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Foreign Affairs › Re: Chinese Military Warns US Is Playing With Fire & Pledges To Crush Taiwan(Pix) by dermmy(m): 9:37pm On Jul 30, 2021*

Lewisjohnson:
China don 4get say de whole world is still angry wit dem via Covid19,
No worries mak de shoot 1st nd see de outcome,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
De tink USA de dull in situations lik dis,,,,,,
#US, de only language Chinese terrorists understand very well is ##Pythonese Language##

U.S. won't do nothing if China invades Taiwan the only thing it can do is send Taiwan equipments. Ask yourself this question is U.S. willing to engage a Peer-Nuclear power over a small Island it does not have sovereign right over? The mutual defence treaty between U.S and Taiwan Sino-American Mutual Defence Treaty was terminated by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and the offshoot of the defence pact Taiwan Relations Act has no mutual defence clause. China would incur the wrath of western nations but it can only manifest through economic sanctions.

But Japan is what i don't know cause Japan's southern Ryukyu Islands chain are closer to Taiwan than the Japanese mainland and much of Japan's export and import passes through the strait. Japan believes a Taiwan controlled by China would affect the free flow of commodities that pass through the Taiwan strait so Japan has a keen interest in the future of the country and has signaled it has an obligation to help the country should China invade.

98 Likes 12 Shares

Foreign Affairs › Re: Chinese Military Warns US Is Playing With Fire & Pledges To Crush Taiwan(Pix) by dermmy(m): 9:28pm On Jul 30, 2021*

The western hypocritical nations that have violated international laws and annexed lands that don't belong to them before and after the age of international law are now acting as saints. America agreed that Taiwan and China is one country under the Shanghai Communique that U.S. president Richard Nixon signed with China during his visit to the country in 1972.

China has every right to take Taiwan but i would just advice Xi JinPing to forget this irredentist ambition and move on.

38 Likes 4 Shares

Foreign Affairs › Re: China Stages Massive ‘taiwan Invasion’ Drills(Pix, Video) by dermmy(m): 8:28pm On Jul 29, 2021*

Taiwan used to be part of China until China was defeated by Japan during the First Sino-Japanese war of 1894. After which Japan forced China to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 under it Japan forced China to cede Taiwan, Pescadores Island and Liaodong peninsula and China paid a heavy indemnity to Japan even though Japan started the war by launching a surprise attack on China.

After the communists seized power in 1949, Chiang Kai Shek the country's president and the chairman of Chinese Nationalist Party(Kuomintang) fled China with over 2 million Kuomintang party members went to Taiwan to continue his nationalist government there.

Chiang Kai Shek pronounced Taiwan as the new Republic of China with U.S. backing. U.S failed to recognize the new communist govt in mainland China The people's Republic of China (PRC) because the cold War had already started. The fear that communism could spill into other parts of Asia made America to isolate China and prevent it from getting Taiwan from the capitalist dictator Chiang Kai Shek.

America's Hypocrisy

When the U.S. puppet Chiang Kai-Shek was still ruling China America had no problem with Taiwan being part of China but when the communist Mao Zedong unseated Chiang Kai shek leading to Chiang Kai Shek's exit to Taiwan, Taiwan ceased to be part of China according to America and Chiang Kai Shek.

The Communists had plans to invade Taiwan and get it back from the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai Chek during the early cold war years but America killed that ambition by bringing Taiwan into the San Francisco System which led to the Sino-American Mutual Defence Treaty with Chiang Kai-Chek's Taiwan making it difficult for China to invade and get back its lost territory.

China lost Taiwan due to U.S. cold war powerplay.

194 Likes 19 Shares

Foreign Affairs › Re: China Threatens To NUKE Japan On Eve Of Olympics If It Intervenes In Taiwan(Pix) by dermmy(m): 4:05pm On Jul 19, 2021*

chiiraq802:
Chinko na only mouth una get.... why not nuke Japan first before spilling gibberish.

Xi jinping thinks China and its citizen will still be standing, while Japan falls because Japan no get any form of Military abiii....

China understands what it is doing. It is a deliberate attempt to scare the Japanese public so that they can exert more pressure on their government to close the U.S military base at Okinawa. Okinawans have been calling on the government for years to close that base because they see it as a flash point for U.S and China's war in the future and they don't want Okinawans to be caught in between when the war breaks out.

China operates a no first use nuclear doctrine (NFU) which means China won't be the first to start a nuclear war and Japan is under U.S nuclear umbrella under U.S policy of Extended Deterrence & Allied Assurance . I doubt if China would do that even if a war breaks out between her and Japan. This threat is part of China's competitive coercion.

123 Likes 11 Shares

Foreign Affairs › Re: China Threatens To NUKE Japan On Eve Of Olympics If It Intervenes In Taiwan(Pix) by dermmy(m): 3:58pm On Jul 19, 2021*

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

This shows that he believed the weapons used in World War III would be so devastating that civilization as we know it would be gone and humanity will be taken back to the stone age.

276 Likes 35 Shares

Foreign Affairs › Re: Cubans Embark On 10 Hours Journey To The US On Old Rickety Boats Amid Protests by dermmy(m): 9:19am On Jul 18, 2021*

joyandfaith:
Do you find out why US imposed sanctions on cuba?

U.S imposed sanctions on Cuba because Cuba chose to take its destiny into its hands and refused to be a U.S puppet. The embargo began after the Barbudos removed the U.S puppet and dictator Batista Fulgencio in the 1959 revolution. What really irked U.S was the Communist mode of production that Castro introduced to the island which led to the expropriation of U.S companies and industries in Cuba.

I believe a nation has the right to be free of external control. The right to determine its own destiny as worded in the America's Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson. So why should America dictate to Cuba and other countries how to run their country. Is it a must to practice your capitalist model. #Viva Cuba Libre#

2 Likes 1 Share

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russia To Unveil New Fighter Jet At Moscow’s Air Show by dermmy(op): 6:08pm On Jul 17, 2021

Timekeeper:
Trash if not America

I'm sure America's F-35 can't beat this.

Foreign Affairs › Russia To Unveil New Fighter Jet At Moscow’s Air Show by dermmy(op): 5:12pm On Jul 17, 2021

Moscow (AP) -- Russian aircraft makers say they will present a prospective new fighter jet at a Moscow air show that opens next week.

The new warplane hidden under tarpaulin was photographed being towed to a parking spot across an airfield in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, where the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon opens Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit the show's opening.

Russian media reports said that the new jet has been built by the Sukhoi aircraft maker in a program of development of a light tactical fighter.

Unlike Russia's latest Su-57 two-engine stealth fighter, the new aircraft is smaller and has one engine.

The Su-57 has been built to match the U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, but unlike the American aicraft that has been in service since 2005 its serial production is just starting and a new engine intended to give it the capability to cruise at supersonic speed is still under development.

The new warplane's name is unknown, and there is no information about its capability and deployment prospects.

The prospective Russian fighter jet appears intended to compete with the U.S. F-35 Lightning II fighter, which entered service in 2015. Russia hopes to eventually offer the new aircraft to foreign customers.

Rostec, the state corporation that includes Russian aircraft makers, said the “fundamentally new military aircraft” will be unveiled Tuesday at the Moscow air show. “Russia is one of the few countries in the world with full-cycle capacities for producing advanced aircraft systems, as well as a recognized trendsetter in the creation of combat aircraft,” it said.

Following the Rostec announcement, Russian plane spotters rushed to Zhukovsky to take pictures of the new plane — an eerie parallel with Cold War times when Western spies tried to get a glimpse of the latest Soviet warplanes at the tightly-guarded airfield that served as the country’s top military aircraft test facility.

In a bid to raise public interest before the presentation, Rostec published a picture of the new plane covered by tarpaulin with “wanna see me naked?” written under it. It also posted a brief video featuring excited foreign customers and the jet's vague shadow over the water.

Another teaser photo posted on Rostec's Facebook account Saturday showed what appeared to be a reflection of a British type 45 destroyer in the new Russian warplane's optical sensor with an inscription “See you.” “Black tarpaulin looks enticing, but details are always more interesting,” Rostec said.

A British type 45 destroyer, HMS Defender, was involved in the June 23 incident in the Black Sea when Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of the Defender to chase it away from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. Britain, which like most other nations didn’t recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, insisted the Defender wasn’t fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

Putin has charged that the incident with the Defender wouldn’t have triggered a global conflict even if Russia had sunk the British vessel because the West knows it can’t win such a war, a bold statement that appeared to indicate his resolve to raise the stakes should a similar incident happen again.

The Kremlin has made modernization of the country's armed forces a top priority amid a bitter strain in relations with the West, which have sunk to post-Cold War lows after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, accusations of Russian interference in elections, hacking attacks and other irritants.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-17/russia-to-unveil-new-fighter-jet-at-moscow-s-air-show

Cc: lalasticlala

Foreign Affairs › Re: Cubans Embark On 10 Hours Journey To The US On Old Rickety Boats Amid Protests by dermmy(m): 6:59am On Jul 17, 2021*

These Cubans should understand that America is the real enemy. U.S. sanction is what is causing the hardship not mismanagement or corruption. Fidel Castro tried for them they shouldn't betray the 26th of July Movement by selling out their country to the imperialist.

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russia Warns Britain: Sail Near Crimea Again And Your Sailors Will Get Hurt by dermmy(op): 8:53pm On Jul 15, 2021*

Mangekyo:
If Russia destroys that UK environment that runs their nuclear weapon, its game over. It's more like their control room, they control their nuclear weapons from there. So wiping it out should pretty much end the fight before it even starts lol. It's common knowledge, no need to type EPISTLES.

Meanwhile, I'm laughing really hard right now reading this. It says UK gets COMPREHENSIVELY outgunned lmfao

Bro nuclear chain of command is far more diverse and complex than you think o. Even if Russia destroys or decapitate U.K's ground base nuclear command centre they still have airborne command centre where they can issue a command to launch a massive retaliation and I know every nuclear armed state has such.

Have you heard about U.S Operation Looking Glass ? It's an airborne Boeing EC-135C command and control centre parked at Offut Airbase, Nebraska. It takes to the air once U.S. activates DEFCON-1. In case the ground base was destroyed during a nuclear first strike U.S can still activate its nuclear weapons remotely from that plane. And there is still a submarine command and control centre too. And I believe every nuclear armed state has these optional emergency command centers.

So if Russia disabled U.K's ground command centre in a first strike. U.K would still be able to activate its nukes.

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russia Warns Britain: Sail Near Crimea Again And Your Sailors Will Get Hurt by dermmy(op): 4:45pm On Jul 15, 2021

ivolt:
The ICJ ruling is non-binding.

Actually Britain was given a 6 month deadline to give up control of the Island and the deadline is non binding so there won't be sanctions or punishment against Britain but if it were to be an African or weak Asian country what would have happened? Jeremy Corbyn even criticized the UK government for not obeying the order. He told his country men that UK should lead by example.

The ICJ is still on the case they can still put pressure on Britain if Mauritius keep pressing charges.

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russia Warns Britain: Sail Near Crimea Again And Your Sailors Will Get Hurt by dermmy(op): 12:48pm On Jul 15, 2021

decatalyst:
Why everybody dey look for unnecessary trouble nau.

Make everybody maintain their lane now and let's maintain the relative peace.

Honestly I don't know why western powers always look for trouble. This same Britain forcefully took Chagos Island from Mauritius in the 60's. ICJ ruled in 2019 that Britain should vacate the Island, close the joint military base it built with U.S. there and return the Island to Mauritius but Britain has yet to obey that order it's two years since the UN ruling.

Now they are flexing muscle saying they don't recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. They don't recognize China's artifical islands in the South China Sea. Are they not hypocrites?

292 Likes 33 Shares

Foreign Affairs › Russia Warns Britain: Sail Near Crimea Again And Your Sailors Will Get Hurt by dermmy(op): 12:28pm On Jul 15, 2021

MOSCOW, July 14 (Reuters) - A senior Russian security official warned Britain on Wednesday not to sail its warships near Russian-annexed Crimea again unless it wanted its sailors to get hurt.

The warning, issued by Mikhail Popov, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council, follows an incident last month when British warship HMS Defender exercised what London said were internationally recognised freedom of navigation rules in Ukrainian territorial waters near Crimea.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and says the waters around it belong to Moscow now despite most countries continuing to recognise the peninsula as Ukrainian.

It protested strongly against the British move at the time with a coastguard vessel firing warning shots and summoned the British ambassador for an explanation.

Popov, in an interview in the state Rossiiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, said Britain's behaviour and its subsequent reaction to the incident was bewildering.

In particular, he criticised suggestions from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab, the foreign minister, that the incident could be repeated.

"Similar actions will be thwarted with the harshest methods in future by Russia regardless of the violator's state allegiance. We suggest our opponents think hard about whether it's worth organising such provocations given the capabilities of Russia's armed forces," said Popov.

"It's not the members of the British government who will be in the ships and vessels used for provocational ends," he added. "And it's in that context that I want to ask a question of the same Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab - what will they say to the families of the British sailors who will get hurt in the name of such 'great' ideas?"

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/russia-warns-britain-sail-near-crimea-again-your-sailors-will-get-hurt-2021-07-14/

28 Likes

Foreign Affairs › China Military ‘drove Away’ US Warship In South China Sea by dermmy(op): 12:34pm On Jul 12, 2021

US move comes on the anniversary of a tribunal ruling that says Beijing has no claims over the South China Sea.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/USS-Benfold.jpeg?resize=770%2C513

China’s military said it “drove away” a United States warship that it said illegally entered Chinese waters near the disputed Paracel Islands on Monday, the anniversary of a landmark international court ruling that Beijing has no claim over the South China Sea.

The USS Benfold entered the waters of the Paracels without the approval of the Chinese government, seriously violating China’s sovereignty and undermining the stability of the South China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command said.

“We urge the United States to immediately stop such provocative actions,” the Southern Theater Command said in a statement.

In a statement, the United States Navy 7th Fleet said the Benfold had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law” and dismissed Chinese claims of a serious violation of its sovereignty as “false” and a misrepresentation.

It stressed that all ships have the right of “innocent passage” under international law as reflected in the Convention on the Law of the Sea and permission is not required.

“The operation reflects our commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea as a principle,” the statement said. “The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Benfold did here. Nothing PRC (the People’s Republic of China) says otherwise will deter us.”

The Paracels, called Xisha in China, are among hundreds of islands, reefs and atolls in the resource-rich South China Sea contested by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, with Beijing claiming historic rights to everything within its so-called nine-dash line, which covers most of the region.

China took control of the Paracels, a chain of barren islands about 250 miles (400 kilometres east of Vietnam) and 220 miles (350 kilometres) southeast of Hainan Island, in the 1970s. They are also claimed by Vietnam, which calls them Hoang Sa, as well as Taiwan. All three countries require permission or advance notification before any military vessel sails through the area, the US Navy said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/INTERACTIVE_South-China-Sea-claims-02.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C770

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China’s nine-dash line and ruled that Beijing had no historic title over the South China Sea.

It also said China had interfered with traditional Philippine fishing rights at Scarborough Shoal and breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by exploring for oil and gas near Reed Bank.

China has repeatedly said it does not accept the ruling and has continued to expand its South China Sea presence over the past five years.

In a written statement on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said freedom of the seas was an “enduring” interest of all nations.

“Nowhere is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea,” Blinken said.

“The People’s Republic of China continues to coerce and intimidate Southeast Asian coastal states, threatening freedom of navigation in this critical global throughway.”

He also repeated a warning to China that an attack on Philippine armed forces in the South China Sea would trigger a 1951 US-Philippines mutual defence treaty.

“We call on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law, cease its provocative behavior, and take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the rights of all countries, big and small,” he added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/12/china-military-drove-away-us-warship-in-south-china-sea

7 Likes 2 Shares

Travel › Re: China’s Biggest Ever Aircraft Carrier In Pictures by dermmy(m): 8:27pm On Jul 10, 2021*

Wow... It has a catapult system unlike the Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) they have been using. China would be the third country to make use of catapult launch on aircraft carrier after U.S. and France. China to the world. shocked

23 Likes 2 Shares

Christianity Etc › Re: Photos From Prophet TB Joshua's Burial by dermmy(m): 6:58pm On Jul 09, 2021

Immortality does not lie in the structures you've erected in your name but in the people your life has touched.

What will you be remembered for?
Weed smoking, sexual immorality, bombing sites, runs, nudity and slay queen life/prostitution?

Anyone who is so preoccupied with earthly gains and worldly pursuit and he or she doesn't take time to think about the certainty of death and eternity is the most miserable of all men.

Choose today whom you will serve but as for me and my house we'll serve the Lord.

291 Likes 34 Shares

Christianity Etc › Re: JUST IN: TB Joshua Finally Laid To Rest (photos) by dermmy(m): 3:47pm On Jul 09, 2021*

Rest on soldier.

4 Likes

Christianity Etc › Re: TB Joshua Will Soon Be Buried. See Burial Arrangement Pics As His Body Lies by dermmy(m): 10:25am On Jul 09, 2021

Ken4agent:
Watch & pray
A time to come for service and a time to return home after service....may we all never miss our way back home

I worry more about what happens after death

RIP

Never worry. You are more than conquerors.

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russian Fighter Jets ‘scrambled To Intercept US Spy Plane Over Black Sea(pix) by dermmy(m): 7:40pm On Jul 08, 2021

CSTRR:
This decade and the last one, is very boring.

A lot of posturing but no real fighting.

Those folks that grew up in the cold war era had a lot of fun.

A lot of ideological warfare, demagogues and risky games.

Fun? The cold War was no fun. Europeans and Americans were so scared of miscalculation that could lead to a nuclear exchange. Many Americans fled to Australia and other parts of the world to start a new life there. Likewise the Europeans.

2 Likes

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russian Fighter Jets ‘scrambled To Intercept US Spy Plane Over Black Sea(pix) by dermmy(m): 7:34pm On Jul 08, 2021

CSTRR:
China is claiming territories in the Philippines, Japan, Korea, India and and the South China Sea.

It is like Nigeria claiming the entire gulf of guinea.

We need US presence in those regions to enforce international waters, right of navigation, and a rules based order.

If the US don't do it, the world is fucckked.

You need U. S. presence in those regions to enforce the international laws of the sea right? And you want uncle Sam to enforce a rule based order? This is laughable.

How can you enforce the laws you have violated and still violating? Bro wake up and see international politics for what it is. This is not a rules based order but a "might" based order. If you have the might/power you'll always have your way and no other power has the right to question you. Don't blame China for its activities in the South China sea. Those islands are needed to protect China from U. S encirclement.

1 Like

Christianity Etc › Re: Remains Of Prophet T. B. Joshua Arrive Scoan For Lying-in-state [photos] by dermmy(m): 10:38am On Jul 08, 2021*

Rest on sir

Christianity Etc › Re: GOD Is Angry With The Wicked Everyday.(Psalm 7:11) by dermmy(m): 10:06am On Jul 06, 2021

God is not angry with the wicked. This is an old testament thinking. God actually dealt with sinners in the old testament in order to let them know he doesn't condone sin. Had it been God decided to stand aloof while they were sinning they wouldn't have known that sin is against God's nature. They wouldn't have known sin as a destructive force the main reason God gave them the law.

Romans 5:13-14

[13](For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

[14]Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

You can't be angry with them and be calling them to repentance at the same time.

Ephesians 2:4-6

[4]But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

[5]even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

[6]and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

How many of your sins did God punish you for before you became a born again?

Foreign Affairs › Re: US Forces Leave Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase After 20 Years by dermmy(op): 9:08am On Jul 06, 2021*

mysticwarrior:
have you noticed that the Americans always flee from battles, the fled from Vietnam, Fled from Mogadishu, and now they are fleeing from Afghanistan, what a shame.

As in eh

... Afghan military is even lamenting that America left over night without informing them. It came as a rude shock.

2 Likes

Foreign Affairs › Re: US Forces Leave Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase After 20 Years by dermmy(op): 7:31am On Jul 06, 2021

Afghanistan Soldiers flee to Tajikistan after Taliban clashes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57720103

Phones › Re: Whatsapp Warns Over GB WhatsApp That Mimics Features & Could Leave You Blocked by dermmy(m): 6:48pm On Jul 05, 2021

inoki247:
Me I even see people using GBWhatsApp as Bandits....

Na dem go dey comment on status wey u don delete nd the post u ar about to make tomorrow.....

Lmaoooooo

5 Likes

Politics › Re: Soyinka: FG Kidnapped Nnamdi Kanu — His Arrest Was Wrong by dermmy(m): 1:31pm On Jul 05, 2021

Well said. Thank you great man.

10 Likes

Foreign Affairs › Re: US Forces Leave Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase After 20 Years by dermmy(op): 5:12pm On Jul 03, 2021

seunny4lif:
Tried ke?
Same USA that funded the Talibans to fight the USSR.
After 20 years the Talibans are getting stronger

U.S shouldn't have stayed this long in Afghanistan. It's like America loves foreign entanglement lol. They failed to learn from USSR's mistake.

1 Like

Foreign Affairs › Re: US Forces Leave Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase After 20 Years by dermmy(op): 10:05am On Jul 03, 2021*

.....

Foreign Affairs › Re: US Forces Leave Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase After 20 Years by dermmy(op): 5:27pm On Jul 02, 2021

Hanibbal:
Who won the 20yrs war? U.S or Taliban? Like for Taliban and share for U. S

Taliban of course.

4 Likes

Foreign Affairs › US Forces Leave Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase After 20 Years by dermmy(op): 1:50pm On Jul 02, 2021

Withdrawal a clear indication that the last of 2,500-3,500 US troops have left Afghanistan or are nearing a departure.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-02T063951Z_1410667376_RC26CO9J8QQO_RTRMADP_3_USA-AFGHANISTAN-BAGRAM.jpg?resize=770%2C513

After nearly 20 years, the United States military has left Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, the epicentre of its war to remove the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, two US officials have said.

The airbase was handed over to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in its entirety, they said on Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information to the media, The Associated Press reported.

One of the officials also said the US top commander in Afghanistan, General Austin S Miller, “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the forces”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/000_98Z32T.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513

At its peak, Bagram airbase saw more than 100,000 US troops pass through its sprawling compound 50km (30 miles) north of capital, Kabul.

An Afghan official said the base would be officially handed over to the government at a ceremony on Saturday, Reuters news agency reported.

The withdrawal from the airbase is the clearest indication that the last of the 2,500-3,500 US troops have left Afghanistan or are nearing a departure, months ahead of President Joe Biden’s promise that they would be gone by September 11.

It was clear soon after the mid-April announcement that the US was ending its “forever war,” that the departure of US soldiers and their estimated 7,000 NATO allies would be nearer to July 4, when the country celebrates its Independence Day.

Most NATO soldiers have already exited Afghanistan as of this week.

Announcements from several countries analysed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops left with little ceremony – a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the US invasion in 2001.

The US has refused to say when the last of its soldiers would leave Afghanistan, citing security concerns, but also the protection of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport that is still being negotiated. Turkish and US soldiers currently protect the airport.

The US will also have about 6,500 troops in Afghanistan to protect its sprawling embassy in the capital. Their presence it is understood will be covered in a bilateral agreement with the Afghan government.

The US and NATO leaving Afghanistan come as Taliban fighters make strides in several parts of the country, overrunning dozens of districts and overwhelming the beleaguered Afghan Security Forces.

In a worrying development, the government has resurrected militias with a history of brutal violence to assist the Afghan security forces.

‘Taliban at the door of Kabul’

At what had all the hallmarks of a final press conference, General Miller this week warned that continued violence risked a civil war in Afghanistan that should have the world worried.

Last month, Biden told his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani, that “Afghans are going to have to decide their future, what they want”.

Ghani said his job was now to “manage the consequences” of the US withdrawal.

The agreement with the Taliban on the US pullout was struck under the administration of former President Donald Trump.

In exchange for the US withdrawal, the Taliban has vowed to prevent any armed group from launching international attacks from the Afghan soil.

The group has also made a commitment to enter into talks with their Afghan rivals but little progress has been made in negotiations.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Faiz Zaland, political commentator and professor at Kabul University, said the pulling out of US troops is “a bit hasty in the current situation because we don’t have peace on the ground”.

“The withdrawal is happening right at a time when the Taliban is at the door of Kabul,” he said.

“There are severe and harsh fights going on all over the country. More than 80 districts have fallen into the hands of the Taliban in the past one month,” he said, calling June “the deadliest month for Afghan forces in the past two decades”.

Zaland said the US is making an “irresponsible exit” by leaving before an intra-Afghan peace deal has been finalised.

“It does seem likely that the country might be heading towards a civil war,” he told Al Jazeera.

Rife with symbolism

The US departure is rife with symbolism. Not least that it is the second time that an invader of Afghanistan has come and gone through Bagram.

The former Soviet Union built the airfield in the 1950s. When it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to back a communist government, it turned it into its main base from which it would defend its occupation of the country.

For 10 years, the Soviets fought the US-backed “mujahideen”, dubbed freedom fighters by the then President Ronald Reagan, who saw them as a front-line force in one of the last Cold War battles.

When the US and NATO inherited Bagram in 2001, they found it in ruins, a collection of crumbling buildings, gouged by rockets and shells, most of its perimeter fence wrecked.

It had been abandoned after being battered in the battles between the Taliban and rival warlords fleeing to their northern enclaves.

The enormous base has two runways. The most recent, at 12,000 feet (3,660 metres) long, was built in 2006 at a cost of $96m. There are 110 revetments, which are basically parking spots for aircraft, protected by blast walls.

GlobalSecurity, a security think-tank, says Bagram includes three large hangars, a control tower and numerous support buildings.

The base has a 50-bed hospital with a trauma bay, three operating theatres and a modern dental clinic. Another section houses a prison, nortorious and feared among Afghans.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/us-bagram-airbase-afghanistan-taliban

Cc: lalasticlala mynd44

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russia Tests S-400 Missiles In Crimea Amid Tensions With Ukraine by dermmy(op): 2:32pm On Jun 30, 2021*

BinamRex:
It was a typo. I meant to say "Ukraine won't be admitted into NATO until it has met certain conditions.

Russia has tried to join NATO on two occasions in the past, but it was rejected. Russia tried to join in 1954 and in 1991. You can google it if you doubt me.

When Russia proposed to join NATO in 1954 and was rejected, it formed the Warsaw Pact.

This is not true. Why would Russia a superpower try to join NATO in 1954 when the cold war had started already. Can a Communist power mingle with Capitalist power during the cold War by joining NATO? Russia never tried to join NATO during and after the cold War. The only time Russia hinted at joining NATO was in 1996 under Boris Yeltsin. Vladimir Putin Hinted at that too in year 2002.

Not that Russia tried to join NATO, those two leaders said so because the relationship between NATO and Russia after the cold War was cordial until 2004 when NATO brought in the Baltic states. They cooperated over so many issues. Have you heard about the

North Atlantic Cooperation Council
Partnership for Peace
NATO-Russia Founding Act

These are post cold War platforms initiated by Russia and NATO to promote trust and further peaceful relations among themselves.

Foreign Affairs › Re: Russia Tests S-400 Missiles In Crimea Amid Tensions With Ukraine by dermmy(op): 8:04pm On Jun 29, 2021*

Plead:
Ukraine has more value and will be more significant to NATO than the Baltic States they admitted. Aside Poland,the other Baltic States/countries are literally insignificant and irrelevant to NATO's goals.

What's left? Crimea is gone. Putin outsmarted them by grabbing Crimea that would have hosted NATO's naval base. What is Ukraine's annual military budget? I'm very sure NATO isn't ready to bring in Ukraine. If they had wanted to they would have done that years back after Russia took Crimea. It's 7 years now Ukraine is still pleading to join the alliance. The only help they have been rendering is military supplies and financial assistance. NATO does not want any confrontation with Russia over Ukraine it does not worth it.

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