Quote Originally Posted by sonatine View Post
Quote Originally Posted by gimmick View Post
And my guess is that the most positive expectation for this whole operation was managed decline.

Currently your most reliable ally in Afghanistan is Taliban. They have decent control of their fighters that came from the good caves. They now have something lose. CIA and China have been talking with relevant parties.

The iffy part is that Haqqani network controls the airport security. No idea if something has been promised to them. But since you handed them the list of all Afghani collaborators and most of them are still alive, i'd lean towards some concessions.

Anyways, does someone still think it would have been a good idea to wait a few more months?

get ready to hear a lot about the northern aliance again and how we are offering material support to them and the taliban against isis, which is going to become an increasingly murky narrative as we start wondering why isis is privy to all the intelligence we share with the taliban, and why we are suddenly drone striking hospitals and weddings accidentally.

which youll be able to find plenty of footage of on facebook via epochtimes and rt.com.
There are some "positive" scenarios with Taliban getting control of most of the country. Namely they can clean their house if they feel like it.

China will pressure them and offer appropriate carrots. And most importantly they're not responsible of killing dozens of relatives of everyone sitting at the negotiating table.

Obv there are family ties, clan connections and drug trade related things. But for the most part Taliban doesn't like ISIS. They have even less reasons to tolerate them now. The 500ish Al-Qaida members most likely wont be touched though.

There was some reports of gunfire inside the prison 15 miles from Kabul when Taliban took it on the 15th. Wonder who got shot.