A Saigon moment in the Hindu Kush
A Saigon moment in the Hindu Kush
The US is on the verge of its own second Vietnam repeated as farce in a haphazard retreat
from Afghanistan
by Pepe Escobar July 7, 2021
US Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade wait
for helicopter transport as part of Operation Khanjar at Camp Dwyer in Helmand Province in
Afghanistan on July 2, 2009. – The US pullout from the Pentagon’s once mighty Bagram Air Base in
the dead of night, while Taliban fighters pour across the country, looks a lot like a military defeat.
Photo: AFP / Manpreet Romana
And it’s all over
For the unknown soldier
It’s all over
For the unknown soldier
The Doors, “The Unknown Soldier”
Let’s start with some stunning facts on the Afghan ground.
The Taliban are on a roll. Earlier this week their PR arm was claiming they hold 218 Afghan
districts out of 421 – capturing new ones every day. Tens of districts are contested. Entire
Afghan provinces are basically lost to the government in Kabul, which has been de facto
reduced to administer a few scattered cities under siege.
Already on July 1, the Taliban announced they controlled 80% of Afghan territory. That’s
close to the situation 20 years ago, only a few weeks before 9/11, when Commander Ahmad
Shah Masoud told me in the Panjshir valley , as he prepared a counter-offensive, that the
Taliban were 85% dominant.
Their new tactical approach works like a dream. First, there’s a direct appeal to soldiers of
the Afghan National Army (ANA) to surrender. Negotiations are smooth and deals fulfilled.
Soldiers in the low thousands have already joined the Taliban without a single shot fired.
