Thread by @RichardHanania

Must read on the Afghanistan war. A village was terrorized by a warlord and militias. The Taliban brought peace, and the US brought them back. When there was no more Taliban in the area, the US paid the militia to round up random people. newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

The 93rd division, US allies, would accuse people in the Karzai government of being Taliban. The US would then send them to Gitmo, along with a random gov official who showed up without a translator. Dado, the warlord, killed US soldiers and then blamed "Taliban."

Afghan gov tried to disband the 93rd division, and replace them with police. The division in response became a subsidiary of a Texas defense contractor, and went and killed 15 Afghan police to get their contract back. Members of the militia who had a conscience joined the Taliban

Things did not work out well for Mr. Dado, the warlord, parliamentarian, and friend of US special forces. The Taliban slaughtered 32 of his friends and family, and then killed him in a roadside attack.

After NATO was forced out of Sangin in 2014, it bragged that it left nothing but "rubble and dirt," having razed government buildings and destroyed the central market.

The Afghan government decided to slaughter civilians as it retreated. The general responsible had been CEO of a company that profited off of the war, similar to McChrystal and other American generals. He gave a sympathetic interview to CNN, and then fled to the UK.

Sami Sadat, the profiteering Afghan general who reportedly slaughtered civilians before fleeing to the UK, was in the NYT a few weeks ago expressing deep disappointment in Biden and his "tone," which stopped the Afghans from fighting. nytimes.com/2021/08/25/opi…

The US adopted a "hearts and minds" strategy, which involved breaking into people's houses and then getting into shootouts from there

British forces were negotiating with members of the Taliban to surrender. When Taliban met to plan this, the US bombed them, killing their leader