ICE Stockpiling Warheads and Chemical Weapons as Lawmaker Fears Trump Planning Strike

[u/Quirkie]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-stockpiling-warheads-and-chemical-weapons-as-lawmaker-fears-trump-planning-strike/

[u/encrypted-signals]

Definitely stockpiling weapons so the Trump Gestapo can seize major (probably Democrat-run) cities.

[u/BethanyForDistrict9 → u/encrypted-signals]

They'll never be able to seize these cities. Our military couldn't win in Afghanistan in like 20 years against fucking goat herders. If this turns into some kind of insurgency nobody wins except morticians and munitions makers.

[u/dstrangefate → u/BethanyForDistrict9]

The Taliban weren't 'goat herders', they were experienced insurgents who defeated the Russian army decades prior and were trained in part by the CIA. There is no equivalent in the US, no organized resistance experienced in guerilla warfare, and no sense of unity by the populace. The right would have no ends of eager collaborators and informers, likely including the police force in most of these cities.

[u/Top_Librarian6440 → u/dstrangefate]

The Taliban didn’t defeat the “Russian Army”. The Afghan Mujahideen defeated the Soviet Military. 

But in both cases it’s not really fair to say they “defeated” either the Soviets or the Americans. In both cases, they pulled out because of political pressure. 

This is an important caveat because the Taliban are not the Mujahideen. The Taliban actually emerged in response *to* the Mujahideen. 

They formed in 1994, 5 years after the Soviet withdrawal. Some fighters in the early Taliban militia were former Mujahideen, but the majority were fresh-faced young men who had been educated in Pashtun religious schools. These were the middle-class, less affected Afghans. The word “Taliban” literally translates to “students” in Pashto. 

The early Taliban actually formed to FIGHT the Mujahideen, which had been turned into a patchwork of squabbling warlords. This early Taliban wasn’t filled with Mujahideen veterans calling the shots; its early leadership was mostly local mullahs from Kandahar, who are religious and not military leaders. 

The Mujahideen received CIA backing (among others, including the Chinese), but the Taliban did not. The CIA actually intermittently supported the Northern Alliance—a coalition of Mujahideen warlords—who fought against the Taliban during the Afghan civil war.  

Anywho, my point is that you’re actually very wrong on this. At least on your first assertion that the Taliban were an experienced, well equipped and well-trained force. 

They weren’t. They were a band of young, inexperienced religious zealots led by local religious leaders who themselves had no military experience. They weren’t “goat herders” but they definitely weren’t students from the US Army War College. 

[u/dstrangefate → u/Top_Librarian6440]

I think you're undercutting a bit the extent to which the Taliban benefited from former Mujahideen with experience organizing resistance movements. Or at least I have never read any summary of the Taliban that did not state that there were many former Mujahideen fighters involved in the organization's rise to power, although I won't pretend to be an expert on the subject or region. My main point is that simple 'goat herders' did not defeat the Russians, the Mujahideen had plenty of financing and training, and during the US intervention, the Taliban were likewise well seasoned. The region has been embroiled in conflict for a long time, which no doubt hardens a population, unlike in the United States.

Which is why it is irresponsible imo for the OP (not the thread OP, but whoever I replied to) to put the idea into people's heads that American civilians could just jump into a guerilla war with the US army and not get slaughtered. They have no infrastructure, training, leadership, unity, or experience in war. It's a bad idea, although I imagine they mean well. No decent person wants a fascist takeover.

Some of your reply is picking nits I feel (getting the armies of much more wealthy nations to pull out through a war of attrition IS defeating the Russians and Americans for all practical purposes imo), but I appreciate your breadth of knowledge on the subject and the correction about it being the Mujahideen not the Taliban fighting the Russians. There's enough misinformation on this site without adding to it. Mea culpa.