Rolling Afghanistan Thread

[luka]

whats quetta? he said he doesnt have a paid job, its an internship

 

[catalog]

he['s high up. he said something on another thread that made me raise an eyebrow as well.

 

[luka]

no, youve got him all wrong. hes doing an internship. he's hustling, trying to get ahead. times ticking though, he's not getting any younger

 

[catalog]

he's a peacemaker, he's shaka hislop, he's making good the promise of his name.

 

[luka]

i think he said he had an afghan barber once that used to talk politics with him, @craner used to do the same with the unfortunate kurd he bought his booze from on roman road

 

[catalog]

when was the last time you had someone who wasn't white round your house?

 

[luka]

a couple of days ago. i grew up in a very multicultural area catalog. ive got family that is not white. my stepmum and my brother are not whiteys.

 

[luka]

i dont think you understand how east london works

 

[catalog]

i apologise. i was just checking.

 

[shakahislop]

Am I wrong about the Taliban having ambitions for a fundamentalist world order? Or maybe just some levant-adjacent order?

that's one of the biggest misconceptions. they're not interested at all. they're all about 'we were the government of afghanistan and we want to be the government of afghanistan again'. and maybe a bit of pakistan too but that's a pipe dream. they do have quite / very fundamentalist beliefs, though i guess i'd describe those beliefs as being the local pashtun interpretation of islam, ie it has a big dollop of pashtun values in the mix.

but they're not part of that al-qaeda-daesh continuum of global jihadists. that's something else.

 

[shakahislop]

i want to settle this once and for all because you all have pieces of the puzzle.

i'm fairly high up in al qaeda, but i'm on a secondment to Vice at the moment. i'm able to do all of this low-paid work due to my footballing career. I am most proud of my time at Reading and bitterly regret leaving. I am in Quetta outside of my work for either AQ or Vice, this one is strictly reporting for the lads of dissensus.

(i feel like a dick not just saying 'this is what i am doing' but it would be way too easy to figure out who i am in real life. i do humanitarian aid stuff basically in the properly professional 'wear a shirt and have meetings' bit of that world. but along the way have developed a sideline hobbiest interest in afghan and pakistani politics)

 

[HannahB]

that's one of the biggest misconceptions. they're not interested at all. they're all about 'we were the government of afghanistan and we want to be the government of afghanistan again'. and maybe a bit of pakistan too but that's a pipe dream. they do have quite / very fundamentalist beliefs, though i guess i'd describe those beliefs as being the local pashtun interpretation of islam, ie it has a big dollop of pashtun values in the mix.

but they're not part of that al-qaeda-daesh continuum of global jihadists. that's something else.

What are Pashtu values like you say?

 

[HannahB]

i want to settle this once and for all because you all have pieces of the puzzle.

i'm fairly high up in al qaeda, but i'm on a secondment to Vice at the moment. i'm able to do all of this low-paid work due to my footballing career. I am most proud of my time at Reading and bitterly regret leaving. I am in Quetta outside of my work for either AQ or Vice, this one is strictly reporting for the lads of dissensus.

(i feel like a dick not just saying 'this is what i am doing' but it would be way too easy to figure out who i am in real life. i do humanitarian aid stuff basically in the properly professional 'wear a shirt and have meetings' bit of that world. but along the way have developed a sideline hobbiest interest in afghan and pakistani politics)

“lads” 🥊

 

[Mr. Tea]

Not being into footie, I'd never heard of Shaka Hislop, so in my mind I'd constructed a sort of hybrid of Jah Shaka and Ian Hislop.

 

[Clinamenic]

that's one of the biggest misconceptions. they're not interested at all. they're all about 'we were the government of afghanistan and we want to be the government of afghanistan again'. and maybe a bit of pakistan too but that's a pipe dream. they do have quite / very fundamentalist beliefs, though i guess i'd describe those beliefs as being the local pashtun interpretation of islam, ie it has a big dollop of pashtun values in the mix.

but they're not part of that al-qaeda-daesh continuum of global jihadists. that's something else.

Thanks for the clarification. Do you think Taliban would be willing to comply with those who do have global aspirations here, if even uneasily as a geopolitical alliance? Or are you saying such things are simply beyond their stated scope?

 

[Clinamenic]

One ostensible concern of policymakers here in US that Afghanistan could become a "breeding ground" for terrorists, which I suppose is a term (terrorist) used in its full subjective breadth here.

But it seems the sanctions that the US and its allies have over Afghanistan would give the Taliban little room to play host to the more ambitious fundamentalist agendas that the US would seem to oppose. Although I'm not sure if any of these sanctions have been lifted, or if any conditions have been agreed upon.

And I could totally be misusing the term "fundamentalism" here, or generalizing more than I should be.

 

[Clinamenic]

Also I couldn't specify what sanctions there are, which I assume is easily googleable, but my understanding is that they existed over the Afghan government before the Taliban took over, effectively inheriting such negative leverage and default subordinance to western democratic powers.

 

[Clinamenic]

Specifications on the leverage/sanctions in question, from Reuters:

The United States has an outsized role to play in deciding what happens to Afghanistan's $9 billion in gold and foreign currency reserves. Of that, $7 billion is held in the United States, with $1.3 billion in other international accounts and some $700,000 by the Bank for International Settlements, the Afghan central bank governor tweeted after fleeing the country.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended Afghanistan's access to IMF resources on Aug. 18, including $440 million in new emergency reserves.

And an example of how "economic warfare" such as sanctions can impact the populous where it is intended to impact the government:

Afghanistan relies on imports for the lion's share of the food and fuel consumed and clothing. It imported $8.6 billion in goods in 2019, topped by peat, wheat and petroleum, according to World Bank data. Some 70% of electrical power is imported at an annual cost of $270 million.

The Taliban cannot pay for such imports without access to dollars and Afghanistan's foreign currency reserves; it had enough reserves to pay for an estimated two days of imports when overseas assets were frozen. The U.S. and allies could condition access to dollar transactions or reserves on Taliban behavior.

 

[Clinamenic]

Another such example:

Afghanistan also relies heavily on remittances, with such payments from migrant workers overseas accounting for about 4% of the country's gross domestic product.

Western Union, the world's largest money transfer firm, and Moneygram have both suspended such services, shutting off the flow of funds that many families rely on to pay for food. Reopening these services would require an easing of U.S. financial sanctions.

 

[IdleRich]

i want to settle this once and for all because you all have pieces of the puzzle.

i'm fairly high up in al qaeda, but i'm on a secondment to Vice at the moment. i'm able to do all of this low-paid work due to my footballing career. I am most proud of my time at Reading and bitterly regret leaving. I am in Quetta outside of my work for either AQ or Vice, this one is strictly reporting for the lads of dissensus.

This bit is too ridiculous