Afghanistan update: Taliban has entered two provincial capitals

The New York Times reports that the ever-present Taliban offensive is gaining momentum. The Afghan military is crumbling with little resistance to the onslaught. The NYT writes:

The Taliban entered two provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan Sunday, local officials said, the culmination of an insurgent offensive that has overrun dozens of rural districts and forced the surrender and capture of hundreds of government forces and their military equipment in recent weeks.

In Kunduz city, the capital of the province of the same name, the Taliban seized the city’s entrance before dispersing throughout its neighborhoods. Kunduz was briefly taken by the Taliban in 2015 and 2016 before they were pushed back by American airstrikes, special operations forces and Afghan security forces.

To the west of Kunduz in Maimana, the capital of Faryab Province, Taliban fighters appeared at the city’s entrance before moving into the city’s periphery. The Taliban clashed with security forces into Sunday night, after a series of takeovers in past days in the capital’s surrounding districts. In one such recent battle, the Taliban killed more than 20 of the government’s most elite forces. In another, dozens of government troops surrendered together after running low on ammunition.  

In the last 24 hours, around a dozen districts have fallen to the Taliban — mostly in the country’s north. Since May 1, when U.S. forces officially began their withdrawal from the country, the Taliban — through local mediation, military offensives and government retreats — have taken more than 50 districts, according to data collected by The New York Times.  

On Saturday, in a clear sign of the deteriorating security situation, the Afghan government appointed a new acting minister of defense, minister of interior and army chief. (this clever tactic is a variation of the "rearranging the deck chairs" tactic, and directing the band to play music that is more upbeat 😊)

Other recent reports indicate that as Western civilian personnel supporting the Afghan military leave Afghanistan, its air force is projected to not be able to keep any aircraft or helicopters operational for very long. To be clear, the US projects that the Afghan air force will soon have zero functional aircraft. A few weeks is all the Afghan air force has left before it completely ceases to be operational, unless throwing paper airplanes armed with lit firecrackers at the Taliban constitutes being operational. So far, US and Afghan air power has been what kept the Taliban out of provincial capitals. That is soon coming to an end.

So much for 20 years of training the Afghan military to be self-sufficient. At the rate of progress over the last 20 years, another 20 would not make any difference. 

Meanwhile, the visa system the US set up to get Afghan people who worked for the US out of the country is in shambles. Thousands of translators and other Afghan allies are stuck in a useless US bureaucracy that is simply non-functional and drowning our Afghan allies in in red tape. A few people in congress, mostly former US military, are desperately trying to get our stupid, corrupt, broken congress to do something before the Taliban's festival of slaughter begins. It is not clear if their effort will lead to saving any Afghan allies or not. Unless something changes in a big way very soon, there will be a bloodbath. 

What do we want? Regime change! -- When do we want it? Right now!

Americans with a moral compass should want regime change in the US. The new regime should be led by an honest, competent, non-corrupted party in power, with the Democrats and Republicans relegated to permanent small minority status. Of course, that will not happen. We are stuck with two broken parties. The Republican Party in particular is corrupt, broken and incompetent. We have a system of governance that requires competence, good-will, cooperation and honesty. These days, the fascist GOP is the opposite of all of that.

OK, maybe most Americans do not want that kind of regime change. But I sure as hell do. A pox on both failed parties. In my opinion, the Democratic Party deserves some of the blame for the Republicans being in power at all, given how cruel, corrupt and inept the fascist GOP has been over the last 20-30 years.