Bulletins and News Discussion from September 16th to September 22nd, 2024 - This Megathread Is Dedicated To The Brave Mujahideen Fighters of Afghanistan - COTW: Afghanistan

Image is of China's ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Sheng, meeting Taliban Prime Minister Hasan Akhund in September 2023.

I know the Rambo title card is a hoax.

The COTW was chosen in the wake of the aborted sequel to the attempted assassination of Trump being performed by a guy who is VERY enthusiastic about Ukraine, to the point of trying to sneak Afghan soldiers into Ukraine by setting up a house in Pakistan to house them and then further transport them. He also apparently offered to send thousands of Afghan soldiers to Haiti to help them combat gang violence. Whomst among us doesn't have the numbers of thousands of Afghan soldiers on speed-dial. Do you reckon there's a group chat?

Anyway, while there is still no official recognition of the Taliban's government by any country, China has taken a different course than the late USSR and the US - forming economic in-roads, rather than trying their own invasion. This has been a big boon for the struggling country, with various mines and oil and agriculture deals helping keep things barely afloat. A total disintegration of the social fabric of Afghanistan is not in the interest of any of the powers that border it - China, Pakistan, and Iran, with Russia not too far away - so an interesting dynamic of helping-without-official-recognition has been established. I wonder who will be the first country to fully recognize them?

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Afghanistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

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Last week's thread is here.

1.6K comments

Well so much for my "you only get to do this trick once" bit yesterday. So we've got to be looking at the prelude to invasion, right? Two attacks in two days? This one with larger explosions but a smaller number of targets (way less folks seem to have walkie talkies than pagers)? I just don't understand the calculus otherwise. What a shitshow, godspeed to the people of Lebanon.
- The fact that they're doing it all at once (there are reports of pagers in syria that are detonating right now) means that this was meant to be used in stages.
  This is a wave, and now they really can't do this trick anymore. People will switch to Chinese made products to protect themselves from western bombs.
  You were never wrong
- I don't know. If this was the prelude to a serious invasion, wouldn't they start the offensive right after the communications attacks? I mean I'm not saying they won't. Israel has certainly developed enough terminal fascist brainworms to attack at bad times tactically, but it seems like if this was planned to be in conjunction with an invasion, they'd have started already.
  Though I suppose it's possible that this attack will be enough to shift their attention northward, separate of a true plan, the feelings of triumph making them stumble their way into an actual invasion. I could see factions in the government being stupidly confident in this moment.

1619 comments