Afghanistan

[Bubblesofearth]

Moderator Message:
Split off from here to keep that thread on-topic. - Chris

but that said everyone should learn how to hold/shoot a rifle as part of national defence.

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Invest....

[spasmodicus]

but that said everyone should learn how to hold/shoot a rifle as part of national defence.

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Invest....

Ask a Ukrainian about this, Mr Bubblesofearth..,..

S

[RockRabbit]

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Invest....

Ask a Ukrainian about this, Mr Bubblesofearth..,..

S

I think the point is that there is a 'bit more' to war than using a firearm. Probably 90%+ of casualties in Ukraine war are as a result of artillery fire or drones. Everyone learning to shoot would do b***ger all for our National Security.

[gryffron]

I think the point is that there is a 'bit more' to war than using a firearm. Probably 90%+ of casualties in Ukraine war are as a result of artillery fire or drones. Everyone learning to shoot would do b***ger all for our National Security.

All the artillery and drones in the world would be no use at all without a screen of infantry in front of them.

The Afghans drove out the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and then the USA, with only a few riflemen and not a single drone.

Gryff

[Tedx]

I think the point is that there is a 'bit more' to war than using a firearm. Probably 90%+ of casualties in Ukraine war are as a result of artillery fire or drones. Everyone learning to shoot would do b***ger all for our National Security.

All the artillery and drones in the world would be no use at all without a screen of infantry in front of them.

The Afghans drove out the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and then the USA, with only a few riflemen and not a single drone.

Gryff

......The Soviets with a bit of help from Western Milan anti tank weapons and Stinger shoulder mounted surface to air missiles. Great effort though

The US/UK was a shambles - from the original idea to the withdrawal. I did think it suceeded because it tended to draw a lot of 'terrorists' (for want of a better word) into Afghanistan for the fight rather than having them running loose elsewhere in the planet. Also, from the British point of view, our vehicles were greatly improved by the end, as well as things like drone technology, battlefield medicine and so on.

But, in my opinion, we should never have been there (or Iraq). I'd read that the US actively discussed lobbing a nuke into Tora Bora, to gently encourage the Taliban to give up Bin Laden. Maybe that's what they should have done.

[Bubblesofearth]

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Invest....

Ask a Ukrainian about this, Mr Bubblesofearth..,..

S

I'm not sure they would get it. Was Dad's Army shown in the Ukraine?

[Charlottesquare]

Ask a Ukrainian about this, Mr Bubblesofearth..,..

S

I think the point is that there is a 'bit more' to war than using a firearm. Probably 90%+ of casualties in Ukraine war are as a result of artillery fire or drones. Everyone learning to shoot would do b***ger all for our National Security.

Would do wonders for the drug gangs once their service was completed, they could kill one another, and the odd member of the general public, far more efficiently after some weapons training.

[ursaminortaur]

All the artillery and drones in the world would be no use at all without a screen of infantry in front of them.

The Afghans drove out the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and then the USA, with only a few riflemen and not a single drone.

Gryff

......The Soviets with a bit of help from Western Milan anti tank weapons and Stinger shoulder mounted surface to air missiles. Great effort though

The US/UK was a shambles - from the original idea to the withdrawal. I did think it suceeded because it tended to draw a lot of 'terrorists' (for want of a better word) into Afghanistan for the fight rather than having them running loose elsewhere in the planet. Also, from the British point of view, our vehicles were greatly improved by the end, as well as things like drone technology, battlefield medicine and so on.

But, in my opinion, we should never have been there (or Iraq). I'd read that the US actively discussed lobbing a nuke into Tora Bora, to gently encourage the Taliban to give up Bin Laden. Maybe that's what they should have done.

Or maybe they should have seriously considered the many offers the Taliban made to turn Bin-Laden over

https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80482&page=1

The United States today rejected yet another offer by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden for trial in a third country if the U.S. presents evidence against bin Laden and stops air attacks.

President Bush reiterated the position the U.S. has held since fingering bin Laden and his al Queda organization as masterminding the for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

https://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55476

When George W. Bush rejected a Taliban offer to have Osama bin Laden tried by a moderate group of Islamic states in mid- October 2001, he gave up the only opportunity the United States would have to end bin Laden's terrorist career for the next nine years. The al Qaeda leader was able to escape into Pakistan a few weeks later, because the Bush administration had no military plan to capture him. The last Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, offered at a secret meeting in Islamabad Oct. 15, 2001 to put bin Laden in the custody of theOrganization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to be tried for the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States,Muttawakil told IPS in an interview in Kabul last year.
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The OIC is a moderate, Saudi-based organisation representing all Islamic countries. A trial of bin Laden by judges from OIC member countries might have dealt a more serious blow to al Qaeda's Islamic credentials than anything the United States would have done with bin Laden.

Muttawakil also dropped a condition that the United States provide evidence of bin Laden's guilt in the 9/11 attacks, which had been raised in late September and reiterated by Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef on Oct. 5 – two days before the U.S. bombing of Taliban targets began.