Taliban grab grab grab

And so it goes on. The Taliban are helping themselves. Now they have taken control of one of the most lucrative border trading posts into Iran, providing them with $20 million a year in revenue. The Islam Qala border crossing was snatched from the Afghan government forces who seem to be increasingly surrendering from day to day. The Kabul government can ill afford to lose revenue from any source and the trading post into Iran was a key money provider. But no more. Now the money will be used to sustain and arm and equip the Taliban. The story is gettting worse and worse and, judging by the latest remarks of President Joe Biden, Washington is doing little more than keeping its fingers crossed and hoping all the bad stuff will go away. Well, it won't, the bad stuff is here to stay in Afghanistan and right now the Taliban are ticking off the list of things they want to achieve over the next few months before they decide how and when to totally ignore the co-called peace deal signed with the Americans on February 29 last year and start infiltrating fighters in disguise into Kabul and prepare for the big takeover. There's nothing the US will be able to do about it, despite all the promises and hopes of having a super over-the-horizon military force somewhere in the region to move in to stop it happening. Even if the Pentagon does find a suitable location, other than the faraway bases in the Gulf, will Biden actually approve a military attack on the Taliban in or around Kabul? If he did, then he would go against his own statement made yesterday that it was time for the Afghans to run their own lives. And, of course, he would have American troops back in Kabul and unable to leave until the Taliban had moved away. So back to a war which Biden vowed to bring to an end, as far as US military involvement was concerned, by September 11 - now moved forward to August 31. The Taliban are on the march without anyone stopping them, certainly not the 325,000 troops and police trained by the US-led coalition.