Friday, 23 July 2021
US back to bombing the Taliban
So here we go again. The US has started bombing the Taliban because of alarming satellite pictures showing them gathering in force around the city of Kandahar. You'd never know that the Afghan government has its own air force with pretty decent ground-attack aircraft which could and should have been used to bash the Taliban. But instead they pleaded with US Central Command to come and bomb them. It's not clear what the US sent, either carrier-borne F/A18s from USS Ronald Reagan in the North Arabian Sea or Reaper armed drones from Qatar. They hit an artillery piece and some Humvees and killed a dozen or so Taliban in the process. I somehow doubt it will stop the attack on Kandihar because once the Taliban have infiltrated the city which is what they do it will be impossible to bomb them. But the bigger question is, can the US just go on bombing whenever they get asked, up to and beyond August 31 when the whole US shooting match in Afghanistan is supposed to be over, finished, ended? It will be very difficult to justify, unless the Taliban can be seen to be fighting alongside al-Qaeda! Biden wants to be shot of Afghanistan so I don't think he will agree with the Pentagon and Central Command to send attack aircraft to target the Taliban whenever the Afghan air force fails to get off the ground.
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