dagblog - Comments for "Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals"

The day 200 people trampled

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 07:03:50 +0000

In reply to Where's the outrage now, huh?

The day 200 people trampled and threw themselves to death off a Baghdad bridge and it barely made a ripple...

Where's the outrage now, huh?

artappraiser — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 05:11:20 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

Where's the outrage now, huh?

Lmao https://t.co/wMFHHCz0zg pic.twitter.com/cdhdBopfHu
— Vince G TheSwoleNerd (@thelateempire) October 26, 2021

(I think one thing wisdom of age can do is it's much easier to "get" this phenomenon; to recognize it when it appears.)

Interesting statement by

artappraiser — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 00:43:04 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

Interesting statement by Tariq Ali on the making a nation state from tribes thing since the 18th c; he's actually got a lot of interesting stuff to say in this piece, it's not all the usual lefty cant:

"Ethnicity as such was more or less banned. It’s still not registered in the census. Whenever they take a census... it’s always of Afghan citizens. They don’t say Pashtun or Tajik or Hazara or Sunni or Shia; that is never done, and for good reason." https://t.co/EWEYW3Wc1V
— Sam Haselby (@samhaselby) October 22, 2021

EXCLUSIVE: Seven Americans

artappraiser — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 03:37:43 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

EXCLUSIVE: Seven Americans who fought in Ukraine's war against Russia—some with far-right extremists—are being investigated by the feds for alleged war crimes, a rare step by the US government.https://t.co/AwBJiZ1GGr
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 8, 2021

Assume you read the Guardian

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 15:18:00 +0000

In reply to last paragraph is the most

Assume you read the Guardian article, where the contract paid $18m first year, not close to the max $360m, and furthermore...

Sources say NCL is billed $500,000 a month for Watan's services. To underline the point, NCL, operating on a $360m contract from the US military, and owned by the Afghan defense minister's son, is apparently paying millions a year from those funds to a company owned by President Karzai's cousins, for protection.

The following was riveting, I

artappraiser — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 05:32:30 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

The following was riveting, I heard the start on the car radio and ran to turn on the radio in the house when I got home. Highly recommended. He's got a Frontline documentary debuting on PBS on Tuesday, but Terri Gross undoubted got him to talk about unrelated stuff because she's such a good interviewer. Much more complex info. than the title might imply. You can do audio or read transcript

A more moderate Taliban? An Afghan journalist says nothing has changed

October 7, 2021 2:00 PM ET Heard on Fresh Air Terri Gross

Najibullah Quraishi has won numerous awards for his reporting, including three Emmy awards, a Peabody award, an Overseas Press Club award and a DuPont award. He's currently in Kabul, where he's waiting to hear when he can get a flight out of Afghanistan.

Courtesy of PBS Frontline

[....] Quraishi grew up in Afghanistan under Soviet and Taliban rule, and began reporting on the Taliban before the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks and the onset of the U.S. Afghan war. He's currently in Kabul reporting for his upcoming PBS Frontline documentary, Taliban Takeover, (airing Oct. 12) which details life in Afghanistan now — and the infighting between the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that is affiliated with the Taliban, and whose members are part of the new Taliban government [....]

last paragraph is the most

artappraiser — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 02:54:20 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

last paragraph is the most interesting one:

Imagine giving your life for this: https://t.co/q09WSvMUrt
— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) October 8, 2021

Not much is publicly known about the various business interests or wealth origins of Wardak, an ethnic Pashtun refugee who was born in Afghanistan in 1977. But public corporation records show he’s the president of a Miami-based firm called AD Capital Group. Various reports have also noted that his older brother Hamed Wardak, a Georgetown University grad and onetime valedictorian, is a successful businessman who runs military transportation company NCL Holdings. Based in Virginia but operating primarily in Afghanistan, NCL has secured lucrative U.S. government contracts in exchange for protecting American supply routes in Afghanistan; those contracts were reportedly worth north of a whopping $360 million.

Legit governing is so much

artappraiser — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:18:26 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

Legit governing is so much harder than being an insurgent, hasn't that almost always been the case? Where's Allah, he was supposed to be on their side but governing, it's still really hard, hard work, as a former American president might say...

The Taliban was unquestionably an effective insurgent force, but now the group is facing a different role—that of counterinsurgent—and is struggling to prevent asymmetric and irregular attacks from ISK. #IntelBrief #ISK #Afghanistan https://t.co/TB7uAVyxoW
— The Soufan Center (@TheSoufanCenter) October 6, 2021

Lindsey Graham:

artappraiser — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 20:39:49 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

Lindsey Graham:

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is lethal to Americans and our national security.

The fact that the suicide bomber who killed 13 American service members was a terrorist released from prison by the Taliban shows the threats we continue to face. https://t.co/gmxD7wVaqC
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 6, 2021

How many more terrorists with that mindset continue to roam Afghanistan today?

We know the terrorists’ ultimate goal is to attack the American homeland.

I fear the worst is still yet to come.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 6, 2021

Afghans in Gitmo - it's over?

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 18:04:20 +0000

In reply to Parallax View - Afghan Wigs, Western Vals

Afghans in Gitmo - it's over?

With the war in Afghanistan over, why don’t you just go get Abu Zubaydah out of Guantanamo and ask him what’s been going on with him, Justice Breyer asks. https://t.co/bKoVedS87B pic.twitter.com/fNmEF8Mg4s
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 6, 2021