An A400 M type transport aircraft of the Turkish Air Forces during the evacuation of Turkish citizens at Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, Aug. 18, 2021. (Turkish Defence Ministery via AFP)
Daily Sabah/Reuters: Taliban ask Turkey for technical help to run Kabul airport: Officials
The Taliban have asked Turkey for technical help to run Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport after the departure of foreign forces but insist that Ankara's military also withdraw fully by the end of August deadline, two Turkish officials said Wednesday.
The conditional request by the Taliban, who swept back to power in Afghanistan 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S. invasion, leaves Ankara with a difficult decision over whether to accept a hazardous job, one official told Reuters.
Turkey was part of a NATO mission in Afghanistan and still has hundreds of troops at Kabul airport. The officials say they are ready to withdraw at short notice.
Read more ....
Update: Taliban Ask Turkey For Help To Run Chaotic Kabul Airport (Zero Hedge)
WNU Editor: The Taliban wants the Turkish military to leave, but they want their assistance to run the airport. After today's suicide attack at the airport, the Turkish government has a difficult decision to make.
5 comments:
If the Taliban really do not have within their ranks personnel with the expertise to do basic things like run airports, they have a major problem. If they are unable to keep suicide bombers at bay, they have an even bigger problem. Given how rapidly they advanced after US forces began redeploying, this suggests a vast level of support among the Afghan populace for the Taliban that vastly exceeds that of the former government. Perhaps the Afghans didn't think through who it was they were supporting.
Right now the Taliban has a country with vast rare earth elements making it very valuable. Presumably they will want to keep it. If they're unable to run an airport without outside assistance or keep terrorist bombers at bay, keeping it is going to be problematic.
As the editor pointed out awhile back about the Taliban, think scorpion. Should this be the case obviously the US and its "allies" will terminate the Taliban government very quickly. We shall see if the Taliban can adapt to behaving like a quasi normal country and if they can grasp basics like running an airport. If they don't, they aren't going to last long.
Taliban ask NATO ally, Turkey, to help them, but all the rest of NATO must leave.
Is Turkey a reliable NATO ally?
Is Turkey a reliable NATO ally? I would say no. A better question is are any NATO allies reliable? To this I would say for the most part no. In my considered opinion Turkey is even more unreliable than most.
A better question is how much leeway authorities will give state actors and for how long.
How much leeway will state actors be given? That's a good question. In the case of the Taliban, I'd say not much. In fact a couple more terrorist attacks like the ones that just happened and US authorities are likely to hold the Taliban accountable. Essentially the Taliban are on a very tight leash and will be removed from power should the situation become untenable.
Many believe the US military to be a story power even a hyper power. As such it goes and does whatever it wants when it wants and there's nothing the Taliban can do except perhaps pound sand perhaps. Furthermore I don't see the leadership class allowing President Biden or his team to be embarrassed.
Post a Comment