I understand it, insulating my walls and either installing many more and much bigger radiators or ripping up the floors to put in underfloor heating will cost tens of thousands.

    Perhaps Alok Sharma could install a heat pump when he upgrades his electricity supply to charge his next (electric) car and tell us how much he had to spend.

    Richard Duncan
    Guildford, Surrey

    SIR – Eleven years ago, before the current net zero hype, I invested in solar panels, comprehensive insulation and a heat pump for my four-bedroom property. The result is a usage of 4,500 kWh per annum. While this may be below average, it is a long way from net zero. Perhaps I need to plant a tree in my garden each time we use the kettle.

    Alan Bolton
    Chepstow, Monmouthshire

    SIR – We were in China on holiday just before the pandemic, flying between cities shrouded in smog, and travelling for part of the time along the Yangtze.

    We saw hundreds of coal barges passing all day, each about 100ft long and so heavily laden that only a sliver of freeboard was visible.

    The number of coal-fired power stations in China is set to increase – and, with the enormous cities spreading across state-owned farmland, demand for electricity can only rise. Britain’s emissions pale into insignificance.

    L F Buckland
    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    1. “… the world should surely have learnt one lesson: stay out of Afghanistan.” Captain John Maioha Stewart in Breisach am Rhein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, points out that the politicians are entirely incapable of learning from history, unlike we Nottlers.
      Good morning, all Y’all!

      1. As Ms Pearson states, lessons are never learned. Which isn’t really true. As lessons are learned – more cover ups, hiding the incompetence, disguising the facts, cheating the tax payer.

        You see, the public think the lessons are going to be those that help them and prevent the chaos in future. This is positively daft to assume. The state has no interest in learning or changing. It just finds new ways to hide it’s incompetence.

    2. No politician since Winston has had any knowledge of, or interest in’ history – least of all, the history of his own country.

    3. I’m very interested in this one:

      SIR – I sympathise with G D Copson (Letters, August 13), whose bench is being damaged by wasps.
      For
      the last six or seven years we have enjoyed wasp-free summers, courtesy of an imitation wasps’ nest, which dissuades them from invading.
      These are available in packs of two on the internet and, while you cannot prove a negative, they do appear to work. I introduced them to our local publican who, after a few days, went out and bought another five packs.
      Simon Cowley
      London SW20
      Do any of you competent gardeners know whether this works with hornets – which are, after all just large wasps? Our French house and garden were invaded by them last year, we have grandchildren around and even I find them quite scary.

    4. It’s interesting, reading comments by folk like Ms Potter. She doesn’t seem to appreciate how our country is governed.

      To blame a politician for a failure is like blaming a typist for a divide by zero error. They might initiate it, but it’s carried out by endless layers of complex mechanics right down to the hardware which executes the instruction.

      We need to stop blaming MPs. Replacing them with someone else is ineffective. The problem is the system. Not the typist.

    5. Perhaps Andrew Dyke should analyse the statistics of black on black shootings before he comes after those who pot the odd rabbit or pheasant (or shoot vermin).

  8. I’m wondering if the great and the good, the academics, the Metropolitan liberal elites, the intellectuals, the MSM, those that bored us senseless for four years with their TDS, are they now prepared to revisit the election steal last November?

    1. mng bob. No, they’ll be busy avoiding finger of blame being pointed at them on anything by those who happen to disagree with them

  9. Good morning, all. Cloudy and very windy – rain in the offing.

    I see there is the predictable overkill about people holding gun licences.

      1. we’ll find out later today with the recall of “Parliament” by Mr Symonds. Not sure how Dominic Raab will fare given he was on “holiday” [no jabs required] while his Afghanistan policy fell in the bin. I anticipate along with, as bill put it, overkill on gun licences etc, everything will revert to type with gum bumping about importance of human rights; foreign aid and allowing refugees to come to the UK

        1. Raab already jumped the gun!

          Dominic Raab
          @DominicRaab
          United Kingdom government official
          · 16h
          Shared my deep concerns about the future for Afghanistan with FM Qureshi. Agreed it is critical that the international community is united in telling the Taliban that the violence must end and human rights must be protected.

          2. was hoping Ben Wallace VC [Victimhood Crime and bar] would at least get to the nub: Mandatory face coverings, restricted education, people scared to leave their homes. But enough of the UK, how are the Taliban doing?

        2. ‘Morning, AWK. It is not difficult to predict that the recall will result in some heat but no light.

  11. Kabul ‘could be overrun within months’ as Taliban pushes closer to Afghanistan’s capital. 11 August 2021.

    The capital of Afghanistan could be cut off by the Taliban within a month and overrun in three, according to a US intelligence assessment, after a string of militant gains dramatically cut the odds of the Afghan government’s survival.

    A Taliban blitz across northern Afghanistan in which nine provincial capitals have fallen has prompted American officials to lower their already bleak predictions.

    What a difference a week makes!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/08/11/kabul-could-fall-within-month-taliban-push-closer-afghanistans/

  12. There is a lot of hypocrisy coming out from the great and the good about Afghanistan and how women and girls will now be treated under the fundamentalist rule for all those making a big fuss say nothing about the same treatment to women from most other countries in the Middle East and some are even prepared to turn a blind eye to it when it happens here in our own country with grooming gangs.

    1. Odd that the feminazis don’t get all aerated about the treatment of their sisters in slammer lands.

        1. There, too. They’ll scream at being wolf-whistled…but say nothing about anything “controversial”…(sarc)

      2. When the response to demanding Wimmin be given a free leg up is being gang raped, stoned and flogged (which is wrong) as opposed to in the UK, where the response is pandering on the BBC and a state machine forcing ‘quotas’ on business to hire women, and forcing pay equality where none is deserved (which is equally wrong) it’s no wonder they stay put in the soft touch.

        After all, making significant change is hard. Much easier to complain and have the state machine do it for you – and hang the consequences for the next generation.

    2. 336825+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      Surely other muslim country’s will be first in line with
      assistance.

      By the by grooming gangs UK get a daily top up via DOVER all under political overseers guidance.

    3. Prepared? They’re eager to. There seems to be this monumental blindspot where demented statists are absolutely desperate to ignore the extent of Pakistani Muslim paedophile rapists, such is almost mechanised in it’s repeated abuses of white girls.

      And the state ignores it, supports it, hides it – all in the name of diwersity. There is no diversity. No multiculturalism. Those who arrive here and adopt our characterists are not multilcultural, they’re British. Those who refuse to integrate are called ‘multicultural’ because of that refusal. They are the danger.

  13. 336825+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Given the political stance of both nations what WAS expected then ?

    The truth is they never went away is so true, they faded into the fabric of society and WAITED.

    The same pattern can be seen worldwide in many cases with the same political type players ( bollockless).

    Seemingly The United Kingdom political overseers are doing their bit by allegedly allowing any wishing to deploy & assist by siding with the Taliban
    to do so, as any UK domestic shortfall can be made up via DOVER.

    Patience & waiting are effectively used tools of the Taliban as is being witnessed and in the case of the United Kingdom via the lab/lib/con, members / supporters coalition will shortly be openly seen.

    Lest we forget there are halal dumplings on the Parliamentary canteen
    menu.

    1. I don’t now why this was voted down because in the majority it’s true. The Taliban didn’t go anywhere. Often they didn’t even hide. They incredible amount of money spent on aircraft – nice as those are – was pointless considering how the Taliban fight in that region – how the whole lot fight. It’s a bunch of tea towel wearers with 1970s era Russian kit in the back of a truck.

      That doesn’t require sophisticated scanning equipment or air superiority, drones or other surveillance tech. It needs boots on the ground to KILL THE ENEMY. You can’t be nice to these creatures. Can’t arrest them. Can’t convert them. You have to kill them.

      1. not aware of anyone on here that ever down votes but who would reply with their perspective / point / opinion. So, whoever it was, please join in and expect an eloquent shredding

        1. Elf saw a downvoter and said it should be banned but it’s tricky to ban one that makes no comments.

          2. Can’t you see who it is?
            Not convinced downvoters should be banned, unless it becomes vindictive.

    2. Vivienne Westwood made her fortune turning princesses into dumplings. Stick a bag with a couple of eyeholes on top of one of her creations, and it’s halal.

  14. School children to have lessons in consent, sexual assault and revenge porn. 16 August 2021.

    Schoolchildren are to be offered lessons in consent in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.

    Campaign group Reclaim These Streets has helped devise teaching materials following the kidnap, rape and murder, saying it was time to “to engage boys and girls in a conversation about consent and respect”.

    Lessons will teach pupils about the the law, sexual assault, “victim blaming”, and revenge porn in a package campaigners claim goes beyond the current school provision, which “is not enough”.

    The process of training children for their role as sexual doxies for Gays and Paedophiles continues apace.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/16/school-children-have-lessons-consent-sexual-assault-revenge/

    1. ‘Morning, Minty. I had to smile at the headline for this item…will these lessons make them better ‘porn revengers’? Not sure this is the intention.

      1. Morning Hugh. I can remember when the advantages of sexual education in schools were advanced by the feminists some thirty years ago and how it would banish fear and bring in responsibility and safety.

        I’m still waiting!

        1. Over the last thirty years, all young people have been taught about personal relationships has been concerning abuse and shame. Nothing about love, or anything positive whatsoever, unless you are homosexual, black or Muslim.

          2. The law prohibits anyone under the age of 16 to consent to anything, but depravity is available to anyone that can pay for it.

          3. AFAIK; sex education has been about the mechanics and biology, not ethics and emotions.

        2. Over the last thirty years, all young people have been taught about personal relationships has been concerning abuse and shame. Nothing about love, or anything positive whatsoever, unless you are homosexual, black or Muslim.

    2. This ‘campaign group’. Does it receive tax payer funding? I assume it does, probably vast amounts.

      This what happens when the state simply takes money regardless of need. This is why it is bankrupting this country.

      If schools were funded by a voucher and money wasted on this nonsense then teachers would be held accountable.

      But that’s the fundamental problem, isn’t it? Accountability. Our money is wasted and the state sees no problem doing so.

    3. Possibly I’m misreading that snippet, but to me it suggests Sarah Everard’s death would have been OK if she’d consented to her murder.

  15. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Amongst all the doom and gloom this is an item of good news – from yesterday’s DT:

    Free speech victory: Eton Master cleared by teaching watchdog after being sacked over gender lecture

    That should get the bearded brethren in a right old lather, but perhaps they have another matter to celebrate and won’t notice!

    3. Updates on a drawdown? Written by the chaps/chapesses that wrote “Yes, Minister”?

      1. Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn were brilliant writers who considered theiir audience as bright as they were.

        These lot are illiterate.

    4. When I am Emperor I shall watch cartoons all day long. I will pass no laws, not tell you how to live, what you can eat, drink, make, sell or throw away.

      I will do nothing for 50 glorious years of freedom and prosperity.

    1. Webbe needs to be put in special measures, treated as if she were some sort of moronic imbecile: a danger to herself and others.

        1. Given that ethnics barely comprise 5% of the populations, why are there so many in government? More, why are so many of those incompetent and corrupt?

          Did they get in precisely because they are ethnics and abused the system because they are corrupt?

          Certainly that Webbe character, the Abbott woman need to be removed for the good of the country. They’re both morons.

      2. 336842+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        The special measures for dangerous moronic imbeciles is full / overflowing but she has been added to the waiting list.

        There is an urgent need for a Broadmoor hospital / prison for the criminally insane politico’s & current supporters Mk2 to be constructed.

  19. Yo All

    SIR – Ben Wallace deserves credit for admitting the sunk-cost fallacy of the war in Afghanistan.

    As a direct result of that war, 241,000 people have been killed, including 456 British military personnel and 71,000 civilians.

    I wonder what the ethnicity/allegiance//nationality etc of the remaining 169,544 dead people was?

    2. I think Wallace was on BBC Radio 4 News this morning. If it was, he said he did not know when our 600 troops will get home. He also suggested that more troops could be sent for an indefinite period of time. No reason for this was forthcoming.
      John Serpul was very critical of Jo Biden on the Radio 4 News for his chaotic decisions but the BBC reporters still laid the blame on Donald Trump.

  20. One uneasy thought keeps cropping up about Afghanistan.

    Could it be that the Taliban have been willingly chosen by the people there, fed up with the utter corruption and uselessness of the self-serving “Government” who care only about how many national resources can be shifted away into tax havens, and nothing about the people they are supposed to be paid to represent? It seems the entire democratic and legal system works against the public, and therefore has lost its legitimacy. Turning to God’s way seems the only way to redress the entrenched legal villainery.

    They may seem a bunch of savages and not very nice by the standards of a cosy English village, but if they can get the trains to run to time, they can be forgiven their foibles and even granted their virgins as an inducement.

    What may well happen is that the revolutionaries are no less corrupt than the “Government” they have parcelled off to Tajikistan, but they have that yet to find out. Maybe God will grant some honest and decent people in the Taliban? After all the ANC did have Nelson Mandela for a while.

    What I find disquieting is making comparison with the way institutions in the UK have declined in integrity over recent decades, and we may well find our own version of the Taliban pushing at an open door.

    1. If you believe Western propaganda,its interesting how many countries outside the Western sphere have Dictators elected by the people!

      1. Do you remember Margaret Thatcher condemning Nicaragua because Daniel Ortega could only claim a 43% popular mandate and was therefore not democratically elected. Thatcher’s own popular mandate at the time was 42%, same as Theresa May’s in 2017.

    3. They may seem a bunch of savages and not very nice by the standards of a cosy English village, but if they can get the trains to run to time, they can be forgiven their foibles and even granted their virgins as an inducement.

      This is a western view promoted by Lies and Propaganda. The Taliban are highly respected by the people of the countryside.

    4. They may seem a bunch of savages and not very nice by the standards of a cosy English village, but if they can get the trains to run to time, they can be forgiven their foibles and even granted their virgins as an inducement.

      This is a western view promoted by Lies and Propaganda. The Taliban are highly respected by the people of the countryside.

    6. There will be no governance by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

      Once they have control the infighting between the tribes will emerge as sure as eggs is eggs.

      They will already have introduced Sharia. Their religious punishments will become more and more extreme in an effort to show they are in control and to cow the masses.

      No woman or child will be safe from rape, torture and murder

      Critical infrastructure will fail and the people will starve unless they take up the gun in their holy war.

    8. The sentiment is nice, but when you cannot remove them then they’re a fascist dictatorship, even if they do get things working.

      Lots of governments manage effective public services while being absolute servants of the people.

  21. Why am I taking a keen interest in this Afghan thing… well , my dentist is an Afghan mixture ..

    I have been visiting that clever kind nice man for many many years .. He chatters to me as he is doing my teeth, and I hear many stories , good and bad from him about life out there . Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were not liked .. they stirred up a hornets nest .

    Having said that , each region is ruled by warlords who squabble and fight , and who are influenced by Pakistan and Iran .

    His father was a wealthy man who had lots of land and exported fruit , nuts and spices to the West .

    Maybe the Taliban , I say maybe , will sort out the warlords who are responsible for the infighting that has caused so much pain .

    1. mng TB, some warlords who resisted have been arrested, some fled to neighbouring countries. The rest will like always conduct business as they control their patch

    2. Morning Belle. I am reading The American War in Afghanistan by Carter Malkasian at the moment. It is highly informative about the origins of the war and the reasons for the rise of the Taliban. They are needless to say not as black as the MSM paints them!

      1. Morning Minty ,

        That is the conclusion I have reached , but am still confused by the differences between the Taliban , Daesh , Isil etc . Are the Taliban an extension of Iran ?

        Of course the Taliban are religious zealots, probably similar to many who have had purges and held control in the course of history , including us with Cromwell etc .

        I dunno what next, I will ask my dentist next week!!!

        1. No difference between AQ, Taliban, Daesh, ISIS, ISIL. All created by cia. AQ / Taliban Godfather [nothing to do directly with Iran] https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/zbigniew-brzezinski-godfather-al-qaeda-taliban-dead-89/ and http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0228 ISIS / ISIL were spin offs to foment “Colour Revolutions” https://syncreticstudies.com/2014/12/03/the-color-revolution-model-an-expose-of-the-core-mechanics/ one example involving “you know who” https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/soros-2020-colour-revolution-explained/

        2. Have you read ‘The Breadwinner‘ – a story about an Afghan girl whose father is taken away by the Taliban? We read it with our two boys when they were little?

    3. Morning Belle. I am reading The American War in Afghanistan by Carter Malkasian at the moment. It is highly informative about the origins of the war and the reasons for the rise of the Taliban. They are needless to say not as black as the MSM paints them!

    4. Good morning, Maggiebelle

      My dentist – who is the best I have ever had – is a Muslim Turk and not only is he a very competent dentist but he is also a thoroughly pleasant man. One day, when I was the last person on his list on a very rainy Marmaris afternoon he went to his fridge and got out a couple of cans of beer so we could chat affably until the rain had stopped and I could return to Mianda without getting drenched.

      1. Good morning Richard ,

        Your chap sounds a good man , and I expect you miss him .

        Mine has always greeted me with a hug , until of course this Covid business put everyone in his surgery in Hazmat suits .

        He was very impressed by my tiny limited Arabic vocabulary, especially as I am a pink freckly fairhaired woman .

        I have met many agreeable happy people who have stories to tell.

        We have our own version of Canterbury tales , don’t we .

        Why is everything such a mess, the everyday Brit doesn’t seem concerned with international affairs , we are a small planet , and we should take more notice of what goes on elsewhere , otherwise we sleepwalk into into deeper dwangdoms!

        1. My first wife was a European with auburn hair, who spoke fluent Hindi (& a few other dialects), because she was born & brought up in Bombay. The number of times I saw waiters’ jaws dropped when she ordered in Hindi when we went to Indian restaurants…

  24. In the mean time , back here in the UK, where law and order is breaking down because the woke police are not quite on the ball, yet some are made of sterling stuff and are trying to qwell the grip that hard headed swine have on supplying drugs .

    There is an escalating problem called County lines which is reaching into the heart of villages and small communities.

    https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1427172921294917633

  26. The puzzling rise of faux meat and mock dairy products.

    SIR — If vegans eschew eating meat and dairy products (How healthy is your plant-based barbeque? report, August 16), why are so many obsessed with eating dubious, chemical-laden, Frankenstein-food, meat substitutes?

    If you prefer vegetables, simply eat them. If you hate meat, milk, butter and cheese so much then why buy and eat questionable ersatz ‘meat’ and ‘dairy’ items?

    A Grizzly B.

    Margarine has been proven to be an extremely unhealthy butter substitute. There were far fewer cases of cancer when people — pre WWII — ate butter, milk, cheese, fish, meat and vegetables (i.e. a natural, balanced, healthy diet of real food). They ate proper food and exercised much more.

    This current plastic generation with their pretendy food and eyes-glued-to-technology are nobbut gullible fools to themselves. Don’t forget, Linda Eastman-McCartney made a fortune manufacturing Frankenstein ‘hamburgers’ and ‘sausages’ whilst extolling their virtue for a ‘balanced’ diet. This did not prevent her from dying of cancer at the age of 56.

    1. Margarine/spread and its “healthy cholesterol lowering properties” is pure marketing hype and propaganda. Butter has no ill effects, never has.

    2. When I want a veggie meal, I invariably eat Indian. Made to be vegetable, not meat substitute. Cooked with ghee, not marge or oil.

    3. You might like this, George:

      Vegan Die(t)

      Paul McCartney got the family round the table the day of Linda’s death and announced to the family, “I’ve got good news and bad news.”

      The family says, “What’s the bad news?”

      Sir Paul replies, “Well, your Mother died this morning.”

      “So what’s the good news, then, Father?” the family asks.

      To which Paul replies, “We’re having steak for dinner tonight!“

      1. We had a friend whose mother was a fanatical vegetarian.
        On the odd days she wasn’t around he and his step-father would enjoy an humungous fry-up.
        (Presumably opening all doors and windows afterwards.)

    4. There is the point that pre-WWII, people often didn’t live long enough to develop cancer.
      And I totally agree with about vegan food; I was once give a slice of vegan chocolate cake. Brown sawdust would have been scrummier.

      1. It may have been the case that people in the dark ages to middle ages didn’t live too long, however, many people born in the mid-to-late 19th century were long-lived and most of those lives were lived prior to WWII.

        1. Life expectancy of those born in Britain c.1900 was roughly 50; the low average was because of infant mortality.

  27. Now that Afghanistan won’t generate any profits for the Military Industrial Complex,where to next for the US ?

      1. A resurgence of hostilities in the Middle East is my guess.
        The JCPOA is dead in the water.The US couldn’t stomach the humiliation of re-enrty.

          1. They will need somewhere that a lot of expensive weaponry can be used.
            The monster is voracious.

          2. I can see with soon to depart Mutti, that Macron will be the convenient poodle re EU and parts of N Africa [Tunisia, Morrocco, Benin] and Tigray in Ethiopia’s yet to fully roll out, so I can see Rwanda playing a role. Just a snapshot

  28. The Railway Children

    A few days after Christmas, Johnny’s mother was working in the kitchen and listening to him playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and Johnny said, “All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the hell off now because this is the last stop. All of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your butts on the friggin’ train and sit your butts down because we’re leaving.”

    Johnny’s mother stormed into the living room and said, “We don’t use that kind of language in this house. Now go to your room for two hours. When you’ve settled down, you can play with your trains again, as long as you use proper language.”

    Two hours later, Johnny came out of his room and resumed playing with his train. Soon, the train stopped and the Johnny’s mother heard, “All passengers, who are disembarking the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. For those of you just boarding, we ask that you stow your hand luggage under your seat and we hope you enjoy your trip.

    For those of you who are pissed off about the two-hour delay, please see the friggin’ bitch in the kitchen.“

    1. LOL!

      Imagine Johnny’s first version as the opening lines of Starlight Express. (I don’t remember the opening lines of the English version, although I saw the show once. I saw the German version in Bochum 5 times & remember the openers very clearly.)

  29. All these present day utterly useless “ministers” and other govt lackeys – and their obsession with sochul meeja.

    Call me old-fashioned, but if he was with us today, I simply cannot see Winston “tweeting” anything – let alone the sort of bollox the present shower sully the ether with.

    1. Good morning Bill

      Those idiots throw out the crumbs , they want attention , they need to feel visible , they need to justify their position and presence..

      Guess what, us Tweeters pick up their crumbs , and feed hungrily on their stupidities and lack of integrity .

    2. I don’t know.

      He was an excellent communicator and might have used it to great effect, particularly during “The wilderness years”.

      No doubt the controllers would have done everything they could to marginalise him and probably ban him.

      1. Possibly – though I can’t see him finding the 145 letter (or whatever it is) limit convenient.

      2. Possibly – though I can’t see him finding the 145 letter (or whatever it is) limit convenient.

    1. By the same token, this country is host to an army of foreign invaders who would not be on our side.

          1. Let’s physically prevent them from coming back.

            Inform the world that any of them attempting to reach these shore by any means will immediately be shot. The message will soon spread.

          2. As we all know, Grizzly, unless actions have consequences then “chancers” of any type will just laugh at us.

  31. Why I wonder is it that the only people in the world that dutifully change the way they live, change and adapt their customs, change the way they worship and their morality all to suit others, is us people in the West and somehow if we don’t do it we are racists.
    Who managed to knock the stuffing out of us to blindly accept that?

    3. Maybe the West shouldn’t have been so eager to export their version of “Democracy”to other parts of the World.
      I know its a crazy idea but its worth considering.

        1. Cast your mind back to before the “refugee” influx.
          British and US forces weren’t sitting idle in their barracks.

      2. For once I agree with you. There is a facile belief in the west that the whole world wants to be “like us”.

        That they do NOT, is clearly shown by the huge number of foreigners – mainly, but not exclusively slammers – who simply carry on living their own way of life (with all its ghastliness and backwardness from a white English point of view) in many cities and towns in England.

          4. You assume correctly. I am keeping a straight face. (I think you may now have a fair idea of my views in general?)

        1. “I went to a meeting of geneticists, not so long ago, where they gathered in a group of philosophers and theologians and said, ‘Now look here, we need help. We are now on the verge of figuring out how to breed any kind of human character we would want to have. We can give you saints, philosophers, scientists, great politicians [sic], anything you want, just tell us, what kind of human beings ought we to breed?’.”

          Probably not saints. You have to be dead before you’re considered for sainthood!

    4. 336842+ up ticks,
      B3,
      I belonged to a now extinct (real UKIP) party long term that would never accept that ever / now.

      The country’s present standing was constructed by the lab/lib/con coalition & following.

    5. After WW2 my Father in Law had several jobs but in ’51 he decided to join the Kuwait Oil Company as a Project Manager, amongst other things he was issued with a booklet that laid out in 9 pages of closely packed text on how he should behave and respect local customs and religion , another condition was that he should learn conversational Arabic. Such a shame that the spavined and feeble cowards we have for a Government couldn’t adopt the same notion.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f32694e91f73b08174b95f62dd562d7b81d19e46b586108577103873efa4af6.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd2571a7f0ed210fa2dcbcaccf7fd5f8edcfc4861530e13b326c89e1cf8d6fa2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6626924b61325c3825334f52d405f3fb97151f07ac439543a2692ddebfa42f26.jpg

  32. A comment about the “world beating NHS”. The MR’s GP actually telephoned her last week and arranged for her to give a blood sample at 8.10 tomorrow morning. As I am overdue a half-yearly blood test, I e-mailed and asked if they could fit me in at the same time as I shall be sitting outside the building in the car. We all know how long it takes to give a blood sample.

    As expected, a reply came saying that the were “fully booked” tomorrow morning – but offering another time and date which is inconvenient.

    I have “tasked” (ghastly word invented by wanqueurs) the MR to see just how “busy” the nurses are at 8.10 tomorrow. The length of the queue – the dozens in the waiting room etc etc.

    1. Assuming it isn’t urgent, can the MR make the alternative appointment so you could swap times?

      1. Her appt is urgent. No point in swapping. All I was trying to do was avoid two different trips to the effing surgery, especially as I will be 30 feet away from the nurse – with just a brick wall between us. And it only takes five minutes. They have already spent more time than that telling me why they can’t do it…

        I am willing to bet at least a shilling that the MR will be the only person in the nurses’ area at 8.10 tomorrow.

    3. Morning Bill – my 6 monthly Type2 diabetes blood test requires a full check of my weight, my feet, my blood pressure etc. The nurse then has to prepare the blood samples for transfer to the local hospital laboratory and up date my health record.. This takes about 20 minutes of her time altogether. I get a time and date when she will phone to notify me of the results. and if I need to see the GP.
      If it’s just a simple blood test for both of you I cannot see any difficulty in seeing you both at the same time. The nurse would need to be careful not to mix up the samples.

      1. Simple blood test. Done in a trice. They are just bone idle. Last time I was in there (January) the girl doing my arm called out to her oppo – “Get the nurses out of their rest-room – they are never doing any work”.

    4. Morning Bill – my 6 monthly Type2 diabetes blood test requires a full check of my weight, my feet, my blood pressure etc. It takes up to a quarter of an hour. The nurse then has to prepare the blood samples for transfer to the local hospital laboratory and up date my health record.. This takes about 20 minutes of her time. I get a time and date when she will phone to notify me of the results. and if I need to see the GP.
      If it’s just a simple blood test for both of you I cannot see any difficulty in seeing you both at the same time. The nurse would need to be careful not to mix up the samples.

    1. As with all such things, the well off get one, save money, claim the discount, save money on fuel, parking and emissions.

      The poor – those on 35-40,000 unable to afford such a car get hammered paying the electric discount, having to pay city parking charges, emission charges, parking taxes and stuck with 88p in tax per litre.

      Oh. And road tax.

    2. As with all such things, the well off get one, save money, claim the discount, save money on fuel, parking and emissions.

      The poor – those on 35-40,000 unable to afford such a car get hammered paying the electric discount, having to pay city parking charges, emission charges, parking taxes and stuck with 88p in tax per litre.

      Oh. And road tax.

  36. Cloudy day here , 17c, chilly breeze .

    The pigeons are enjoying the elderberries on the tree, lots of early blackberries and the rowan trees have lots of berries , loads of hazlenuts dropping from the trees down the lane , and the blackthorn sloes are abundant.. butnot ripe yet.

    An early Autumn do you think?

      1. How very sensible of you my dear Uncle Bill. (With apologies to Frankie Howard in CARRY ON UP THE JUNGLE.)

    1. It matters not a jot how many ‘interventions’ and subsequent withdrawals are made by the West into that benighted rocky hellhole called Afghanistan; the general population will inevitably retain their unquenchable desire and determination to remain in the seventh century AD as uncivilised and uncivilisable peasants.

      Leave them to their misery.

      1. 336842+ up ticks,
        G,
        “Leave them to their misery”

        Don’t know about that, the voters of the United Kingdom are trying to replicate the pattern though as in,
        masks lead to burkas, and there are halal dumplings on the parliamentary canteen menu.

        1. Hello J, but here in the UK , a FREE COUNTRY, these people remain totally covered up and are subjected to all sorts of cruelties by their men folk.

          Sharia law is here to stay

          Yet filthy Muslim men who cheat, rape , burn , punish and push their religion ruthlessly are tolerated by the police and the law and Education ministers!

          2. So long as they don’t make English people obey their religious laws they’re welcome to wear their horrid burquas.

          4. I’m afraid letting them wear their barbaric clothing and keep their barbaric ways when they are here will inevitably, once numbers reach critical mass, force English people obey their religious laws.

    3. The talking heads on the telly have been clinical in not mentioning the camel in the room, that the whole tragedy has its roots in hard line islamic ideology. Its as if the Taliban are just an off beat political force which has unexpectedly come to power.

      1. I think the Taliban renaming Afghanistan as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan might be a big enough clue even for the most dunderheaded Leftie.

  38. Good Morning All – back from a weekend away in the Tin Tent.
    We had a timely escape from all the horrors and anguish of the world and had a great weekend at the Newbury Retrofestival . It was awash with folks just out to have a good time and an excuse to dress up and pretend to be back in a time when things were easily identified as good or bad . There were no masks or social distancing just joyous humans let off the leash of burdensome regulations. There were many bands and groups focusing mainly on 40/50s music but after having heard the same 40/50s standards for 7or 8 times by different bands of varying competence we were quite happy to return home.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TJCuGqJ9bQ

  39. Morning all… to busy to linger…..
    As no descriptions are available I imagine it’s the usual suspects. But why mention Aldi this was long after it had closed.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/aldi-mass-brawl-in-manchester-car-park-involving-50-people-leaves-woman-seriously-injured/ar-AANl5SN?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

    And now any one from Afghanistan will be allowed to enter the UK with out a passport …………..set up by the usual suspects, as in the line of useless chocolate teapots, politicians and the members of the civil services are to totally useless in protecting the people of this nation. We’re gonna need more and bigger car parks……….

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/afghan-asylum-seekers-will-be-allowed-to-flee-taliban-to-britain-without-a-passport/ar-AANmQ42?ocid=msedgntp

    1. What’s the world coming to?
      “A witness who lives opposite the car park said he could hear screaming from the car park at around 3am.

      He told the Manchester Evening News: “I just thought it was normal things but then the screaming didn’t stop.””
      My bold.

      1. 336842+ up ticks,M,
        M,
        Could be a sacrificial goat or a human, in some eyes very little difference.

      1. No passports or ID needed – – so the EU got what it wanted – NO borders UK – They wanted to flood us with people – – they now have their wish. The world can come, no borders, no checks, no ID, no papers. 600 a day in dinghies, families to follow- 5.5 million from Hong Kong to come, Thousands what Cameron said could come from Syria – he also said no limit who could come from India – – everything on us – end of Bitain is here.

      2. 336842+ up ticks,
        Morning M,
        Could it be the remaining whites from brum ,
        shipping out for france ?

    1. I would hazard a guess that most of those Afghans at Kabul airport seeking to flee were also on the take.

  41. The Russians were smart enough to get the hell out after 11 years, American leaders be must be twice as stupid as their Russian counterparts for ever going into that region took us damn near twenty to get out and god knows how many billions were pissed away

    1. The difference being that the USSR-supported government they left behind lasted a further two years.

        1. Sadly, Americans have a blind belief in the blessings of democracy. There are cultures that are too primitive to cope with individual freedom or follow a creed inimical to democracy.
          Arguably, neither Saddam Hussein or Ghaddafi were democratic rulers, but they did know how to keep their countries under control. Definitely NOT democracy as we know it, Jim, but it worked.
          But then I’m not a western politician.

        1. No..its only 6 meter.
          It actually started life as a customs patrol boat on Lake Geneva.
          It eventually made its way to Finland and i bought it cheaply.
          I stripped it back to the hull and completely rebuilt it.

          2. Have you posted a photo? I can’t see any attachment. I am very interested in boats.

          5. Thanks, I see it now. (As Admiral Nelson once might have said, but probably didn’t.)

    2. A different time, a different place but remember Graham Greene’s novel about Vietnam: A Quiet American?

    3. Below is a DT letter giving chapter and verse.
      We are being betrayed by politicians with absolutely no historical knowledge or an understanding of cause and effect, let alone the corrupt and primitive mindset of fanatical Islam. If Russia – a country not known for its feely touchiness towards perceived enemies – couldn’t cope with AfGaff, what hope of bleeding heart woke western nations having the fortitude to cope with 7th. century shiitehole?

      SIR – After the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839 to 1842), second Anglo-Afghan War (1878 to 1880), third Anglo-Afghan War (1919), Soviet-Afghan War (1979 to 1989), Operation Herrick and Operation Enduring Freedom (2001 to 2014) and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (2014 to 2021), the world should surely have learnt one lesson: stay out of Afghanistan.

      Captain John Maioha Stewart

      Breisach am Rhein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany”

      1. It was called the destroyer of empires for a reason: noone has EVER won in Afghanistan in over 3000 years

  43. Kevin Clarke death: police watchdog reopens investigation

    The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has reopened its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Kevin Clarke ,

    a mentally ill black man who could be heard saying the words “I can’t breathe” while he was being restrained by police shortly before he died.

    Will this result in all the Wendyballers going down on their Hands and Knees, before they have a posed fall, when the match starts?

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/kevin-clarke-death-police-watchdog-reopens-investigation/ar-AANmTXk?ocid=msedgdhp

  44. 336842+ up ticks,
    Make no mistake the same could / would happen here the strength & resolve of the peoples of this once decent Nation has been watered down
    by the continuing action of dangerous fools entering the polling booth.

    The indigenous voters are currently via their voting pattern are helping to construct a force that is gaining strength daily, one that will shortly turn and dictate how things are going to be in the near future, in arabic.

    In defence all that can be said of the electorate in regards to the United Kingdom is, forgive them they know NOT what they are doing, then vote accordingly.

    https://twitter.com/NKrankie/status/1427212159814193153

    A signal alarm klaxon was triggered when it was announced that there was halal porridge on the parliamentary canteen menu &
    they DON’T make porridge just for one.

    1. Birkenhead drill, eh? And the lefties, and the politicians, and the MSM, and the soft addle-headed liberals go on thinking and proclaiming that these people are just like us.

  45. Victorious Taliban commander claims he ‘spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay’ in triumphant speech from Kabul palace as Islamists seize Afghanistan – while thousands fight to flee country in chaotic scenes at airport
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9896007/Taliban-commander-gives-press-conference-INSIDE-Kabuls-Presidential-Palace.html

    But even so, he was released to give his ‘triumphant speech’ when he got back home and the Taliban was once more in control.

    But would the Taliban have kept a Western ‘agitator’ alive in prison for eight years and then let him go?

    When I was a student in the 1960’s I used to give a Sudanese Muslim student, Manseer Al Aquab, a lift down to London in my car. He was from a rich and powerful family and so was destined for high political office in his native country when he returned – even if he only had a gained a poor degree in economics from UEA. On these journeys he explained that if a rival got in the way of his career he would have no compunction in killing him. He also explained that the West’s humanitarian philosophy was a pathetic weakness which he would be more than happy to exploit to gain as much advantage as he could and that he had no respect for ‘left-wing liberalism’ and he would happily slay any representative of this feeble, cowardly doctrine.

    At the time the British administration had left the Sudan fifteen years previously but I wonder how many of those arriving illegally every day on South coast of England share Manseer’s philosophy completely?

    2. He also explained that the West’s humanitarian philosophy was a pathetic weakness which he would be more than happy to exploit to gain as much advantage as he could and that he had no respect for ‘left-wing liberalism’ and he would happily slay any representative of this feeble, cowardly doctrine.

      Strange to find myself in agreement with Muslim sentiments!

      1. If you kill them you can never show them you were right.

        That’s one of the fundamental differences between Left and Right. The Left don’t see a problem killing those they hate. The Nazi’s sent millions to the gas chambers. Stalin slaughtered many more. So did Mao.

        The Right get angry, and oppose the totalitarian Left, but we want to end the war. Not start it.

  46. Apparently Afghanis will be able to come to the UK, “Without a passport.”

    Brilliant. The folks in Calais needn’t pay the traffickers zillions. Just get on a plane (or ferry) and say that they are from Afghanistan.

    1. Canada has announced that about 25,000 Afghanistanis will be allowed in. Please send applications to the embassy – which is now closed.

      Another useless gesture by the liberals, All talk and no action.

  47. What a grey day. And not just the weather.
    A long read from Melanie Phillips.

    The rout of America

    The US has catastrophically abandoned more than just the Afghan people

    Melanie Phillips

    Aug 16

    “Success has many fathers, goes the saying, but failure is an orphan.

    Well, the catastrophe in Afghanistan has many, many fathers — none of whom want to acknowledge the terrifying progeny they have spawned.

    In immediate terms, the disaster must be laid firmly at the door of President Joe Biden. It was his decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan by September 11 that has produced the shocking and tragic rout by the Taliban over the past few days.

    Biden took that decision in the teeth of warnings from his senior military advisers. He insisted that the Afghan army would hold off the Taliban. Denying that these insurgents were the equivalent of the North Vietnamese at the fall of Saigon, he said:

    They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy…

    Yesterday, the air over Kabul was reportedly thick with the noise of Chinook helicopters ferrying American personnel to the airport as the United States fled Afghanistan in panic, chaos and humiliation.

    What’s also on shocking display is the ineptitude of US intelligence, who were reportedly shocked — shocked! — at the speed of the Taliban takeover. What is the point of having an intelligence service at all if they couldn’t even grasp what was all too plain to those who watched aghast the speed at which the Taliban were taking city after city over the past few weeks?

    A Taliban takeover has indeed been on the cards ever since former President Donald Trump cut his ill-advised deal with them in February last year. The agreement was that the US would withdraw its troops on the understanding that the Taliban would cut its ties with al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS), and formulate a lasting peace agreement with the Afghan government.

    No-one with a functioning brain could have believed for an instant that this deal would be honoured, not least because there was no let-up in Taliban-inspired violence against other Afghans even when the talks were under way, and subsequently. The Afghan army certainly got the message that they were about to be abandoned to savage forces that would overwhelm them. Demoralised, they gave up, put down their arms and ran for their lives.

    So the Taliban victory is a bipartisan American disaster. And the deeper reason is that the withdrawal of US troops is backed by some three-quarters of the American public. Indeed, Biden reportedly believes that, once the dust has settled, the Democrats will reap electoral rewards at the mid-term elections from a public grateful that its wish for disengagement has now been heeded.

    But the American public also doesn’t like its country to be humiliated. So it’s possible that this amoral calculation will blow back in the Democrats’ faces. Even if that happens, though, whether the American public will fully grasp the implications of what it has now unwittingly willed into being remains a moot point.

    In truth, America and the west gave up in Afghanistan years ago. Ignorant and arrogant analysis of what was required and doable there plus inept and half-hearted delivery, coupled with the debacle in Iraq following the toppling of Saddam Hussein, resulted in a loss of support in America and the west for their troops being in those countries at all. With 2,400 American fatalities and 20,000 injured in Afghanistan, the engagement there was seen as expending precious blood and treasure to no avail, since the goal of of bringing order and stability to such failed states was perceived as a fool’s errand. Defeatism, in the UK scarcely any less than in the US, became rampant.

    But this was to ignore the reason America and its allies went into Afghanistan in the first place. It was not from any humanitarian impulse; it was not to liberate Afghan women from the unspeakable brutalities of Islamist rule, however desirable that was; it was not to bring democracy and human rights to a primitive society. It was instead to defend America and the west from the significant threat that Afghanistan still posed.

    In other eras and in other theatres of war, the west understood what needed to be done to neutralise such an enduring threat to its security. That’s why the US and its allies remained in Germany for some 11 years after the Second World War, with eight NATO members including the US retaining a permanent military presence there; that’s why allied forces similarly occupied Japan from 1945-1952; that’s why some 28,000 US troops remain stationed in South Korea.

    But today, if there’s a likelihood of casualties and in places furthermore that seem resistant to modernity, that western resolve has disintegrated.

    In the unholy armoury of the enemies of the west, their single most important weapon is their understanding that the west is no longer willing to do what it needs to do to defend itself. It is no longer willing to be in it for the long haul. It no longer has the stomach for a fight.

    In baleful contrast, jihadis take the longest possible view. They have been waging holy war against the enemies of Islam — as they view them — since the seventh century; and for them this holy war won’t end until the whole world is under Islamic rule or the world itself ends, whichever comes first.

    The west just doesn’t understand that mindset. It doesn’t understand cultures so very different from itself, and tries fatuously to fit them into a western template. It doesn’t understand that in Islamic societies negotiation is regarded as a sign of incipient surrender and therefore incites further aggression to achieve final victory. It doesn’t understand that Islamic religious fanaticism is fuelled not by helplessness or despair but by exultation.

    When in the 1980s America and Britain rejoiced in the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the war fronted by the Afghan mujahideen, they ignored the warnings from a prescient few that the people who had been energised and incentivised were Islamists who viewed their victory over the Soviet empire as a precursor to and augury of their forthcoming victory over the American empire.

    Those warnings were borne out. Afghanistan became the crucible of al Qaeda, providing a base for Osama bin Laden and resulting in the 9/11 attacks. Now Afghanistan is poised to become jihad-central with rocket-boosters. The Taliban have already released thousands of terrorists from Afghan prisons. Afghanistan will become a magnet and an inspiration for jihadis from all over the world.

    For the abandoned Afghan people, the consequences are likely to be hideous. But the malignant effects of this disaster are already rippling way beyond this epicentre of terror.

    America’s allies can now see that the US is a faithless friend, the weak link in the chain of western defences and with untold consequences for their own security.

    With America on its knees, other enemies of the west — Iran, China Russia — must be rubbing their hands in glee over the opportunities for evil now opening up for them as a result.

    Indeed, Shia Iran has reportedly already ramped up its tactical alliance with the Sunni Taliban — in other circumstances its mortal theological foe — to such an extent that in some quarters the Taliban’s military strength is being ascribed to Iranian influence. As Farhad Rezaei writes for the BESA Centre here:

    Afghan military officials have accused the Revolutionary Guards of providing military, financial, and logistical support to the terror group, to the extent that Tehran’s support enabled the Taliban to capture districts in western Afghanistan, including the provinces of Farah and Ghor, and the Taywara district. There are also reports indicating that Quds Force operatives had a “physical presence” in Ghor assisting Taliban fighters in their offensive against the central government.

    Fighting ISAF was only one of the goals of the Quds Force in Afghanistan. Drug smuggling from Afghanistan to Iran has been a profitable business for the Quds Force, which is known for its extensive ties to drug cartels in South America. In 2012, the US Department of the Treasury (DOT) designated Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Baghbani, the chief of the Quds Force in the Zahedan office, a narcotics trafficker. The DOT document noted that in return for Iranian business, Afghan traffickers moved weapons to the Taliban.

    Financial incentives aside, the emergence of ISIS in Afghanistan – especially in provinces that border Iran, such as Herat, Farah, and Nimruz – rattled the Iranian regime, prompting the leadership to ramp up its engagement with the Taliban. Unlike al Qaeda and the more malleable Taliban, the radical anti-Shiite ISIS poses a real threat to Iran’s interests in Afghanistan. Providing better training for the Taliban was thus not only a way to undermine the American-led ISAF, but a barrier to a new ISIS caliphate across the Afghan border. Various reports indicate that the IRGC created a training camp in South Khorasan province (Khorasan Jonobi) to train Taliban fighters, providing them with weapons and explosives. The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation (Komite Emdad Imam Khomeini) in the same province is said to be donating untold amounts of capital to the terror group in addition to calling for volunteers to fight alongside Taliban forces.

    Some observers have directly linked improvements in the Taliban’s performance, and ISIS’s consequent inability to establish a strong foothold in Afghanistan, to Iranian support. Since mid-2017, Taliban and ISIS forces have regularly clashed in eastern Nangarhar province, with the Taliban easily defeating ISIS thanks to the military support it has received from the Quds Force. As one commentator put it, the “scale, quality, and length of training is unprecedented and marks not only a shift in the proxy war between the United States and Iran in Afghanistan but also a potential change in Iran’s ability and will to affect the outcome of the Afghan war.”

    We are today not just staring at the abandonment of Afghanistan. We are staring at America’s abandonment of itself.”

      1. Afternoon Phizz. I always thought she was Hatman’s secretary at Mossad Central!

    2. Ms Philips is a mite confused – or, more likely, avoiding the issue so as not to muddy the waters.

      Our government isn’t opposing the Taliban. It’s inviting them in through Dover!

  48. 336842+ up ticks,
    Have the United Kingdoms muslim mosque attendances considered
    approaching the current political overseers in regard to filling the stored inflatables with mosque attendees and returning to Kabul airport via Calais picking up more muslims through france, in defence of their womenfolk now that would be an unbelievable political statement.

      1. 3336842+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HM.
        I believe the question should be HM, “why -were- they –
        ordered -there”.

  50. Afternoon All

    “No passports required”

    No change there then…………………

    It’s all too tiresome ‘ave some laffs instead

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e757a37ae1aabaa1a7c8791069a8f5cfa6b9c0ae96d4cb818364a950e25523b2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/75f2062d333a7d5a202aaa92b54d7fde5a254a2a20d18f848738dd563d8416cf.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/350609d94e8d71c44e616511c5149803d252533a6e465067a77455f143779b69.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ec92da98ca7f9b9b04a58683acec758ad682490c93dad1477fa4cf5d0e1f9dd.jpg

    https://twitter.com/SheepNewsTV/status/1425919393423413248

    Finally one for Phil…………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2159bcfd767cf37d607de1fb1b8a829acd7d3f2a6b4a02807d4b86b243853276.jpg

      1. Wotcha Pip
        Just been rereading the Troy Rising series by John Ringo
        Live free or Die
        Citadel
        The Hot Gate
        Highly recommended

  51. Isn’t it strange that people are demanding vaccine passports from Britons returning from holidays yet Afghans can come in without any id at all, not even a need to prove that they really are Afghans fleeing the Taliban.

  53. Our despised leader has just called an election in September, spouting some spurious excuse as a reason.

    What a surprise to see a promised one off bonus pension payment to seniors being made this week. I am being called cynical because I wondered out loud if they had been planning the election call when they announced the payment in their budget. Cynical? B.S, there is not a chance that the timing of the bribe was not set to coincide with the election call.

    Despite the black faced, groping Mr dressup being involved some kind of corruption expose almost every week, the odds are that Trudeau will be re-elected.

    P.s. that pensioner bribe is only for people of Bills age, us youngsters don’t qualify.

      1. Not used in Canada, they preprint completed postal voting forms.

        Oh look, a delta variant, play safe and apply for a postal vote.

        No need to fix ii, they have bribed their way to re-election.

    2. Your own Rebel News called that about 2 weeks ago when they noticed a nanny being hired. Apparently this happened last election!

      1. It has been expected for weeks but the idiot has now pulled the plug to make if official.

  56. If all the Taliban had been killed the backward savage ideology would still remain, followed blindly by more backward savages.While that survives, there will never be peace. It is as bad as any disease.

      1. Yep..great idea.
        That’s why you now have thousands of “refugees” in Britain.
        You think they’re there for benefits?…….think again.
        “Do unto others as they have already done onto you”!

          1. Over the years Britain walked into other countries but never expected it to happen to them.
            The method may have changed but the end result will be the same.

          2. Which parts of Britain’s former empire in Africa and Asia have a large, white, troublesome diaspora?

          4. Probably the same reason as the Russians, Chinese, Germans, French, Old Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.

          5. As I have told you before, I have no disagreement with criticism of UK foreign policy from 2001 but please drop the sins-of-the-fathers, you-started-it, you-deserve-what-you-get nonsense.

          6. I would love to know who or what group has dictated Western foreign policy since the end of WW2.

          9. I don’t live in the UK.Perhaps you need to look at who is directing Western foreign policy.

          13. No doubt Indians in India would refer still to have to participate in wars between their local rajas, to have no education or irrigation, and to continue the barbaric practice of suttee.

            If you were talking about Belgium and the Belgian Congo I could agree.

  57. Remind me where the World cup football is being held, Qatar?

    Ooops the headquarters of the Taliban , well, that’s a nice surprise for the knee benders .

    2. They’ve found that wearing a mask on top your head discourages social engagement and carrying a gun prevents your hands touching anything other than the firing machanism. If anybody they meet should say they’ve tested positive the best way to stop the virus replicating in its host is to put a bullet in them rather than just a jab.

  64. 336842+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    UK Talking to Taliban, Blames Trump, Not Biden, for Afghanistan Chaos,

    Probably the same female type politico’s who were conversing with PIE
    in the mid 70s. heavens forbid the start of another killing spree but could very well be.

  65. Cherie Blair backs campaign to save Afghani women from rape, torture and murder admit women to the Garrick club.

    Priorities priorities.

    1. Cherie Blair who is or was a board member of one of Suha Arafats fake charities for Palestinian women & girls which funneled British aid money to the PLO terror group & to Suha & Yasser Arafats Swiss bank accounts.

        1. As far as I recall Tony had a house with a housekeeper rented & paid for by the EU in West Jerusalem & an office rented & paid for by the EU in East Jerusalem, a car , driver & bodyguards paid for by the EU or possibly the UK Govt. Cherie never stayed with him so he frequently went by private jet back & forth to the UK especially for long 3 day week ends to be with her & he did not use the King David Hotel but held meetings in the American Colony Hotel, a Christian Arab owned hotel in East Jerusalem , the owners being PLO supporters & the hotel is notorious as the PLO’s unofficial Head Quarters in Jerusalem . He also held meetings & seminars for donors in the Sheraton & Hilton Hotels in Tel Aviv as that was in the local papers & maybe his donors paid for those events. BTW whilst in Israel he was rumored to be having an affair with the divorced daughter & principal heir of a deceased wealthy dairy company millionaire & she is known to support Left wing causes.

          1. Blair only has affairs with the women of the mega-rich; at least he’s consistent.
            King David Hotel may be a bit choosey over its guests.

          2. I simply don’t recall seeing on the TV or reading in the papers here that he was staying at the King David and our left wing press were
            naturally pandering to him 24/7 with constant feeding of his ego . He was both on TV & in the papers seen as meeting with PLO leaders & left wing Israeli politicians, business men ( both Israeli & Palestinians ) & NGO’s at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem

          3. When you write “paid for by the EU” don’t forget that the EU (like our government) has NO money; only what it extracts from contributory members. As there are few of those, that would mainly be us in the UK (I don’t believe we’ve stopped paying the Danegeld, even though we’re supposed to have “left”).

  66. Headline in the Wail:

    “New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres beg the Taliban to protect women’s human rights as China and Russia prepare to formally accept militants’ rule of Afghanistan”

    That’ll work brilliantly. I note the Taliban are already liberating girls – to become sex slaves…

    1. They have a special on this week for non-compliant women. Two eyes gouged out for the price of one.

    2. Well, as Jacinth has been soo nice to slammers, she will be expecting a favour in return. I expect women to be given full rights, to be master of the kitchen and bear the next wave of taliban.

    3. The Taliban will respect women’s human rights. That’s easily done, as in their view of Islam women have none.

      1. It isn’t just their view of islam; islam teaches that women belong to their menfolk – fathers, brothers, husbands …

    4. Considering how good they are at blowing things up and using inflatables they should dissipate their urges into alternative forms of riding on rubber.

      1. Brit passport holders are challenged, then isolated for Convid reasons: much easier (and cheaper) by RIB into Dover

    2. The world’s population is now 5 times what it was 100 years ago. The number of people willing and able to come here has risen massively and continues to do so. Every year an even greater number force or wheedle their way in.

        1. Africa has fewer than 100 people per square mile, England, which is where the majority of UK migrants are heading, is nearly 700.

  69. The power crazed broadcaster ramps it up again. Just after 1am a phone-in caller to Dotun Adebayo, said he hadn’t been jabbed, The, presumably fully medically qualified, presenter said that by not having the jab he was being selfish and risking the whole population. REALLY – EVERYONE???The man then said he knew restrictions were going to be put in place to divide people. Reply from Dotun – no there won’t be ????? – all he had to do was have the jabs ?????? he was contradicting himself with every sentence he came out with.
    But ALWAYS pushing for the jab. Imho – an evil man. Two faced, untrustworthy – and that is what I’d consider his good points. Clearly just what the BBC like in their presenters – broadcast the propaganda.

  70. Good afternoon all Nottlers on this sad Monday for all White British & White Europeans as they watch the scenes of chaos & killing unfold at Kabul airport on Fox as Sky is not showing it nor probably the BBC which I don’t get anyway, but my local Israeli channels are showing the mayhem in Kabul along with the launching by Hamas in Gaza of a rocket at Israel ( intercepted by the Iron Dome system ) & the massive forest fires to the east of Jerusalem which appears to be arson by Arabs setting fire to forests adjacent to Israeli communities . Looking at the photos on Fox seeing panic stricken young Afghan men surround a USAF transport plane to prevent it from taking off I could not help but notice that most of the young men were of military age & many had short hair and no beards suggesting that were Afghan Army deserters who changed out of uniform & fled to the airport to escape to the West as once the Taliban have their military files & photos their lives are as good as over. All those who manage to flee Afghanistan will eventually reach Europe & the UK as the 5th Column Marxist Globalists in the UK & EU governments will take them in & rub their hands at the potential of millions of more Savage Muslims carrying out the Lefts ” White Genocide ” / Race Replacement plan even quicker now ! If the Yanks now have a fight with the Taliban at the airport & elsewhere in Kabul because they have had to hold up the airport evacuation, it serves them right for putting senile Joe Biden in the White House ! Rant over .

      1. A B52 strike on the Taliban’s forces in Kabul will send the right message to them but Joe wont order a strike even if Americans are killed by the Taliban

        1. Don’t you think that the Taliban could be a severe but controlling force that will weaken the wicked cruel quarrelling warlords who control different regions and don’t you think the corrupt president and his cronies have quite rightly been punished .

          1. Their president, his family, his staff & other corrupt officials left 2 days ago to go to Tajikistan, probably pre-arranged & his Swiss Bank account is full of stolen US Aid money

  75. Ken Loach’s expulsion shows that Starmer is serious about tackling anti-Semitism. Now he must win the fight
    For someone often accused of equivocation, the Labour leader’s stance this weekend has been refreshingly unambiguous and forthright

    DT Article

    I must admit I did enjoy Ken Loach’s film of Barry Hines’s novel about the small boy and his kestrel.

    1. Afternoon Richard. Kes wasn’t bad but most of his movies are pretentious Socialist Twaddle!

      1. Hi Minty. My ex-M-i-Law’s dog was in that film. A yorkshire terrier if I remember correctly.

    2. Ken Loach did his lefty thing with the opening of the 2012 Olympics .

      It was unbearably lefty , but very clever .

      I wonder how Britain would be articulated now .. I daresay the RNLI and the Vax would feature highly.

      The Royal family would be out crowd .

      All the Nignoggy Labour mayors and MPs of various hues would twerk their bums to rap songs about global warming and BAME.

        1. Don’t think they believe in “women and chidren first.” besides, get to another country – plenty more there to do whatever they want to.

        2. It’s always the same. The young men try to escape, seek asylum etc while leaving the women and the elderly to take their chances.
          I’m sure I have read somewhere that when our country was under threat 70 – 80 yers ago, our young men stood up and fought back.

        1. I’m surprised some didn’t get sucked into the jet engine when it revved up, There is a video of it happening on a US navy ship. This pilot in Afghanistan must have been worried his engines were going to go.

        1. I wouldn’t. I’m waiting to post the pics of the C17 running them all over at it gets up some speed.

        2. Not just for me. Now I know where it is, I can avoid it.
          Some mind bleach could be useful, though. I’ll go and move some slabs in the garden…

    1. Afternoon Hatman. One wonders how many of these people are really afraid of the Taliban! One suspects most of them are seizing the moment to get to the West!

      1. Given the lack of beards, I suspect the vast majority were in the Afghan armed forces and convinced they had a cast iron claim for asylum if they got out.

      2. The ones who have money have been leaving for the last 18 months since Trump lost the presidency to Biden. Among those that will flee are poor Afghan Army conscripts who face execution & junior officers, anybody who worked on US bases , others that will flee are small businessmen & shopkeepers who have profited from selling western made goods that were unavailable & prohibited for sale when the Taliban last ruled, school teachers, low level government bureaucrats who got rich taking bribes, artists, musicians & anybody associated with Western culture as sooner or later they will be rounded up for Islamic punishment

        1. My younger brother was there in the AF, he was told to absolutely NEVER trust the locals and he went armed everywhere he went. He was on the base where some of the Afghani forces let the talibs in and killed several GI’s. Glad I was too “experienced” to go!

        2. You are correct the fuse is lit and the anger is boiling, I wonder if the nimrods that work for the government know most Americans think they are worthless as tits on a boar

  78. As I posted below on the subject of Biden’s gross incompetence: ‘It used to be considered a conspiracy theory to say that Trump was cheated out of the election; now it is considered a conspiracy theory to say that he wasn’t’.’

  79. A simple question..

    Discussion between Moh and I.

    Who has been responsible for all the bombs and mayhem in Afghanistan regions recently.. was it the Taliban or unrest between warlords territories?

    1. How can you tell the difference? They all look the same, apart from Afghan Armed Forces who can be easily identified by their being clean shaven and running away.

    3. Have a a god almighty row!
      Lose your rag and storm out of the room and go upstairs to bed. Moh will shortly follow…all is forgiven and make mad passionate love for two hours…

      Who gives a toss about ….where was it?

  80. I note that a BBC “mast” in Yorkshire has been out of commission and will be for a couple of weeks yet, now from my experience masts are not generally flammable but the transmission equipment housed beneath them – that I can believe . I mention this as back in the mid ’80s BT had a string of microwave relay stations + masts carrying content on behalf of the BBC/ITV etc from the London studios to the rest of the UK. The facility I worked at back then was responsible for the repair and calibration of the transmitters/ amplifiers and receivers used in these facilities, getting close to the point now – at that time there were some angry Welsh people protesting about the lack of Welsh language programs and amongst other things completely destroyed the equipment ( sledgehammer etc ) in one of the relay stations near Cardiff which then took out most of South Wales. With ingenuity, engineering bodgery and begging for bits we had it back up in 24 hrs. We were just technicians, no degrees just a driving desire not to be beaten. We learned later that the BBC were so grateful they sent many goodies, mugs,t-shirts etc but these had been abstracted by the next up from the line manager for his family.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/16/tv-out-for-two-more-weeks-in-north-yorkshire-after-mast-fire

    1. I was under the impression that many of the masts had been privatised and sold off via a management buyout, in the days
      when microwave comms and cellphone masts seemed like a boring dead end for those at the top of the BBC.

      1. The BBC sold most if not all of it’s estate to private enterprise to own and run and then rented it back, obviating the need for expensive techs and engineers with the concomitant loss of commitment of expertise and quality over cost, much as they do with programming, apart from the execrable Eastenders and the occasional natural history unit offering most of the output seems to be outsourced.

        1. “During his tenure as Director-General, Birt* restructured the BBC, in the face of much internal opposition …”

          *John Birt, Baron Birt.

  81. The most worrying aspect of the Afghanistan debacle is the encouragement and “heart” that it will give to fundamentalist Muslims all over the Middle East and Asia.
    Add to that the encouragement it will give to Muslim crazies all over Africa and Europe and we can look forward to extremely interesting times, as the Chinese would put it.
    Expect much more jihad everywhere.

    1. Afternoon Sos. The real loss here is to the credibility of the United States and by extension the West in General. Much is made of the Afghan Army running away but this was a war instigated by the United States for whatever reason and we see them bugging out just as they did in Vietnam. Who would want such an ally?

      1. The U.S was shocked that the Afghan army didn’t defend against the Taliban. Really? How effing naive can they be?

        The Afghan army hadn’t been paid in months. What were their realistic choices once the Americans left?

      2. The West lost all credibility years ago. Look at the leaders of the so-called free world.

        As Grizzly notes above, imbeciles.

    2. In Islamic cultures throwing your shoes at someone is a way of showing your disgust at. But I have some sympathy for the ordinary soldiers. Apparently the corruption was so massive that they were not getting paid while their superiors were ferreting the money away for themselves.

      Viral Video: Afghan citizens express displeasure with Afghanistan Army by throwing stones and shoes

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyt7G5ED6a4

      1. It is an enormous insult.

        Corruption is the worst religion of all, it poisons everything it touches.

  82. Is anyone capable of informing me if there is any country in the world, right now, that doesn’t have an imbecile in charge?

    1. Afternoon Grizz. Russia. It does me good just to read about Putin. He’s like someone from another time!

          1. Afternoon Anne. He’s as smart as a wagonload of monkeys. There’s no one to touch him in the West!

    2. Hungary with Viktor Orbán ?, he seems to have the best interests of his people first and foremost and a refreshingly robust attitude about migrants coupled with an obvious distain for the EU.

    3. Mostly OK in Norway, but there’s an election next month, so an opportunity to elect some arris in place of Erna Solberg.

    7. Do you know the name of the Swiss PM?

      I wouldn’t expect folk to. Mainly because unlike all the useless government’s, he keeps quiet and does as he’s told.

    2. Strewth, they are so bluddy thick these people – and they want us to vote for them!

    3. They keep gathering in nice, neat groups. We could solve most of our problems with a few well placed pipe bombs.

      After all, that’s how they think of us.

        2. A little bird tells me that birds don’t have pain receptors for chilli’s capsaicin.

  87. Miracles can happen. Had a telephone appointment with the doc booked – and she rang – absolutely on time !!!

    2. My ‘bloods’ and telephone appointment both cancelled due to illness. Quite apt I suppose. Both will now take place in September.

  88. That’s me gone. Just spent a happy hour gathering kindling against the coming winter (which will start in September) and then cutting up cardboard boxes to take to the tip (one day). Amazing how much cardboard there is in a small box.

    Have a jolly evening – I admired the would-be passengers at Kabul International Airport who thought that climbing up the outside of the air-bridge might beat the queues… Were I ever to fly again, I might try that.

    A demain.

  89. If you are interested in what is going on in Afghanistan this is probably the most interesting and informative channel to watch, WION, the English language Indian channel. Much more informative than any Western channels because they have a direct interest in what is going on and understand the complexities of the place.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc65W-i_Zik

        1. Western news media have been pointing the finger at Iran. Iran may be funding terrorists but it is Islamabad that is training, feeding and housing the Taliban. Supported financially by the Sauds. I suppose the clue is in the name.

          The Taliban will once again invite all Islamic terrorist groups to join them under the auspices of Pakistan and Imran Khan.

          Someone must have really pissed him off when he was here.

          1. I’ve met numerous Indians and numerous Pakistanis over the years. Give me an Indian over a Pakistani every time.

        2. I am concerned that the Taliban will be seeking ‘a striking encore’ on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 …

      2. Not sure about nucking Pakistan, that’s a bit drastic but, in the main, I agree with you. It is Pakistan that is the cancer that needs to be excised. Get rid of them and many problems, not just Afghanistan, are solved. But the West should unambiguously, in my opinion, get solidly behind India as the alternative to China.

        1. Indeed. Why are we buying trash from China when we could buy it from India? China is not manufacturing all this stuff to do us a favour, but to undermine our Industry and commerce.

          1. I have argued for encouraging India as a manufacturing base against the Chinese since the 1960’s. If you have ever wondered why it never happened, again blame the Americans who the Indians upset with their socialist propensities. That the hypocrites were willing to engage with China while censoring India is typical of the idiocy of the Americans and their commitment to ideology rather than pragmatism.

  90. The return of the Taliban will fuel Islamic militancy across the world, radicalise some Muslims in the West, and provoke a new refugee crisis. If America and its allies think they won’t suffer strife from all this, they’re wrong.
    As the chaos in Kabul rages on, some insist it’s all part of a cunning American plan. At least that’s what Blinken seemed to be claiming as he doubled down on the White House’s assertion that remaining in Afghanistan was “not in our national interest”.

    The swift abandonment of the Central Asian nation and its capitulation to the Taliban (though perhaps not at the speed it happened) was the deliberate intent of a US foreign policy that sought to end the carrying of the cross of its “forever wars” and shift its strategy from the Middle East and associated conflicts in Muslim nations towards a new era of “great-power competition” with China.

    Washington convinced itself it would be convenient for the West to simply leave it all behind as if none of it ever happened, and as if none of it would ever come back to harm it again. The collapse of the Afghan government to the Taliban seemed an inevitable price to pay, even if it happened far sooner than expected. Yet, it’s not turning out to be as simple as that.
    One particular aspect of the War on Terror era is that the West has been locked in a vicious cycle of wars it once thought would be quick and easy – not just in Afghanistan, but in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Instead, they’ve set off never-ending chain reactions of further conflict, with one crisis leading to the next.
    And now the West is facing blowback. It never quite understood that its actions would cause that blowback, spurring on the radicalisation of Muslims and the spread of extremist ideologies, which, in turn, ignited more conflict and elicited more terror attacks. The length of this era has not been down to choice.

    As a case study of how this worked, one can follow a chain of events beginning with the US’s funding of extremists to undermine the USSR in Afghanistan, to the events of 9/11, to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to the wider promulgation of Al-Qaeda and insurgency, which then loops into the rise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), and was further exacerbated by other ad hoc decisions along the way, including Libya and Syria.

    They’re all connected and part of the same pattern of decision-making. Supporting factors, such as Western support for Israel, have contributed to all of this, too. These events are demonstrative of the destructiveness of conflicts in the Middle East, and the effects they create.

    So, will America’s strategy of walking away and trying to cut the chain of conflict in at least some Islamic lands give it the peace and space it wants to concentrate on its Chinese adversary?

    Leaving Afghanistan to its fate may be a necessary and logical step for Washington to have taken, but it is also naïve for US politicians to believe they can simply dismiss the consequences and say, “It’s not our problem anymore.”
    It’s true that the Taliban has never directly waged terrorism overseas, even if it did harbour Al-Qaeda. It’s a group made up of Pashtun nationalists who reject foreign control of their country. Nevertheless, we have to face the reality that Afghanistan has again become an Islamist state, and this will have repercussions. The new regime wants to be diplomatic, not least in how it reaches out to Russia and China, but its ideology will inevitably provide a platform for Islamic fundamentalism and inspire others to take a similar path.
    There is a serious risk that, even if the Taliban does not advocate it directly, a new wave of radicalisation will naturally spawn from its success in Afghanistan, and that the country will become a magnet of sorts for jihadists. This spells trouble for the West. Given that, can the US and its allies turn their heads away from these consequences?

    American neo-conservatives have come out clamouring for still more war after the fall of Kabul. This is unlikely to happen, and Biden will seek to stick to his policy. But even without the likelihood of further military intervention in Afghanistan, it makes little difference, because the repercussions of the past 20 years of occupation are already in train. Abruptly ending the engagement and fleeing won’t make those go away.

    There are a number of things to consider, among them the potential radicalisation of Muslim diaspora groups in the West, Islamist uprisings in other countries via the spreading of Islamist ideology, and refugee outflows from Afghanistan.

    The crises of the past tell us that these factors will pose immense disruptive influences to the West and its domestic politics. It should not be forgotten that the impact of the Syrian civil war and the rise of IS were decisive factors in empowering right-wing populist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim movements across the Western world.
    2016 was a damning year for this. Events such as Brexit and Trump’s election were not exclusively products of foreign-policy failures in Muslim lands, but it’s hard to deny that those two moments were a reactionary backlash to the events of that time. It was a year defined by a massive refugee crisis and sporadic terrorism brought about by radicals. Trump’s infamous proclamation of his “Muslim ban” is evidence of the mood at that time, and it sent him to triumph in the GOP primaries.
    The West’s dilemma is this: its interventions in Muslim countries spur radicalisation through the massive political and social upheavals they cause, proliferating terrorism and insecurity, creating refugee crises, dragging politics rightwards and forcing the West into ever more conflicts.

    Afghanistan is now a case study to see if the US and its allies can truly break this vicious cycle and end the West’s self-destructive spree of interventionism, which has drained its resources and political will for much more than 20 years.

    The US’s new enemy may be China, but the drama of the past few days suggest it’s not going to be easy to cast aside the damage that’s been done with its adventures in Muslim lands.

    Peter Frankopan’s outstanding book ‘The Silk Roads’ reminds us that the nations of the Middle East and Central Asia are the drivers of world history and geopolitical tectonics. Afghanistan has clearly defined the trajectory and decisions of world powers for decades, and it is still in that driving seat.

    1. Whilst I agree with the thrust of the argument and particularly that Frankopan’s book is excellent, it is usual practice to quote and acknowledge your sources.

      You have lifted this almost word for word from elsewhere.

      1. Absolutely word for word.fromTom Fowdy a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia.But he writes for RT which is a dirty word in the west.

        1. I think RT produces some good pieces and excellent analysis from a different viewpoint.

          4. You might be pleasantly surprised.They were linked to on Nottle long before you appeared here.

        1. Unless Harry is really Tom Fowdy you’re correct.

          I think you might have addressed your comment to him rather than me!
          {:-((

        1. I thought it was, but hey ho, I’m feeling slightly belligerent this evening.
          Yeah, I know what’s new.

  91. Utterly off topic.

    Has anyone else noticed how Biden often appears to be very tall? He’s not, he’s less than six foot.

    I can’t help thinking that the Yanks select greeting staff who are relatively short, whenever he appears from a plane or helicopter.

    The secret service staff tend to make him look average or even small.

    1. Ghaddafi looked tall in the pictures, but that’s because the photographer shot him from below, looking upwards. He was actually about 5’6″.

  92. Evening, all. The resurgence of the Taliban would be no surprise to anyone with any knowledge of islam or history. It’s governments that should be ashamed, not the country as a whole. Many of us were against intervention in the first place, knowing only too well what would happen. On a personal note, the incompetence and general inefficiency of GPs continues apace. I registered the death this morning, only to get a voicemail (I went to help my Treasure, of whom I’ve written before, to sort out her new washing machine – she’d omitted to remove the transportation screws and wondered why it sounded like Concord and walked its way into the middle of the kitchen when it spun) because I was in one of the usual (for here) mobile Not Spots. When I did get a signal, the message was from the registry; the medical practice hadn’t sent through their paperwork and the registrar was having to chase it up. Watch this space. NHS envy of the world? Hah!

    2. Registering my mother’s death was made an unpleasant difficult task.

      You had to book an appointment to see the registrar, this could only be done in person for appointments on that day. Appointments to see the same registrar to register a birth could be made by phone but no, we had to be there at 9AM to get one of the few afternoon slots available. Oh good, four hours to waste in Hornchurch town centre.

      Then the registrar was surprised that I was having a bit of a snit when we finally saw her.

      Buying a new washing machine? Very impressive, everything around here is on at least a three or four month lead time.

      1. My Mum shuffled off in 2003. Moved from the Cumberland Infirmary to Newcastle General, snow notwithstanding. Mercifully, her stay was short. When I had the inevitable early morning phone call, I hit the A69. Upon arrival, the nurses eventually interrupted their social chat, only to say “who?” Eventually, I found someone who was prepared to acknowledge Mum’s existence. “Have you made an appointment with the Bereavement Office?” Me: “I’ve never heard of the Bereavement Office. You called me in the early hours to say my mother has died, so here I am.” “Well, you need to make an appointment to visit the Bereavement Officer. It’ll probably be next week.”

        Dear reader, a raging fury ensued. By mid-afternoon, the Bereavement Officer was miraculously found, the Coroner was informed, and a death certificate was duly issued…

    3. Sigh… The entire public sector has been missing in action for eighteen months. Love the story re. the transit screws. As ever, RTFM is good advice. Re notspots, does your mobile do ‘wifi calling’? When I moved to Seale in 2005, I had to go outside and find higher ground to get an Orange signal. Eventually I worked out that I had line of sight to a Three cell, on the Hog’s Back Hotel. This was transformative – until the HBH changed owners, and junked the Three arrangement.

    4. Partly because of covid the registration process is electronic and a bit impersonal. Yes, GPs now seem to be slow to contact the Registrar, but you personally won’t get into into trouble if it takes longer than the time limit. As you probably know, it is prudent to request several ‘Certified Copies’. It is supposedly an offence to make a copy of a Certified Copy, but the banks etc are allowed to scan or copy one for their records. May I ask if your OH opted for burial or cremation?

    1. Oh dear, what a shame.
      Something good might come out of this omnishambles, then.

        1. Maybe some sense will appear in the press as a result of their regretting their misjudged attempts at wokery, and what I hope is a severe kicking by the public.

    3. He’s a puppet…as was Trump and Presidents before.
      US foreign policy is dictated by a cabal who remain hidden.
      Their foreign policy hasn’t changed since the 50s.

      1. Apart from Trump I might tend to agree.

        DT was a bolt from the blue, Clinton was much their better bet. They moved heaven and earth to get rid of DT.

        1. And succeeded.The same with JFK.
          Sometimes one slips through but they have the ability to nullify them.

          4. On what do you base that assumption?
            Consider the fact that the US/NATO has held sway in World affairs since WW2.

          5. You’ve just stated that the world won’t regret the change in the world order.

            Indeed the US Nato has held sway but if that changes, and I think it could well, the alternative won’t be fun, even in Finland.
            China and Islam won’t tolerate dissent.

          6. How do you explain the fact that Muslims have been part of Russian society since the days of Ivan The Terrible (1540ish)
            They are brought up as Russian first and Muslim second……for near on 500 years.

          8. Chechen rebels came from outside Russia.Putin met with the Chechen(Muslim) leader who told him so.
            Putin sent the army in…the rest is history.

          9. The Chechen leader Putin met was Akhmat Kodyrov who later became Chechen President.

          11. Very low numbers relative to the population, and as you state, Russian first.
            Show me a single country where they get to significant numbers and don’t then set about demanding special treatment.

          12. 20% of the population is a very low number?
            Isn’t the popular notion that they outbreed the indigenous population?
            They’re taking their time about it!
            Another 500 years?

          13. I don’t know where you got your 20% figure from.

            In those areas where they predominate I think you will find that they are multiplying. Russia has less of an issue with non Muslim indigenes having larger families than most of the West.

            In addition the main Muslim areas are pretty much self-contained. Russia certainly has problems with them. Chechnya for example.

          15. Did you know that in the Uighur area of China there are more Mosques per head of population than in Saudi.
            Provided by the state.
            Don’t believe everything you read in Western MSM.
            China clamped down on those recruiting for Al Qeda and ISIS.You should be cheering them on!

          17. You’ll learn………………………………………………..eventually.

          18. If they leave China alone I suspect China will leave them alone to get on with eating the West from within.

        1. Why was the warmonger,John Bolton, brought onto the Trump team?
          I doubt it was his decision.

      4. They got rid of Donald Trump because he is a patriot and wouldn’t sell out to the puppetmasters. His voters are painted as rednecks and right wingers who fly their stars and stripes at every opportunity.

        Just like the people who voted Brexit were painted as foaming at the mouth, racist little Englanders.

        Patriotism and pride in ones own country is now considered abhorrent by the Left.

  95. Its all happening…

    Mayor of key Ukrainian city found dead from gunshot to chest, amid government’s crackdown on ‘pro-Russian’ opposition party

    Police in the Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog have opened an investigation after its mayor, Konstantin Pavlov, was found dead at home from a gunshot wound to the chest, amid a crackdown on the country’s largest opposition party.
    Pavlov’s body was discovered on the veranda of his house in the industrial city, which is around 400km (250 miles) south of Kiev, with a weapon reportedly lying close by. The 48-year-old politician was a member of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, which is the main opposition group in the country’s parliament. The faction is known for its criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, and for calling for closer ties with Russia.

    The authorities say it isn’t yet clear whether Pavlov’s death was suicide or if foul play could have been involved. However, Vadim Rabinovich, a prominent businessman and fellow party member said the mayor had been “killed” and that suggestions he took his own life were “a deliberate lie.” A source told local news outlet Strana that, after being hit by the bullet, Pavlov managed to stagger around 10 meters before he fell to the ground.

    And,yes…its from RT.

    1. They seem to like Erdogan though and it is known that he sheltered Jihaddis. I think our ruling elite have turned against their own people.

  96. Ahem

    “And when they behead your own people in the wars that are to come, then you will know what this was all about”
    Slobodan Milosevic

    1. And he was right.Once again the US/NATO setting two religions at each other’s throat for their own agenda.

      1. Things were too peaceful in Europe..the US needed a flash-point.
        Then,of course came Georgia/South Osettia..after that Ukraine.
        They have tried in Belarus but with little success.
        If you can’t see all this,i can’t help.

        1. The EU have demonised Orban and Lukashenko. I know something of Budapest as i have visited so i know the EU is lying about him. I can only assume they are lying about Lukashenko too.

          I have heard nothing about the people of Belarus or their living conditions but i do know something about Budapest.

      2. They were “at each others’ throats” before the US/NATO got involved. I went there with NATO/IFOR in December 1995 and saw the destruction.

    2. So , I wonder whether Raab or Patel or Boris or even Gove have read Enoch Powell?

      I don’t suppose Starmer or Corbyn knew who he was ?

      1. Strangely enough Benn (pere) spoke well of him and took some flak for attending his funeral. He argued that Powell was a gentleman and honest and that you knew where you were with him.
        Concepts now alien.

  99. Its nearly 23:30 here but i’ll leave you with this tit-bit (courtesy of RT)

    Hundreds of Afghan military personnel ended up in Uzbekistan over the weekend, after they fled the Taliban offensive, the Uzbek authorities said on Monday, adding that they had to “forcibly” land dozens of rogue aircraft.
    Uzbekistan had to force-land as many as 46 Afghan military aircraft on Saturday and Sunday, the nation’s Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Monday. A total of 22 military planes and 24 military helicopters were landed at Termez Airport, in southern Uzbekistan, the statement added.

    Over 700 Afghan soldiers arrived in Uzbekistan – which is located to the north of Afghanistan – on board an aircraft, and 158 soldiers and civilians arrived on foot, having crossed the Amu Darya River separating the two nations, the officials said. Those who arrived on foot have been accused of illegally entering Uzbek territory, RIA news agency reported, citing the Uzbek prosecutors.
    An Afghan Air Force Embraer 314 aircraft crashed in Uzbekistan, having collided with the Uzbek Air Force MiG-29 fighter sent to escort it to an airfield, the officials confirmed. The pilots of both jets ejected and were hospitalized in a serious condition, according to local medics.

    Earlier, the Uzbek Defense Ministry told RIA-Novosti that an aircraft supposedly carrying fleeing Afghan military personnel had been shot down by Uzbekistan’s air-defense system after it crossed into the neighboring nation’s airspace. It was not immediately clear if the statement referred to a separate or the same incident.

    The mass exodus of soldiers and civilians was sparked by a sweeping offensive launched by the Taliban militants in the wake of the US withdrawal

  103. I notice Elon Musk has outflanked Jeff Bezos in obtaining the contract with NASA to colonise the moon. I wonder whether the Chinese will plant their flag first.

  107. Bob Dylan accused of plying 12-year-old girl with drink and drugs before sexually abusing her, lawsuit claims
    Mr Dylan, who is a father-of-six, has a Nobel Prize in literature and is worth $350 million has denied the claims
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/08/16/bob-dylan-accused-plying-12-year-old-girl-drink-drugs-sexually/

    This dates back to 1965 – 56 years ago. Should there not be a time limit after which such accusations can be brought against anyone?

    1. The charges cannot be proven in any meaningful way. Also, why wait so long?

      I think they are after shut-up and go away money.

    2. I was assaulted in 1965 when I was a teenager. Unfortunately the perp was not a multi millionaire. 😕

      1. Me too. He was an Abbey organist.

        Nice bloke but liked titillating attractive young blue eyed boys like me. I just laughed at the time, being an innocent imbecile.

        I was tickled pink as they say.

        1. If it’s true, why wait well over 50 years to come forth?
          If it’s false, I hope Dylan crushes her legally for trying it on.

  110. The Covid scam is now so obvious that nobody but a fool would go along with it.

    We are witnessing a massive transference of wealth from taxpayers to chancers and charlatans, be they government funded contractors, or big Pharma who are creaming it.

    Private PPE suppliers (buying defective tainted stuff from China) and adding astonishing mark-ups, suppliers of glass phials to contain the potentially lethal jabs, the enormous costs of advertising or otherwise promoting jabs, and the coercion of young people with the incentive of a few quid off the cost of a burger or a pizza from gutless companies seeking to further exploit everyone are the pandemic.

    The coercion to encourage innocents to take the jabs is a crime against humanity. This is because those youngsters taking jabs for burgers are neither capable of giving confirmed consent nor able to relate maturely to the political class advocating their demise.

    When I look back at the development of the Covid crisis I remain astonished that anyone will have taken the strictures of our government and its automaton advisors seriously at all. Are they all brain dead or what?

    1. When seeing the young blindly walking along, eyes fixated in the screem, apparently not really in contact with the reality going on around them – I honestly wonder if they ARE being brainwashed by Flash Messaging on the screens, where short messages appear for a split second, this is absorbed by the subconscious, but not consciously noticed and recognised by the brain. I have seen this in use where I worked and realised what had been done, called it out to the female presenter of the video clip, resulting in her screaming her head off at me. Seems I lost her a lot of commission. Oddly enough, no mention of it happening was EVER made by the bosses, so clearly they had ordered it to be done.

    2. Brainwashed, on purpose, not brain dead ab initio. I feel sorry for those bombarded by fear messaging through the mainstream media – I’ve only seen the propaganda out of the corner of my eye, not watching or listening to any of it, but it’s strong stuff and well coordinated.

      I’m concentrating on trying to unite people in opposition to vaccine passports. Current hitch is the belief that “They’d never do that here!”. (Thank goodness for the hardened old cynics here on Nottl!)

      2. Local radio repeats endlessly how many are newly infected and how much worse it is since yesterday/last week/the last time. What they don’t say is that none of them are ending up in horsepickle, whether because of vaccination reducing the symptoms and/or the latest delta variant being more infectious but less virulent.
        Thus, the fear continues – no lies, but not the whole truth…

      3. I have fallen out with the main guy on https://trollograph.blogspot.com/ who’s only argument is precisely that: They would not have done it because it is not in their interest – even when you show him that it is very much in the interest of those who are doing it. He thinks that people profiting are doing so for the greater good.

        I am stunned by the cognitive dissonance.

        1. I’d be delighted to get stinking rich for the common good! I’ll take it for the team! Bring it on!

      1. It so happens I listened to that yesterday.
        Being a 58 year old heterosexual (so sue me!) I am impervious to his hotness. I was however left non-plussed by the discussion.
        The world has gone mad. Sanity will not resume until a sane narrative has been pushed for a while with the insistence and resources that supported this one. And that is simply not going to happen because the people with the means do not have the interest.
        I see no way out of this besides slow collapse. Or maybe sudden collapse.

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